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MARC PROPOSAL NO. 2010-07

DATE: May 17, 2010
REVISED:

NAME: ISBD punctuation in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format

SOURCE: German National Library

SUMMARY: This paper proposes the use of Leader/18 (Descriptive Cataloging Form) to indicate the absence of ISBD punctuation at the end of subfields. 

KEYWORDS: Leader/18 (BD); ISBD punctuation; Punctuation

RELATED: 2010-DP01

STATUS/COMMENTS:
5/17/10 - Made available to the MARC 21 community for discussion.

6/27/10 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: Approved as amended. Code "a" will remain "AACR2" as currently defined and the definition revised to remove mention of access points. The name and definition of codes "c" and "i" will be revised to clarify the use of the punctuation rather than descriptive provisions of the ISBD. A Description convention code will be defined for "isbd" for use in 040$e.

08/26/10 - Results of LC/LAC/BL review - Agreed with the MARBI decision.

Proposal No. 2010-07: ISBD Punctuation

1. BACKGROUND

Discussion Paper 2010-DP01 discussed the need to be able to indicate up front in a record that certain punctuation will not be carried at the ends of subfields in the fields that contain title page transcription.  The Discussion Paper explained that when the MARC format was developed, existing data used various punctuation practices when transcribing title page information, depending on the rules employed at the time the cataloging was created. Therefore the MARC formats took as a premise that the punctuation in the data would be included in the data of the subfields according to the practices of the cataloging institution.  The Discussion Paper then explained that the German and Austrian communities wanted to omit the punctuation, as they had done in their former format, MAB.  It examined the issues around including the punctuation, such as the current practice of removing it for labeled displays, the difficulty that catalogers have with "getting it right," and the difficulty in removing it if an internal system preferred to supply punctuation. Another future consideration is that RDA claims not to be a display standard, leaving it optional for record displays to use ISBD punctuation.

The discussion in January 2010 indicated that it would be necessary to make 040 $e (Description conventions) repeatable to accommodate situations where more than one set of descriptive conventions applies.  That was already done with Update #11 as it was needed for RDA testing. 

2. DISCUSSION

2.1 The results of the MARBI discussion in January 2010 agreed that an appropriate place to provide this indication is Leader/18 (Descriptive cataloging form).  That position was used in the early days of the MARC to indicate ISBD or non-ISBD formulation of the content, and then to indicate AACR2 records (which stipulated ISBD).  This information told whether ISBD or some other punctuation might be expected at the ends of subfields AND it indicated whether the ISBD and the AACR rules were used for the content.  With RDA the cataloging rules will be indicated in 040 subfield $e (Description conventions), where all other description rules used in creating MARC record are indicated.    That provides an opportunity to focus Leader/18 more directly on the use of ISBD, and in particular, on the presence or absence of its punctuation at the end of subfields.  This is in keeping with the role of many other positions in the Leader to tell something about the form of the record to assist processing, such as the number of indicators per field, the record status, and the character encoding.

2.2 The current values in Leader/18 were defined with complex specifications that today may or may not be true in their entirety when they are used.  The position is easy to determine when a record is initially encoded, but after records are augmented cooperatively all of the multiple facets of a code value may no longer all apply.  While these values do not need to be made obsolete, with RDA they will become less critical except for retrospective data.  The current definition of Leader/18 values read as follows.

Leader/18 - Descriptive cataloging form.
One-character alphanumeric code that indicates characteristics of the descriptive data in the record through reference to cataloging norms. Subfield $e (Description conventions) of field 040 (Cataloging Source) may contain additional information on the cataloging conventions used.  Code particularly indicates whether the descriptive part of the record exemplifies the rules of the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD), either within or outside of the framework of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition (AACR 2).

# - Non-ISBD
Descriptive portion of the record does not follow International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) cataloging and punctuation provisions.  Examples of cataloging rules that do not follow ISBD conventions are: Catalog Rules, Author and Title Entries (1908); A.L.A. Catalog Rules, Author and Title Entries (1941); A.L.A. Cataloging Rules for Author and Title Entries (1949); and Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 1st Edition (AACR 1) (except the revised chapters).

a - AACR 2
Descriptive portion of the record and the choice and form of entry of the access points are formulated according to either the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition (AACR 2) or cataloging manuals based on AACR 2, which follow ISBD in their descriptive cataloging sections. The punctuation practices of ISBD apply. The interpretation of AACR 2 contained in the AACR 2-based manuals primarily affects details concerning description; the access points generally remain consistent with AACR 2. Access points follow AACR 2 as to choice and form of entry

i - ISBD
Descriptive portion of the record is formulated according to the descriptive and punctuation provisions of ISBD. Heading forms are not formulated according to AACR 2. Includes: 1) records that use ISBD punctuation but whose other conventions are unknown; 2) new records that are basically formulated according to AACR 2 but contain heading forms not used under those rules; 3) records exemplifying ISBD punctuation practices applied to pre-AACR 2 records; and 4) records done according to AACR 1 revised chapter 6, Separately Published Monographs.

u - Unknown
Institution receiving or sending data in Leader/18 cannot adequately determine the appropriate descriptive cataloging form used in the record. May be used in records converted from another metadata format.

2.3 The definitions for Leader/18 could be simplified and a new value added that indicates that while the descriptive portion of the record may be formulated according to the descriptive provisions of ISBD, the ISBD punctuation is omitted at the ends of subfields.

Leader/18 - Descriptive cataloging form.
One-character alphanumeric code that indicates characteristics of the descriptive data in the record through reference to cataloging norms. Subfield $e (Description conventions) of field 040 (Cataloging Source) also contains information on the cataloging conventions used such as RDA (Resource Description and Access), RAD (Rules for Archival Description), or CCO (Cataloging Cultural Objects).  This code particularly indicates the relationship of the descriptive part of the record to the rules of the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD).

# - Non-ISBD
Descriptive portion of the record does not follow International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) cataloging and punctuation provisions.

a - ISBD/AACR 2
Descriptive portion of the record and the choice and form of entry of the access points are formulated according to the description and punctuation provisions as incorporated into the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition (AACR 2) and its manuals.

c - ISBD, without ISBD punctuation at ends of subfields
Descriptive portion of the record is based on the descriptive provisions of the ISBD but the punctuation conventions of ISBD are not included at the ends of subfields.  

i - ISBD
Descriptive portion of the record is formulated according to the descriptive and punctuation provisions of ISBD.

u - Unknown
Institution receiving or sending data in Leader/18 cannot adequately determine the appropriate descriptive cataloging form used in the record. May be used in records converted from another metadata format.

3. PROPOSED CHANGES

-  Define the following new code in Leader/18 (Descriptive Cataloging Form) of the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format

            c - ISBD, without ISBD punctuation at ends of subfields

-  Revise the definitions of the existing positions as specified above in Section 2.3.

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