TECHNICAL NOTICE (November 2, 2000)
Changes in MARC Distribution Services
LCCN Restructuring
Newly Defined MARC Characters
Changes in MDS Frequency
Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress
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These are some upcoming changes in the MARC Distribution Services (MDS),
beginning in January 2001. Three major changes/impact areas are listed
below. A web-based version of this annoucement can be found at:
www.loc.gov/marc/tn001102.html
1. LCCN Restructuring
The Library of Congress has announced previously
(see http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/lccn.html) a planned restructuring of the
Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) for newly assigned LCCNs. As of
January 1, 2001, all newly assigned LCCNs (fields 001 and 010 in records
distributed by CDS) will contain a two-character alphabetic prefix, a
four-digit year portion, and a six-digit serial portion. The number of
characters in the LCCN will remain the same (12), but the trailing blank
or supplement number will be discontinued. Previously assigned LCCNs will
not be changed to the new structure, and update records will continue to
be distributed under the old style LCCN.
Examples:
Old style New style
gm#82012345# gm2001012345
###00456789# ##2002456789
n##99005678# n#2001005678
CDS has created a file of test records containing both the new and old
style LCCNs for use by customers. The two test files, one containing
bibliographic records and the other containing name authority records, are
available via anonymous FTP at:
Host: ftp.loc.gov
Login: anonymous
Password: <your email address>
Directory: pub
Subdirectory: cds/lccn
Filename: biblccntest (bibliographic test file); authlccntest
(authority test file)
Or download directly from the Web at: ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/cds/lccn
biblccntest (bibliographic test file)
authlccntest (authority test file)
2. Newly Defined MARC Characters
CDS has previously announced (see http://www.loc.gov/cds/mds-ils.html ) plans to distribute records
containing the full MARC character set. This includes the 13 characters
which were authorized as of 1994 but have been filtered or substituted in
distribution by CDS.
See list below:
Character Name Hex Value
spacing circumflex 5E
spacing underscore 5F
spacing grave 60
opening curly bracket 7B
closing curly bracket 7D
spacing tilde 7E
degree sign C0
lower case script L C1
phono copyright mark C2
copyright mark C3
sharp C4
inverted question mark C5
inverted exclamation mark C6
On January 1, 2001, CDS will remove the character substitution step and
will distribute records with these characters. Subscribers can expect to
receive records containing characters and hex values listed above, but
some of the values may not be actively supplied by LC cataloging staff.
For a detailed listing of the LC usage of these characters see the LC
Cataloging Policy and Support Office homepage
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/).
CDS has created test files containing records with these new
characters. The two test files, one containing bibliographic records and
the other containing name authority records, are available via anonymous
FTP at:
Host: ftp.loc.gov
Login: anonymous
Password: <your email address>
Directory: pub
Subdirectory: cds/lccn
Filename: bibchars (bibliographic test file); authchars
(authority test file)
Or download directly from the Web at: ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/cds/lccn
bibchars (bibliographic test file)
authchars (authority test file)
3. Changes in MDS Frequency
Beginning in January 2001, CDS will increase the frequency of some of its
MARC Distribution Services. All the quarterly MDS services will be
distributed monthly and the monthly MDS-Serials service will be
distributed weekly. See the chart below:
MDS Old Frequency New Frequency
Books Arabic quarterly monthly
Books Hebrew quarterly monthly
Computer Files quarterly monthly
NUCMC and LC Manuscripts quarterly monthly
Serials [CONSER] monthly weekly
LC Implementation Plans
Subscribers can anticipate receiving MARC records reflecting these changes
in all distribution services not earlier than January, 2001
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