Validity by Material Type in Bibliographic Records  (Introduction)

The validity of certain codes defined for the record Leader and the definition of data elements in field 008 (Fixed-Length Data Elements) is dependent upon the type of material to which a bibliographic item belongs.

For these data elements, validity by material type may be shown in a field description in this MARC Format Help by the presence of a statement concerning the validity (such as "Any code in table below is valid for any Format") or by the inclusion of relevant Format codes in code, indicator, or subfield descriptions.

The seven types of material differentiated in the format are:

For more information on these format specifications, see:  Scope of the Bibliographic Data Format.

With the March 1994 published version of the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data from the Library of Congress, most data elements reflect the implementation of changes brought about by Format Integration, whereby data elements were made valid for all types of material.

See also:

Bibliographic Data Format:  Introduction