Penn State University Libraries - Electronic Resources Field-by-Field Processing Guidelines

Penn State has decided provisionally to use AACR2 and MARC to catalog electronic resources in The Cat. Electronic resources are covered by Chapters 9 (Electronic Resources) and 12 (Continuing Resources) of AACR2, both of which are in a state of being revised. These guidelines follow as closely as possible the spirit of the rules as currently formulated. See also Glossary of Terms.

Field-by-Field Guidelines

The chief source of information for electronic resources is the resource itself. Practically speaking, apply the following guidelines:

1. Prefer the homepage as the chief source of information.
2. In the absence of an easily distinguishable homepage, prefer the page with the most complete information about the resource.
3. As needed to describe the item, consider also any metadata supplied in the tags of the HTML source code of the homepage. (For titles, consider also the title in the Title field of the HTML source code.)
4. If there is a conflict between the information in these sources, prefer the textual material on the homepage itself to any information imbedded in the HTML source code.
5. In seeking information lacking from the homepage, source code, and metadata, follow only those links that appear directly on the homepage; i.e., do only a 'first-level' search of the resource to find additional information. For reasons of efficiency, extensive investigation of lower or upper levels of the resource is discouraged.

For the nonce, use "computer file 2" (cf2) as the form for remotely accessible electronic resources. (In the future, it is likely that form used will be dependent on the form of the item [e.g. map] rather than on its electronic nature.)

Do not classify electronic resources; instead, use the free form call number Electronic resource and location Online. (In the future, it is possible that a more extensive list of free format call numbers will be established, e.g. Electronic map; PSU may also decide to opt for LC classification if it is deemed of sufficient usefulness to justify the added cataloging time involved.)

Example: Electronic resource

Transcribe as main entries only those persons or corporate bodies who can reasonably be said to be chiefly responsible for the intellectual (as opposed to the visual or technological) content of the resource. In deciding whether a person or corporate body merits main entry, apply the guidelines given in Chapter 21 of AACR2 (see below). Be aware that in the Web environment, there are a number of persons and entities normally associated with an item (webmaster, site designer, Internet Service Provider, etc.) that usually do not merit treatment as main (or even added) entries. In general, do not give added entries for webmasters, site designers, or Internet Service Providers unless there is compelling evidence that these persons or entities are bear significant responsibility for the intellectual content of the resource.

Enter a work emanating from one or more corporate bodies under the heading for the appropriate corporate body (see 21.4B, 21.5B) if it falls into one or more of the following categories:

1. those of an administrative nature dealing with the corporate body itself
   or, its internal policies, procedures, finances, and/or operations
   or, its officers, staff, and/or membership (e.g., directories)
   or, its resources (e.g., catalogues, inventories)
2. some legal, governmental, and religious works of the following types:
   • laws (see 21.31)
   • decrees of the chief executive that have the force of law (see 21.31)
   • administrative regulations (see 21.32)
   • constitutions (see 21.33)
   • court rules (see 21.34)
   • treaties, etc. (see 21.35)
   • court decisions (see 21.36)
   • legislative hearings
   • religious laws (e.g., canon law)
   • liturgical works (see 21.39)
3. those that record the collective thought of the body (e.g., reports of commissions, committees, etc.; official statements of position on external policies)
4. those that report the collective activity of a conference (e.g., proceedings, collected papers), of an expedition (e.g., results of exploration, investigation), or of an event (e.g., an exhibition, fair, festival) falling within the definition of a corporate body (see 21.1B1), provided that the conference, expedition, or event is prominently named (see 0.8) in the item being catalogued
5. those that result from the collective activity of a performing group as a whole where the responsibility of the group goes beyond that of mere performance, execution, etc. Publications resulting from such activity include sound recordings, films, videorecordings, and written records of performances. (For corporate bodies that function solely as performers on sound recordings, see 21.23.)
6. cartographic materials emanating from a corporate body other than a body that is merely responsible for their publication or distribution.

In case of doubt about whether a work falls into one or more of these categories, treat it as if it does not.

In transcribing the title, follow the guidelines for chief source of information given above. Select the title that figures most prominently in the resource; failing this, select the title that is used most consistently in the resource. If there is more than one title, add a 246 field for each distinctive variant. Always give the source of the title proper in a note. (For definitions of terms used in source of title notes for Internet resources, see the glossary.)

Title on homepage:

Penn State University Department of Women's Studies Homepage

Title in META tag of resource: PSU Women's Studies Home Page

In Record:

245: |aPenn State University Department of Women's Studies homepage

246: |iTitle from META tag:|aPSU Women's Studies home page

500: Title from Web page (viewed on May 29, 1999)

For the present time, add the GMD "Computer File" to all networked resources. Because of a current revision proposal, this GMD will most probably change in the near future for networked resources.

Transcribe edition statements as found on the item. Edition statements for remote access electronic resources are relatively rare. If a remote access electronic resource is frequently updated, consider the resource to be an integrating resource (rather than a monographic resource) and refer for cataloging by the integrating resources specialists (who will omit the edition statement and give the information about the frequency of updating in a note).

Do not routinely add 256 fields; instead, record type and extent of items in a note only when such information is deemed relevant (e.g. a 20MB image file whose size will affect download times).

