MARC-o.... polo!

MARC records are like the wizard of Oz: they seem scary and intimidating and impenetrable, but, in fact, they are a simple little humbug puttering about behind the scenes employing oodles of routine procedures and rules. Lesson 6, regarding reading and writing MARC records, helped me to "see behind the curtain," so to speak.

It strikes me that reading/deciphering MARC records, and writing MARC records are two completely different skills. One only has to have a general sense of how MARC records work in order to interpret the data found on a MARC record. To write a MARC record though, therein lies the difficult task. Some questions that arise are: What information must/needs to be included? Why are there multiple fields for similar types of information? Do all of these fields need to be utilized? After working through and creating a MARC record on my own, I realized that what gets included (or excluded) from the record is very dependent on the subjectivity of the cataloguer. Yes, MARC records are coded catalogue entries created for the purpose of allowing computers to read the data, but human beings are the ones inputing the data, and thus, subjectivity and variance can never be dispelled.

Most of my hesitation and fear about MARC records revolved around wanting to get the record "correct;" however, through these exercises I've realized that there is no one right way of making a MARC record. A more complete MARC record could possibly result in a greater number of access points for patrons (students and teachers), but it does not mean that a more "basic" version of a MARC record is incorrect; it's just not as useful as a more complete record would be.

Furthermore, first-time cataloguers and teacher-librarians need to remember that we are allowed, no wait, encouraged to use the many manuals and documents supporting the creation of MARC records. There is nothing wrong with looking up field names, or subfield headings. Memorization is not the name of the game when it comes to MARC records; it's thorough formulaic description. So, go ahead and use the manual. Be my guest!

Additional Note:

In order to make this resource more beneficial, I am inclined to include a MARC record "cheat sheet" for the basic field tags. (This is in no way a complete list of all possible MARC record field tags; it is simply a list of the ones which I find are used regularly and consistently). Here is my selection:

010 - LCCN
020 - ISBN
040 - Cataloguing source
041 - Language code
050 - LC call number
082 - Dewey classification
099 - Local call number
100 - Author main entry
110 - Corporate main entry
245 - Title (and statement of responsibility)
250 - Edition
260 - Publication information
300 - Physical description
490 - Series statement
500 - General note
504 - Bibliographic note
505 - Contents note
520 - Summary
521 - Target audience
538 - System details
586 - Awards
650 - Subject - topical term
651 - Subject - geographic term
658 - Curriculum objective
700 - Personal name added entry
830 - Series title added entry
856 - URL
901 - Local barcode
903 - Local price