Field Orientation (Character Sets, Part 1: MARC-8 Environment)

The contents of a field in a MARC 21 record are always recorded in their logical order, from the first character to the last, regardless of field orientation. When data in a subfield is written in a right-to-left script (Hebrew or Arabic), the subfield pair is followed by the escape sequence which invokes the character set for the script and then immediately by the first character of the text (i.e., exactly the same as for text in a left-to-right script). The first character of text in a right-to-left script does not occur at the end of the field just before the field terminator.

Example:

Order of data in MARC record

E = ESCAPE character

( = set is designated as the G0 set and has one byte per character

2 = Hebrew character set

B = ASCII default character set

Order of data as it might be displayed

There may be one exception to logical order for data in the MARC-8 environment, numbers in the Arabic and Hebrew character sets. Several options for encoding digits in Arabic or Hebrew text exist in the MARC-8 environment. Digits occur in the Basic Latin (ASCII) set (numbers written as 1, 2, etc.), the Hebrew set (numbers written as 1, 2, etc.), and the Arabic set (numbers written in the traditional "Hindi" form). Multi-digit numbers in Hebrew or Arabic script fields encoded using the Basic Latin set are always input in logical order. Those encoded using the digits in the Arabic or Hebrew sets may have been input in visual order, depending on the implementation. Users may choose to use the Basic Latin or the Hebrew and Arabic encodings.

Examples (both are displayed as shown above):

Date input in logical order using the Basic Latin set digits

Data input in visual order using the Hebrew set digits

Left-to-right field orientation is the default for fields in MARC 21 records. No special designation of field orientation is required for character sets with left-to-right orientation. When a field contains data whose orientation is from right to left, orientation is indicated with a field orientation code appended to subfield $6 (Linkage). [See MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, Appendix A , subfield $6 .]

The decision to designate the field orientation as right-to-left depends on the predominance of data in a script that is read right-to-left at the field and/or the record level. A field may contain a mixture of scripts. Right-to-left field orientation is usually designated in the following instances:

 when a field contains only or mostly data in a right-to-left script

 when a field contains data in both a right-to-left and a left-to-right script, but the preponderance of data in other fields is right-to-left

 in order to maintain consistency among fields constituting the "body" of a bibliographic entry (2XX, 3XX, and 4XX fields)

To return, select:

Part 1: MARC-8 Environment (Character Sets)

Character Sets