What are some of the more compelling use cases that could be imagined surrounding MARC data that never makes it into the OPAC? I can think of some examples that would be robust, but where Roy's suggestion of a modular approach would probably still work out for the best in practice: not every library has the same range of materials; not every patron holds to a consistent pattern of searching. If catalogers are true to the granularity of their material, and systems librarians can readily see how it should fit together, the data will make it out to the user.

Two quick examples of where MARC is falling short on what a modular approach would bring--(1) parallel 880 fields for non-Latin scripts, where the values in the subfield 6 aren't deterministic according to the field they're in (100, 245, etc.), but determined by their sequential appearance within a record--hard for programmers to work with, and not easy to strip out if they're not needed in a local system. (2) 6XX subfield y for chronological subheadings; it sort of lends itself to faceting by time period but the results can be messy, although this is more a result of how LCSH works out conceptually.

Charles Riley

________________________________________
From: Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of J. McRee Elrod [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 1:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BIBFRAME] What the data tells us

Roy Tennant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


>"Implications of MARC Tag Usage on Library Metadata Practices"
>http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-06.pdf

This study told us what fields were in records, not whether those
fields were utilized in OPACs. MARC has a wealth if information never
put to practical use. Which fields were coded is fairly useless
information.

A study of what fields OPACs actually use might be helpful, but that
still does not tell us what fields might be helpful to patrons if they
were utilized,'


   __ __ J. McRee (Mac) Elrod ([log in to unmask])
  {__ | / Special Libraries Cataloguing HTTP://www.slc.bc.ca/
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