The book I chose for this assignment is The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. It is my own copy, from a bookshelf at home. I began the assignment by looking on both the Library of Congress and the UBC Library websites. I read our instructor’s instructions on how to access the MARC records and was frustrated that I couldn’t seem to find them! I then posted a question about it in the discussion forum and still couldn’t find them. So, I gave my sister a call and asked her if she could give me a one hour MARC records tutorial. She is in her fifteenth course of her Library Tech diploma and has already delved deep into the world of MARC records.
Upon arrival at my house, we looked at the recommended sites, and I was embarrassed to find out that you actually have to type the name of the book in the Search line first, and then click on the MARC records link. Duh. I was confused because I thought there was a direct link to MARC records on the Home page of the two catalogue websites! Yep, that’s right, my MARC records knowledge is THAT shallow.
My sister went through the entire article A Summary of Commonly Used MARC 21 Fields with me and explained everything in a very basic way. She answered my questions and helped me create a table for my book, which I don’t think I could have figured out on my own. Now I feel slightly confident, like I could take the information given us by our instructor and the skill given to me by my sister and create a MARC record for any book in my home.
Here is the table that I created for The Stone Diaries:
| 010 | ## | $a ###93030239# |
| 020 | ## | $a 0394223802 |
| 100 | 1# | $a Shields, Carol$d 1935- |
| 245 | 14 | $a The Stone Diaries /$c Carol Shields. |
| 260 | ## | $a Toronto :$b Random House,$c 1994. |
| 300 | ## | $a 361 p.$b ill. ;$c 20 cm. |
| 520 | ## | $a Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood and old age. |
| 650 | #0 | $a Women$v Fiction. |
Starting from knowing nothing about MARC records (except for what the acronymn stood for), I learned quite a bit from this process! The MARC 21 Record article was helpful, in that it laid out fairly easily what each of the different tags and sub-fields were for. After finishing my table, I printed out both the UBC Library and the Library of Congress MARC records for The Stone Diaries and was pleased with the results, as I had included the tags that both sites had included. Where I had left out a tag, I realized it was because the edition they had used obviously had many more features and editions.
Here is the MARC record from the Library of Congress website:
| LC Control No.: | 2008028398 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | http://lccn.loc.gov/2008028398 |
| 000 | 01514cam a2200349 a 450 |
| 001 | 15342311 |
| 005 | 20090901064704.0 |
| 008 | 080624r20081994nyua fj 000 1 eng |
| 906 | __ |a 7 |b cbc |c orignew |d 1 |e ecip |f 20 |g y-gencatlg |
| 925 | 0_ |a acquire |b 2 shelf copies |x policy default |
| 955 | __ |a lh22 2008-06-24 |i lh22 2008-06-24 |e lh22 2008-06-24 to CIP (Dewey completed) |a xe07 2008-10-17 1 copy rec’d., to CIP ver. |f bc05 2008-10-22 Z-CipVer; |g bc05 2008-10-22 to BCCD |a rg04 2009-01-12 copy 2 to BCCD |
| 010 | __ |a 2008028398 |
| 020 | __ |a 9780143105503 |
| 020 | __ |a 0143105507 |
| 020 | __ |z 014023313X |
| 020 | __ |a 9780785799542 |
| 020 | __ |a 0785799540 |
| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)54835987 |z (OCoLC)223803226 |z (OCoLC)228130965 |
| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)ocm54835987 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |c DLC |d DLC |
| 050 | 00 |a PR9199.3.S514 |b S76 2008 |
| 082 | 00 |a 813/.54 |2 22 |
| 100 | 1_ |a Shields, Carol. |
| 245 | 14 |a The stone diaries / |c Carol Shields ; introduction by Penelope Lively. |
| 260 | __ |a New York : |b Penguin Books, |c 2008. |
| 300 | __ |a 361, 10 p., [8] p. of plates : |b ill., geneal. table ; |c 20 cm. |
| 490 | 0_ |a Penguin classics deluxe edition |
| 650 | _0 |a Women |x Fiction. |
| 655 | _7 |a Domestic fiction. |2 lcsh |
| 856 | 41 |3 Table of contents only |u http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0821/2008028398.html |
| 856 | 42 |3 Contributor biographical information |u http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0902/2008028398-b.html |
| 856 | 42 |3 Publisher description |u http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0902/2008028398-d.html |
Here are some of the comments/questions I had on the tags that we were asked to focus on:
020 – I found this interesting, as the LOC had 5 different numbers listed under this tag. I figured out that new numbers are assigned with new editions
250 – my copy of The Stone Diaries had no edition statement in it, so didn’t include it (and neither did UBC/LOC)
260 – my copy of The Stone Diaries said that it was originally published in 1993, but listed 1994
as the date further down. I figured it made most sense to choose the most recent date.
300 – I wasn’t sure what part of the book I was to measure but decided to do the length, which
made sense when I looked at the measurement given on the sample, as it would be hard
to envision a book 20 cm. thick!
490 – we were asked to focus on this tag, but since my book isn’t a series, I didn’t include it (neither did UBC/LOC)
520 – I looked for a book summary and couldn’t find one. I used the information on the back of the book to write one. I noticed that UBC/LOC’s summaries were quite lengthy, but my sister explained they should be one sentence, so I kept mine to that.
700 – there wasn’t any other name of a secondary author or illustrator, so I kept this tag out (as did UBC/LOC)
How lucky to have your sister as a resource! I discussed this assignment with my TL mentor today and she showed me how her version of Alexandria can search for MARC records and then automatically complete some of the cataloguing fields for new resources. She still goes into the system to tweak it, but for tags like 520 it seems very helpful.
Yes, that does seem helpful. I didn’t have a TL mentor when I began, and also had no training in the library, so now I am only learning some things that I should have figured out ages ago! How long have you had a mentor?
Hi Carolyn,
I enjoyed reading your blog about our first assignment. I really liked how you prefaced the assignment and explained how your sister helped you understand the assignment. I feel like I should have done some explaining before I posted my mark record. Live and learn. I know better for next time 🙂
P.S. I had trouble uploading my table onto my blog. Can you give me any suggestions on how you did this for the future.
Thank you!
~Kendall
Hi Kendall. I added the table through cut/paste….weird that it turned out. I tried as an attachment first, but couldn’t figure out how to do that, so tried a cut/paste as a last ditch effort.
Carrie
It also took me a little while to see that I needed to click on the MARC tab in order to see the MARC information. At first I couldn’t see why all of the information was in plain English instead of the $s and the #s. Once I figured that much out I was surprised at how close my MARC record was to the original. Thanks for your great post.
Yours was good also. I see that most people posted the MARC record from LOC as well as their own and now I am thinking I should go and do that also. Have a good weekend, aren’t you glad you got your assignment done before the weekend?