NAME: Reading Program information
SOURCE: MicroLIF Committee
SUMMARY: This discussion paper presents solutions for dealing with information related to interactive multimedia Reading Programs that involve relationships with published reading materials.
KEYWORDS: Field 521; Field 787; Nonspecific Relationship Entry; Reading Program information; Target Audience Note
RELATED:
STATUS/COMMENTS:
12/5/97 - Forwarded to USMARC Advisory Group for discussion at the January 1998 MARBI meetings.
1/11/98 - Results of USMARC Advisory Group discussion - Because of the strong need expressed by the K-12 community for reading program information in the record, there was support for this paper to come back as a proposal. Most participants agreed that it needs to be possible for a system to strip out the information if desirable, which makes using one field instead of several already defined fields the better solution. In order to make it stripable, if using the linking entry fields a new one would need to be defined. However, there are not enough subfields in the linking field block to add the necessary elements needed for reading programs. In addition, field to field linking would be necessary if all the reading program information were not all in one field. Thus, the consensus was to define a new field in the 5XX block. This new field should be generalized so that it might be used for other types of material (e.g. slide sets).
DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 105: Reading Program information 1. BACKGROUND The school library community has made significant strides towards using MARC fully for bibliographic control and catalog access. Success in the implementation of MARC has been possible due to the cooperation and collaboration of vendors with teachers and school librarians. Library system and product vendors continue to work to foster better cooperation between activity in classrooms and the library within a school. Interactive multimedia educational products are appearing in the marketplace that take advantage of the relationship between the classroom and the school library. Some of these products, mostly on CD-ROM, tie into traditional library materials such as printed books. This discussion paper focuses on the encoding of the relationships between these interactive products and other (usually traditional) library materials. (It does not deal with the bibliographic description or MARC encoding of the interactive multimedia.) 2. DISCUSSION General Need The availability of computer technology and interactive multimedia such as CD-ROM have led to the development of tools that can improve the success of learning programs. Automated multimedia reading programs have become particularly popular and at least three well known CD-ROM based programs are installed in thousands of schools. While each program is intended to build literacy, readership, and library circulation through a predetermined body of published material, none of the programs currently provides an adequate link to the separately published reading items, a subset of which must be held in the collections of a school library intending to make use of one of these programs. Reading Program suppliers need to be able to link items to be read to the programs that use them. They would like to build on the success of using MARC for bibliographic control. The primary use of Reading Program information would be to provide access to or from specific published titles intended to be read by a student as part of a Reading Program module. Students, teachers, and schools librarians need to be able to identify materials that have a relationship to a Reading Program. A student needs to be able to find out which titles suggested by a Reading Program are available in the school library. Teachers and schools librarians need to be able to identify available titles as well with the added possibility of seeing to it that additional titles are acquired if needed to make the use of a Reading Program more successful. The title of a related Reading Program needs to be recorded in the bibliographic record for each published title specified as a candidate for use with the program. Vendors of Reading Programs report that this may involve the records of up to 10,000 published works. A specific published work may relate to several Reading Programs, so multiple links should be possible. Experimental Solution Reading Program vendors have been working on providing an automated link between their products and the separately published titles. Working through the MicroLIF committee, vendors suggested using several 5XX note fields in the records for related textual works to link them to specific Reading Programs. Experimental use of a new field 526 illustrates the information needed to refer to the Reading Programs in records for the items to be read. MicroLif created this new field for information about Reading Programs since they were unsure where else to record such information in the USMARC bibliographic format. They felt that recording this information in a separate tag would facilitate data entry and processing. The separate data elements allow Reading Program specific indexes to be built, orders to be placed, and services to be delivered. New field suggested by the MicroLIF Committee: 526 - Reading Program Note (R) 1st indicator - Disk/Test Presence Value # - Unknown Value 1 - Not Present Value 2 - Present $a - Reading Program Name (NR) $f - Reading Program Volume (NR) $b - Reading Program Issue/Disk Number (NR) $g - Reading Program Disk Title (NR) $c - Reading Program Series/Set (NR) $d - Reading Program Sub-series (NR) $e - Reading Program Order/Stock Number (NR) $h - Reading Program Interest Level (NR) $i - Reading Program Title Reading Level (NR) $j - Reading Program Title Point Value (NR) Besides the new field 526, information relating to reading level and target audience was also placed in existing field 521 (Target Audience). Identification of the grade level of the reader was typically the only information recorded in field 521 in the full-record samples created by the MicroLIF Committee. Alternative Solution Alternatively the Reading Program information may be recorded in existing MARC fields. The content of the suggested