The MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data is designed to be a carrier
for bibliographic information about printed and manuscript textual materials,
computer files, maps, music, serials, visual materials, and mixed materials.
Bibliographic data commonly includes titles, names, subjects, notes, publication
data, and information about the physical description of an item. The
bibliographic format contains data elements for the following types of material:
- Books
- textual material that is monographic in nature.
- Serials
- textual items with a recurring pattern of publication, e.g., periodicals,
newspapers, yearbooks.
- Computer files
- used for computer software, numeric data, computer-oriented multimedia,
online systems or services. Other clases of electronic resources are coded for
their most significant aspect. Material may be monographic or serial in
nature.
- Maps
- all types of cartographic materials, including sheet maps and globes.
- Music
- printed music, manuscript music, nonmusical sound recordings, and musical
sound recordings.
- Visual materials
- projected media, two-dimensional graphics, three-dimensional artifacts or
naturally occurring objects, and kits. Used for archival visual materials when
format or medium is being emphasized.
- Mixed materials
- primarily archival and manuscript collections of a mixture of forms of
material. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.
Fill Character and Related Values
A fill character (hexadecimal
value '7C'), represented in this document and ASCII as a vertical bar (|), may
be used in bibliographic records in some positions in fields 006, 007 and 008,
and subfield $7 of the linking entry fields (760-787). A fill character may not
be used anywhere in the Leader, or in tags, indicators, or subfield codes. The
use of the fill character in records contributed to a national database is also
dependent upon the national level requirements specified for each data element.
The presence of a fill character in a bibliographic record indicates that the
format specifies a code to be used but the creator of the record has decided not
to attempt to supply a code.
Code u (Unknown) when it is defined indicates
that the creator of the record attempted to supply a code but was unable to
determine what the appropriate code should be.
Code n (Not applicable) is
defined in many coded positions to indicate that the characteristic defined by
the position is not applicable to a specific type of item or kind of record.
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(01/24/00/jer)