Components of Authority Records (Introduction)

A MARC authority record consists of three main components: the Leader , the Directory , and the Variable Fields. There are two types of variable fields: Variable control fields and Variable data fields. Within variable data fields, two kinds of content designation are used: indicator positions and subfield codes. More detail is provided in MARC 21 Specifications for Record Structure, Character Sets, and Exchange Media. For additional information, see Components of a MARC Record.

See also:

Introduction to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data