[Koha] 090 Fields in Koha

[Patton,Glenn]

One of my colleagues has forwarded me a set of messages from the Koha list
about the use of MARC fields for various kinds of local data and asked if
someone at OCLC might be able to comment and make some suggestions.  I'll
try to do that.

If I understand correctly, the original proposal was to use field 090 based
on the MARC format convention that any tag that contains a 9 in any position
can be locally defined.  It is true that this is one of the fundamental
conventions of MARC tagging (for both MARC 21 and UNIMARC) but, as always,
there are some exceptions.  

One is field 490 (Series statement).  That field was part of the USMARC
format before the convention about tags with 9 was established and it
continues to be defined in MARC 21 and is, thus, not available for local
definition.  Another exception is field 090.  That field used to be defined
in USMARC but was made obsolete in 1982 when the whole block of 09X fields
were designated for local use and definition.  Another of the underlying
principles of the MARC format is that obsolete fields should not be reused
for different purposes since existing records may continue to contain the
obsolete fields.  That's part of the reason, I believe, that several
comments that I read suggested that field 090 was not a good choice.

All of us in the MARC format world (libraries, local system vendors and
utilities) have made use of various fields in the 9XX block, which is
reserved for local use and definition in both MARC 21 (and its predecessor
formats USMARC, CANMARC and UK MARC) so that raises some potential stumbling
blocks in sharing data and defining fields for local use.  For example, in
both CANMARC and UK MARC, some of the 9XX fields (900, 910, 911, and 945 in
UK MARC and 900, 910, 911, 930, 980, 981, 982, 983, and 990 in CANMARC) have
in the past been used to embed authority cross references in bibliographic
records.

In addition, OCLC has either used itself or has verified that local systems
have used the following additional 9XX fields:  901-907, 920-921, 935-936,
938-942, 944-953, 955-956, 961-962, 964-969, 971, 981-984, 987, 992, 994,
996 and 999.  Amazingly enough, that does leave field 970 (one of the ones
mentioned in the messages I saw) as available so that may be a good choice.


I have also checked with one of my colleagues who knows more about UNIMARC
than I do.  He is not aware of any similar list of UNIMARC 9XX fields that
have already been used for some purpose.

I hope that this information is of use in your discussions.

Glenn Patton
Director, WorldCat Content Management
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
6565 Frantz Rd.
Dublin  OH  43017-3395
Phone: +1.800.848.5878, ext. 6371 or +1.614.764.6371
Fax: +1.614.718.7187
Email: mailto:pattong at oclc.org