The Distributions of MARC Fields in Bibliographic Records
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.54n1.40Abstract
Library catalog systems worldwide are based on collections of MARC records. New kinds of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)–based catalog retrieval systems, displays, and cataloging rules will build on ever-growing MARC record collections. Characterizing the kinds of information held in MARC records is thus an important step in developing new systems and rules. This study examined the incidence and prevalence rates of MARC fields in two different sets of library catalog records: a random selection of bibliographic records from the Library of Congress online catalog and a selection of records for two specific works, Lord of the Flies and Plato’s Republic. Analysis showed that most fields were used in only a small percentage of records, while a small number of fields were used in almost all records. Power law functions proved to be a good model for the observed distribution of MARC fields. The results of this study have implications for the design of new cataloging procedures as well as for the design of catalog interfaces that are based on the FRBR entity-relationship model.
References
() IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records,
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: Final Report
(Munich: K.G. Saur, 1998), nKaren Calhoun, ()
The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools
(final report, prepared for the LC, 2006), nMartha Yee, Sara Shatford Layne, Improving Online Public Access Catalogs (Chicago: ALA 1998)nBarbara B. Tillett, '“Bibliographic Relationships: An Empirical Study of the LC Machine-Readable Records,”' Library Resources & Technical Services 36 no. 2 (1992): 162-88nRichard P. Smiraglia, D. L. Andersen Ed., T. J. Galvin Ed., M. D. Giguere Ed., '“Derivative Bibliographic Relationships: Linkages in the Bibliographic Universe,”' Navigating the Networks: Proceedings of the ASIS Mid-Year Meeting, Portland, Oregon, May 21–25, 1994 (Medford, N.J.: Learned Information 1994): 115-35nRichard P. Smiraglia, Gregory H. Leazer, '“Derivative Bibliographic Relationships: The Work Relationship in a Global Bibliographic Database,”' Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 no. 6 (1999): 493-504nGregory H. Leazer, Richard P. Smiraglia, '“Bibliographic Families in the Library Catalog: A Qualitative Analysis and Grounded Theory,”' Library Resources & Technical Services 43 no. 4 (1999): 191-212nZorana Ercegovac, '“Multiple-Version Resources in Digital Libraries: Towards User-Centered Displays,”' Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 no. 8 (2006): 1023-32nPatrick Le Boeuf, “
FRBR
: Hype of Cure-All? Introduction,”
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly
, no. 3/4 (2005): 1–13; Martha M. Yee, “
FRBR
and Moving Image Materials,” in
Understanding FRBR: What It Is and How It Will Affect Our Retrieval Tools
, ed. Arlene G. Taylor (Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007): 117–29n () Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA, RDA: Resource Description and Access, Full draft of RDA (July 1, 2009), nChris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (New York: Hyperion 2006)nHoward D. White, Katherine W. McCain, '“Visualizing a Discipline: An Author Co-Citation Analysis of Information Science, 1972–1995,”' Journal of the American Society for Information Science 49 no. 4 (1998): 327-55nGeorge Kingsley Zipf,
Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort
(Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1949); A.J. should be Alfred James Lotka, “The Frequency Distribution of Scientific Productivity,”
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences
, no. 12 (1926): 317–23nEllen Bonnevie, “A Multifaceted Portrait of a Library and Information Science Journal: The Case of the Journal of Information Science,”
Journal of Information Science
, no. 1 (2003): 11–23; Ravinder Nath and Wade M. Jackson, “Productivity of Management Information Systems Researchers: Does Lotka’s Law Apply?”
Information Processing & Management
, no. 2/3(1991): 203–9; Henry Voos, “Lotka and Information Science,”
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
, no. 4(1974): 270–72; Judit Bar-Ilan, “Informetrics at the Beginning of the 21st Century: A Review,”
Journal of Informetrics
, no. 1 (2008): 1–52nE. E. Fuller, “Variation in Personal Names in Works Represented in the Catalog,”
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly
, no. 3 (1989): 75–96; Arlene Taylor-Dowell,
AACR2 Headings: A Five-Year Projection of Their Impact on Catalogs
(Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1982);
Richard P. Smiraglia
, “The History of the ‘Work’ in the Modern Catalog,”
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly
, no. 3/4(2003): 553–67; Thierry Lafouge and Sylvie Laine-Cruzel, “A New Explanation of the Geometric Law in the Case of Library Circulation Data,”
Information Processing & Management
, no. 4(1997): 523–27; and Dietmar Wolfram, “Inter-Record Linkage Structure in a Hypertext Bibliographic Retrieval System,”
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
, no. 10 (1996): 765–74nDavid C. Blair, Language and Representation in Information Retrieval (Amsterdam: Elsevier 1990)nM. E. J. Newman, '“Power Laws, Pareto Distributions and Zipf’s Law,”' Contemporary Physics 46 no. 5 (2005): 323-51nKaren Markey, Karen Calhoun, '“Unique Words Contributed by MARC Records with Summary and or Contents Notes,”' Proceedings of the ASIS Annual Meeting 24 (1987): 153-62n () Library of Congress, Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Structure of the LC Control Number, nRonald Rousseau, Sandra Rousseau, '“Informetric Distributions: A Tutorial Review,”' Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 18 no. 2 (1993): 51-63nLeo Egghe, Power Laws in the Information Production Process: Lotkaian Informetrics (Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier/Academic Pr. 2005): 387-n IbidnJean Tague, Leo Egghe Ed., Ronald Rousseau Ed., '“What’s the Use of Bibliometrics?”' Informetrics 87/88 (New York: Elsevier 1988): 271-78nPat Riva, '“Mapping MARC 21 Linking Entry Fields to
FRBR
and Tillett’s Taxonomy of Bibliographic Relationships,”' Library Resources & Technical Services 48 no. 2 (2004): 130-43nNewman, “Power Laws, Pareto Distributions and Zipf’s Law.”nCharles Ammi Cutter, Rules for a Dictionary Catalog (Washington, D.C.: GPO 1904): 12-n IbidnMichael Gorman, Tschera Harkness Connell Ed., Robert L. Maxwell Ed., '“Seymour Lubetzky, Man of Principles,”' The Future of Cataloging: Insights from the Lubetzky Symposium (Chicago: ALA 2000): 12-21nAnglo-American Cataloging Rules
(Chicago: ALA; London: Library Assn., 1967);
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
, 2nd ed., 2002 rev. (Ottawa: Canadian Library Assn.; London: Library Assn. Publishing; Chicago: ALA, 2002)nJoint Steering Committee for Development of RDA, RDA: Resource Description and Access, Full draft of RDAn Functional Requirements for Authority Data: A Conceptual Mode (Munich: K.G. Saur 2009)nTrond Aalberg, “A Process and Tool for the Conversion of MARC Records to a Normalized
FRBR
Implementation,”
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
(2006): 283–92; Thomas B. Hickey and Edward T. O’Neill, “
FRBR
-izing OCLC’s WorldCat,”
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly
, no. 3/4(2005): 239–51nAnglo-American Cataloguing Rules
, 2nd ed., 1n
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after it has been accepted for publication. Sharing can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
