Record Content Responsibility (Responsible Parties Rule)
The MARC 21 data formats serve as a vehicle for data of all types from any organization. In general, the responsibility for the data content, content designation , and transcription of information within a record may be determined by examination of the field indicated in the responsible parties section below. The data content of certain data elements, however, is restricted when the element is an agency-assigned or a controlled-list data element.
Responsible Parties:
In unmodified
records, the organization identified as the original
cataloging source in 008/39 (Cataloging source) and/or subfield
$a of field 040 (Cataloging Source) is responsible for the
content of the record. The organization identified as the transcribing
agency in subfield $c of field 040 is responsible for
the content designation and transcription of the data.
In modified
records, the organizations identified in subfields $a (Original
cataloging agency) and $d (Modifying agency) of field 040
(Cataloging Source) are collectively responsible for the content of the
record. Organizations identified as transcribing or modifying
agencies in subfields $c and $d of field 040 are
collectively responsible for the content designation and transcription
of the data. [The creator of the original record may also be identified
in coded form in field 008/39 (Cataloging Source) in bibliographic
and authority records.]
Agency-assigned data element:
An agency-assigned data element is one whose content is determined by a designated agency and is the responsibility of that agency, for example, bibliographic field 222 (Key Title) which is the responsibility of an ISSN Center. While it is usually input by the designated agency, it may be transcribed by another organization.
Controlled-list data element:
(Previously known as authoritative-agency data element.)
Certain data elements contain data from controlled lists maintained by designated agencies, e.g., the MARC Code List for Geographic Areas in field 043 Geographic Area Code (Bibliographic) or 043 Geographic Area Code (Authority).
These elements are indicated at the field or subfield level in MARC 21 and only values from the designated lists may be used. If a change or addition is desirable for a list, the maintenance agency for the list should be consulted.
See also:
008/39 Cataloging source (Authority)
040 Cataloging Source (Authority)
008/39 Cataloging source (Bibliographic)
040 Cataloging Source (Bibliographic)
To return:
A General Introduction to the MARC Format