field 526 includes data that pertains to the related entity, i.e., the reading program, and to the item described in the record, i.e., the published item to which the reading program refers. Holdings information. The field 526 first indicator, which was suggested to show whether a library holds the specific reading program part that is being referenced in the field, would be better placed in the bibliographic record for the reading program CD-ROM itself. Identification of the Reading Program. The identification of the Reading Program (titles, volume, issue, series, subseries) could be described in field 787 (Nonspecific Relationship Entry). The 7XX linking entry fields refer to bibliographic items related to the one described in the record. In this case the related item is the Reading Program CDROM. Stock/order number information. Stock numbers of a related Reading Program could be provided in field 787 also. Target audience information. The remaining information -- interest level, reading level, and point values assigned -- pertain to the item to be read rather than to the Reading Program, even though they are assigned by the Reading Program. They could therefore be carried in field 521 (Target Audience). One advantage to using already existing fields 787 and 521 is they do not involve any changes to the USMARC bibliographic format. The existing data elements suggested above should be available in any fully MARC-compliant library system. Another advantage is that indexing for titles in field 787 should be supported by existing systems. If a new note field such as 526 were defined, it might not be indexed in some any systems, and if it were it might not be indexed as a title. Mapping of field 526 to existing MARC elements: Holdings information (field 852 of record for Reading Program): 526 Ind.1 = 852 $a - Disk/Test Presence Identification information (field 787): 526 $a = 787 $k - Reading Program Name 526 $f = 787 $g - Reading Program Volume 526 $b = 787 $g - Reading Program Issue/Disk Number 526 $g = 787 $t - Reading Program Disk Title 526 $c = 787 $k - Reading Program Series/Set 526 $d = 787 $k - Reading Program Sub-series Order information (field 787): 526 $e = 787 $o - Reading Program Order/Stock Number Audience information (field 521): 526 $h = 521 $a, Ind.1=2 - Reading Program Interest Level 526 $i = 521 $a, Ind.1=0 - Reading Program Title Reading Level 526 $j = 521 $a, Ind.1=8 - Reading Program Title Point Value 3. EXAMPLES This example shows the title "Bridge to Teribithia" which is referenced on the That's A Fact, Jack! disc. 100 1#$aPaterson, Katherine. 245 10$aBridge to Terabithia /$cKatherine Paterson ; illustrated by Donna Diamond. 260 ##$aNew York :$bCrowell,$c1977. 300 ##$a128 p. :$bill. ;$c23 cm. 521 0#$a6.0.$bFollett Library Resources. 521 2#$a5-8.$bFollett Library Resources. 521 2#$a5-10$bTAFJ 521 0#$a6.0$bTAFJ 650 #1$aFriendship$xFiction. 650 #1$aDeath$xFiction. 787 0#$kThat's A Fact, Jack!$g4$tMysterious happenings and coping with difficult times$o48104T This example shows the title "A Brush with magic" which is referred to on the That's A Fact, Jack! disc. 100 1#$aBrooke, William J. 245 12$aA brush with magic :$bbased on a traditional Chinese story /$cWilliam J. Brooke ; illustrations by Michael Koelsch. 260 ##$aNew York :$bHarper Collins,$c1993. 300 ##$a137 p. :$bill. ;$c24 cm. 521 2#$a3-6.$bFollett Library Resources. 521 2#$a3-7$bTAFJ 521 0#$a4.9$bTAFJ 650 #1$aArtists$xFiction. 650 #1$aMagic$xFiction. 787 0#$kThat's A Fact, Jack!$g29$tWild rides and historic journeys$o48129T This example shows the title "Number the stars" which is on three Reading Program discs: Accelerated Reader/Advantage Learning Systems, That's A Fact, Jack! and Accelerated Reader. 100 1#$aLowry, Lois. 245 10$aNumber the stars /$cLois Lowry. 260 ##$aBoston :$bHoughton Mifflin,$c1989. 300 ##$137 p. ;$22 cm. 521 2#$a5-8.$Follett Library Resources. 521 2#$aMiddle Grades$bAR 521 0#$a5.0$bAR 521 8#$aPoint value: 4.0$bAR 521 2#$a3-9$bTAFJ 521 0#$a4.9$bTAFJ 650 #1$aWorld War, 1939-1945$zDenmark$xFiction. 650 #1$aWorld War, 1939-1945$xJews$xRescue$xFiction. 650 #1$aFriendship$xFiction. 651 #1$aDenmark$xFiction. 787 1#$kAccelerated Reader/Advantage Learning Systems$gA-08$tOur diverse heritage$o0730 (DOS) 0915 (MAC) 0072 (Apple2) 787 1#$kAccelerated Reader$gSL-13$tNC-Battle of the books 94$o1102 (DOS) 1103 (MAC) 1098 (Apple2) 787 1#$kAccelerated Reader$gSL-47$tNC-Battle of the books 97$o2628 (DOS) 2635 (MAC) 2621 (Apple2) 787 1#$kThat's A Fact, Jack!$g5$tAdjusting to life's big changes and challenges$o48105T This example shows the title "Journey of the sparrows" which is on two Reading Program discs, the Accelerated Reader and That's A Fact, Jack!. 100 1#$aBuss, Fran Leeper,$d1942- 245 10$aJourney of the sparrows /$cFran Leeper Buss with the assistance of Daisy Cubias. 250 ##$a1st ed. 260 ##$aNew York :$bLodestar Books,$cc1991. 300 ##$a155 p. ;$c22 cm. 521 2#$a5-8. 521 2#$a5-12$bTAFJ 521 0#$a6.3$bTAFJ 521 2#$aUpper Grades$bAR 521 0#$a6.4$bAR 521 8#$aPoint value: 7.0$bAR 650 #1$aSalvadorans$zUnited States$xFiction. 650 #1$aIllegal aliens$xFiction. 700 1#$aCubias, Daisy. 787 1#$kThat's A Fact, Jack!$g6$tThe challenges today's minorities face$o48106T 787 1#$kAccelerated Reader$tYoung adult$gvolume II$gC-19$o0834 (DOS) 0967 (MAC) 0468 (Apple2) 3. CONCLUSIONS For some time there has been pressure from users for an efficient and uniform way of providing Reading Program information. As more programs such as AASL's "Count on Reading" are put in place, the pressure to come to a workable solution is sure to grow. Schools want to make greater use of their collections when they select a Reading Program tool. Vendors want to be able to communicate this information to a variety of systems. Great progress has been made within the school community with regard to using the MARC standards and this is an opportunity to use that progress. By being able to match through the MARC record a Reading Program with the titles actually held in a library, the investment in both books and the Reading Program can be optimized, automation vendors can build features into their OPACs to support the Reading Programs in place within the library, and reports for collection development and circulation can be developed.