Keywords
Citation
Trickey, K.V. (1999), "MARC Manual:
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
There are some professional publications that I am glad I did not have to write, because of the ferocious attention to detail required in the production. Eric Hunter′s books on AACR2 are classic examples. Deborah Byrne′s second edition is of this ilk. We have captured between large format covers 263 pages of useful information on the USMARC format. The topics covered include: a brief background to the format, format integration, patterns in the format, a review of the content of the bibliographic format (the fixed and variable fields), factors in database processing using MARC, chapters on the authority, holdings and community formats, closing with a review of the application of MARC in a range of library environments.
The book has two distinct uses: it can be read through to get a detailed overview of the glories (and foibles) of the USMARC format, or it can be used as handy reference source, as it is well documented and, the trail having been started, further information ‐‐ hard copy or website ‐‐ can then be explored as appropriate. The book is well set out, which facilitates navigation, and also indicates areas of change by using an exclamation mark (!); this allows for rapid updating. Technically the book is sound. In reviewing the fields of the bibliographical format the author gives a USMARC definition and then follows on with “Description, potential uses and caveats”. This answers the perennial questions “What is that for? Who needs it?” that are gone through at the system specification stage.
So what else can be gleaned from this book about US practice and MARC? OCLC is acknowledged as being a major player in terms of the format as OCLC variants and practice are frequently considered. Strangely the USA seems still to have a penchant for the card catalogue, unless this is an anomaly that should have been updated for the new edition. The USA seems far more concerned with the use of full format records rather than stripping out a too limited range of fields, which seems to be the predominant UK approach to MARC.
Gripes? Naturally and mostly small minded. I would have liked more examples, particularly in the chapters dealing with the various USMARC formats, although I appreciate that the book is not designed to be a substitute for the Library of Congress format guides. I would have liked information on the classification format in the chapter on authority formats (it is only mentioned briefly on p. 34). Overall assessment ‐‐ a very useful addition to the cataloguer′s (or database manager′s) collection of practical reference tools. Deborah Byrne is to be congratulated on the new edition of this very useful work.