NAME: Change of tag 301 to 307 in the USMARC Format for Community Information
SOURCE: Library of Congress; OCLC Internet Resources Project
SUMMARY: This proposal calls for changing the tag used for hours, etc. in the USMARC Format for Community Information from 301 to 307 to avoid the conflict with the obsolete definition of field 301 as Physical Description for Films (Pre-AACR 2) in the USMARC Bibliographic format.
KEYWORDS: Field 301 (Hours, Etc.); Field 307 (Hours, Etc.); Hours, Etc.
RELATED: DP49 (June 1991); DP54 (Jan. 1992); 93-4 (Jan. 1993); DP69 (June 1993); DP78 (June 1994); 94-9 (June 1994)
STATUS/COMMENTS:
12/2/94 - Forwarded to the USMARC Advisory Group for discussion at the February 1995 MARBI meetings.
2/6/95 - Results of USMARC Advisory Group discussion - Approved.
2/16/95 - Results of final LC review - Approved.
PROPOSAL NO. 95-7: Change of tag 301 to 307
1. INTRODUCTION
As the result of several discussion papers and Proposal No. 94-9
(Changes to the USMARC Bibliographic Format to Accommodate Online
Systems and Services), a field was added to the USMARC
Bibliographic format to record hours, etc. associated with the
availability of online systems and services. Tag 301 was initially
suggested since it was defined in the provisional Community
Information format. A review of obsolete data elements in the
Bibliographic format revealed that tag 301 had already been used
for the physical description of films in pre-AACR 2 bibliographic
records. Since obsolete data elements cannot be reused with a
different definition, a different tag had to be chosen for hours,
etc. in the Bibliographic format. Tag 307 was approved instead of
301. The USMARC Advisory Group recommended that the tag chosen for
hours, etc. in the Community information format be changed to align
it with the definition in the Bibliographic format.
2. DISCUSSION
The USMARC Format for Community Information was approved as a
provisional format by MARBI in 1992. The definition of a field in
the USMARC Bibliographic format was carried over to the new format
for community information when the data was similar. In the
provisional format, field 301 was defined for information about the
days and/or times pertaining to the operation of the community
information entity (such as a program or service). It did not
appear to overlap with any valid 3XX field in the Bibliographic
format. The field was also to accommodate additional information,
such as the number of staff available during the period(s)
specified. Although the Community Information format is separate
from the Bibliographic format, it was designed to carry over the
same meaning of content designators from the Bibliographic format
where similar data needed to be accommodated. New data was
assigned field tags that were not already defined differently in
the Bibliographic format. The data elements for hours, etc. is an
exception to this design principle and represents an oversight of
an obsolete field in the Bibliographic format. The change to the
Community Information format now will avoid problems later since it
is still provisional and has not been widely implemented.
The advantage of making this change is that it would eliminate the
use of an obsolete Bibliographic format field in the Community
Information format. Since field 307 has been defined in the
Bibliographic format for hours, etc., the change would also keep
the Community Information format in sync with the Bibliographic
format from which many of its field tags have been borrowed. The
disadvantage is that any implementations of the provisional USMARC
Community Information format will need to be changed and records
including field 301 will need to be corrected to use tag 307
instead. Attachment A provides page 1 of the description for the
field as it would be modified by this proposal.
3. PROPOSED CHANGE
The following is presented for consideration:
* Change the tag used for hours, etc. in the USMARC Format
for Community Information from "301" to "307".
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ATTACHMENT A
[301]<307> Hours, Etc. (R)
Indicators
First Display constant controller
# No information available
8 No display constant generated
Second Undefined
# Undefined
Subfield Codes
$a Hours (NR)
$b Additional information (NR)
$6 Linkage (NR)
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FIELD DEFINITION AND SCOPE
This field contains information as to the days and/or times
pertaining to the operations of the community information entity
(such as when the office of a program or organization is open, when
a club is to meet, when an event is to take place, when a person is
available for hire), as well as to special information, e.g., the
size of the staff, whether or not a translator is available.
When displayed/printed as a note, hours, etc. information is
in some instances preceded by an introductory term or phrase that
is generated based on the first indicator value.
_________________________________________________________________
GUIDELINES FOR APPLYING CONTENT DESIGNATORS
* INDICATORS
First Indictor - Display constant controller
The first indicator position contains a value that controls
the generation of a display constant preceding the note.
# - No information provided
Value # specifies that no information is provided. When no
information is provided, the display constant Hours: may be
generated.
[301]<307> ##$aM-F, 9:30-3:30.
8 - No display constant generated
Value 8 specifies that no display constant is to be
generated.
[301]<307> 8#$aDate: Dec. 1, 1993, 2 p.m.
Library of Congress