Recording Bibliographic Information for Digitally Reformatted Materials

This site was frozen in 2004 and is now out of date. Please go to RLG's current Web site for all information. Questions? Contact us.

RLG and Preservation

Enhancements to MARC Computer File 007 Values
Recording Bibliographic Information for Digitally Reformatted Materials

Background

When the RLG Working Group on Preservation and Reformatting Information was formed, the scope of its work was expected to be wide-ranging. Included in its charge was the instruction "analyze and specify preservation and reformatting requirements (current and near-term future) for an effective and resource-efficient system of support mechanisms and protocols." It was anticipated that the group would look at current practice within the international preservation community to describe actions and decisions taken in support of preservation, conservation, and even retention policies. In the course of the group's meetings and conference calls, it became clear that merging general preservation descriptive requirements with those related specifically to digital computer files was unmanageable within a reasonable timeframe. Thus, the group recommended changes in cataloging rules to enable the MARC 007 field (Computer Files) to carry information about digitally reformatted items.

MARC 007 vs MARC 583

The use of the MARC 583 field to convey preservation, conservation, and retention information has been considered since 1996. The working group acknowledged the efforts the 583 field which had taken place to date, but knew consensus on the encoding practice (and level of required coding) for the 583 field would not be reached for some time. At the same time, the working group believed some existing fields (MARC 007 for computer files and MARC 533 - Reproduction Note) might be more appropriate places for some of the information that had been slated to appear in the 583 field. Recommendations for use and or adaptation of the 007(c) and 533 fields was believed to be achievable in a more timely manner.

MARC 007 for Computer Files

The MARC 007 (c) for computer files already existed as a place to encode information about computer files, but the values in no way addressed the types of information needed for describing digitally reformatted materials. Adapting, rather than replacing, the existing 007 (c) was required so that the hundreds of records already employing the current 007 computer file values (to describe software, text files, etc.) were not invalidated. Therefore, the recommendations included the original five bytes (007/01 - 007/05) with slight modification, joined with six new, optional bytes designed specifically to convey the desired preservation and/or reformatting information.

Because the recommendation required changes in the structure of the 007 for computer files, the recommendation was written in the form of a proposal to the American Library Association's MAchine Readable Bibliographic Information committee (MARBI). After following the traditional path for changes to MARC fields and values, the proposal, with some slight modifications, was passed by MARBI. The new values for the 007 computer file field can be found on the MARC 21 site.
Find more at the digital preservation initiative home page.

Last updated May 2002

This site was frozen in 2004 and is now out of date. Please go to RLG's current Web site for all information. Questions? Contact us.
HOME | SEARCH | CONTACTS | USER SUPPORT