The concept of publisher is more problematic for electronic resources than it is for print items. A publisher may be personal or institutional in nature. An institutional name should be transcribed in the 260 field when an organizational affiliation is stated or strongly implied on the main page of the resource. In this case, the publisher is the primary entity that has provided the technology for making the resource available, and with which the resource's author may have some organizational affiliation. For resources in which an explicit publisher statement is lacking, or where there is no clear affiliation between the author and an organization, consider the author of the resource (i.e., the person or corporate entity given in the 1XX field) to be the publisher of the resource. In other words, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, consider electronic resources to be self-published. Do not transcribe names of commercial Internet Service Providers (such as AOL, Earthlink, or Mindspring) as publishers except in the unlikely event that the resource being cataloged is about the ISP or is otherwise related to the ISP in terms of content. In cases in which the publisher is an organization (e.g., a professional association or society), the organization's name may optionally be given access in a 7XX field. Again, apply rules in Chapter 21 of AACR2 for determining access points.

260|a: Give the place of publication if it is present on the resource (cf. AACR2 1.4C for instructions). Use S.l. as needed.

260|b: Give the name of the publisher as listed on the resource, keeping in mind the guidelines above.

260|c: Give the date of publication (i.e., the date the resource was first made available in its present form) if this is evident from the homepage. When more than one date is present, prefer the most recent date. Note that since the Web has only existed since the early 1990s, it is safe to infer a date of [199-?] for most Web resources.

Do not give a physical description for electronic resources that are available only by remote access.

Generally speaking, transcribe collective titles as series only when the resource itself implies the title is considered a series by the author or publisher; or when there is information from other sources (LCAF, OCLC) that implies same; or when a precedent has been set in the Cat for treated items bearing that title as belonging to a series. In all other cases, add the collective title in a 730 or 740 field as an added title entry.

Example:

730 0 English emblem book project

not 440 0 English emblem book project

Always give the source of the title proper in a note.

Example:

500 Title from Web page (viewed on May 29, 1999)

Make additional notes, as deemed relevant, for parallel titles or other information not recorded elsewhere, statements of responsibility, edition-like and publishing history statements, and information on the type and extent of the resource.

Examples:

500 Subtitle in HTML header: An online guide to Paradise lost

500 Contributors include Dieter E. Zimmer and Gennady Barabtarlo.

500 Originally published in print: Berlin: Brisson Verlag, 1999.

500 Image files are 20 MB each.

Formulate a succinct summary of the resource's contents.

Example:

If information is readily available and considered relevant, formulate an audience note, especially for juvenile materials.

Example:

521 For children ages 7-14.

When adding electronic "holdings" to an existent record for the print version of a resource, include one of the following, depending on whether the online version reproduces all or only portions of the print version. (When only portions of a print resource are available online, or when the online version includes materials not included in the print version, use judgment in deciding when to add holdings to an existent record for the print resource and when to create a new record for the online version.)

Additional Physical Form Available Note

Tag	Ind.	Contents
530		Also available online: http://www.catalogersanonymous.com
530		Portions available online: http://www.catalogersanonymous.com

When adding holdings to an existent record for a print edition, also add, in addition to the 530 field, a 550, 710 (for the organization named in the 550), and a 740, if the title of the online edition differs from the title of the print edition. See the guidelines for each of these fields below for more information.

Because the 856 does not display in the telnet version of LIAS, use the 538 field to record the URL of the resource being cataloged. Note that this duplicates the URL as found in the 856 field, with a few exceptions relating to special characters (see guidelines for the 856 field below). This practice can be discontinued once the migration to Unicorn is complete.

Example:

System Details Note

Tag	Ind.	Contents
538		Internet address: http://www.scoot.com/

A separate 538 field can be used to record system requirements for remotely accessible resources when these requirements are unusual or may be of special interest to the user. Use judgment in applying this rule. Example:

Give the languages and/or scripts of the resource unless this is apparent from the rest of the description. Include encoding information when relevant.

Example:

When adding electronic "holdings" to an existent record for the print version of a resource, include a 550 with the name of the organization that has made the digital version available. If the organization is simply a commercial publisher, do not include a 550.

Example:

When adding electronic "holdings" to an existent record for the print version of a resource, add a 710 for the name of the corporate body given in field 550. (See guidelines for 550 above.)

Example:

Include the URL for the resource being cataloged. (Use indicators 40 when cataloging the resource itself and indicators 41 when adding electronic holdings to a record for the print version of the resource.)

Example:

Electronic Location/Access

Tag	Ind.	Contents
856		http://www.ref.oclc.org:2000 |zAddress for accessing the journal using authorization number and password through OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online. Subscription to online journal required for access to abstracts and full text

• If 856 with indicator 7 is found on copy, change the indicators to 40 and delete the $2. (To delete $2, you have to put a space between '856' and '2' in the command line: 856 2/d/ ).
• Watch for _ (underscore) and ~ (tilde) in URLs. These characters are not valid in USMARC: _ (underscore) must be changed to: %5F in the 856; ~ (tilde) must be changed to: %7E in the 856. However, DO use the characters _ and ~ (not the MARC special characters %5F, %7E) in the 530/538. The 856 has been programmed to read the special characters %5F and %7E as _ and ~, but the 530/538 fields have not.
• Repeat the URL in the 530/538 fields. (The 856 does not display to patrons in the telnet version of the Cat; we will no longer repeat the URLs in the 530/538 fields after the telnet version of LIAS is no longer available, nor will it be necessary once the migration to Unicorn is complete.)

See also Glossary of Terms