DATE: May 10, 2000
REVISED:
NAME: Changes to fields 052 and 058 in the Community Information format
SOURCE: MARC Advisory Committee
SUMMARY: This proposal suggests defining the first indicator position and adding subfield $d (Populated place name) and subfield $2 (Source of code) to field 052 (Geographic Classification Code) in the Community Information format, and making field 058 (Other Geographic Classification Code) obsolete. These changes would align field 052 in the CI with field 052 in the Bibliographic format.
KEYWORDS: Field 052 (CI); Field 058 (CI); Geographic Classification Code; Other Geographic Classifications Code; Populated place name; Source, in field 052 (CI); Subfield $d, in field 052 (CI); Subfield $2, in field 052 (CI)
RELATED: 96-06(Dec. 1995); 98-14 (May 1998)
STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/10/00 - Forwarded to the MARC Advisory Committee for discussion at the July 2000 MARBI meetings.
07/08/00 - Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion - Approved.
07/27/00 - Results of LC/NLC review - Approved.
PROPOSAL NO. 2000-09: Changes to fields 052 and 058 in the Community Information format
1. BACKGROUND
In the context of carrying over to the Community Information format the definition of several fields already defined in the MARC 21 Bibliographic format, Proposal No. 96-06 (December 1, 1995) established a new procedure whereby across-format adoptions of MARC 21 data elements could be made outside the MARBI proposal process, provided no changes to the elements were required. When Proposal No. 98-14 was approved it added three new data elements to field 052 (Geographic Classification) in the Bibliographic format to broaden its use for data from geographic classification schemes other than that of the Library of Congress. The definition of the first indicator, and new subfields $d and $2 were needed right away by users of the Bibliographic format, but following the principle of keeping the definition of like data elements between formats in sync, changes to the Community Information format are also needed. Since the changes to field 052 in the Community Information format affect the definition of field 058 (Other Geographic Classification Code), a field unique to the CI format, further MARBI discussion is required.
2. DISCUSSION
When the Community Information format was developed in 1992, many of the data elements defined for Bibliographic records were carried over to the new format. One of these was field 052. Creators of Community Information records wanted to be able to include geographic classification data along with other classification data. Since the user base for the Community Information format did not include the Library of Congress, there was an immediate need to accommodate geographic classification schemes other than the Library of Congress Classification and the MARC Code List for Geographic Areas.
To meet this need for other geographic classification schemes, field 058 was defined in the Community Information format. It carried over the basic structure of field 052 but included subfield $2 (Source of code) to allow for the identification of the source of the non-LC geographic classification. At the time the CI format was finalized, no requirement for accommodating non-coded geographic classification existed, thus subfield $d (Populated place name) was not made part of field 058.
Discussion of Proposal No. 98-14 in 1998 resulted in modifications to field 052 in the Bibliographic format. Although MARBI could have chosen to define a new field for non-LC geographic classification data, it preferred to enhance the existing field 052. At the time of MARBI discussion, the existence of field 058 in the Community Information format, and its similarity to the post-enhancement field 052 was not considered. The redundancy between the enhanced field 052 and field 058 came to light when the new MARC 21 editions of the formats were being prepared. Changes to field 052 in the Community Information format were not made, pending a discussion of the conflict with field 058.
If the recent Bibliographic format changes to field 052 are carried over to the Community Information format, fields 052 and 058 in the Community Information format will be essentially identical. This is not desirable, particularly after so much effort has been placed on eliminating redundancy in the formats. The use of a single variable field for all geographic classification data is consistent with MARBI's current approach to data element definition. Considering the relative newness of the Community Information format and the minimal use of field 058 in Community Information databases, elimination of field 058 and enhancement of the CI field 052, to make it consistent with field 052 in the Bibliographic format, is preferable. Enhancement would follow the changes made to field 052 in the Bibliographic format.
Field 058 is referenced in field 522 (Geographic Area Note), a note field carried over from the Bibliographic format. The content of this note field in the CI format was intended to be same as field 522 in the Bibliographic format. Its name is being standardized to "Geographic Coverage Note" in the new MARC 21 editions of the formats. Reference to field 058 would need to be removed in the CI field 522 if this proposal is approved.
3. PROPOSED CHANGES
In the MARC 21 Community Information Format:
| # | Library of Congress Classification | |
| 0 | U.S. Dept. of Defense | |
| 7 | Source specified in subfield $2 |
Library of Congress