Skip Maine state header navigation

Agencies | Online Services | Help

Skip First Level Navigation | Skip All Navigation

Home > Minerva > Cataloging > How To's > Standards, Guidelines and Procedures

Minerva Cataloging Standards

Medium/Format | Access Points | Genre | Maine Authors | Maine Imprints | Children Subject Headings

The following practices, procedures and guidelines -- and the related documents ( How To's ) referenced in this document -- are accepted as standard by all Minerva libraries.  Substantive changes are made in consultation with the Minerva Cataloging User Group and with the approval of the Minerva Cataloging Standards Committee and the Executive Committee of the Minerva Users Council.

Medium and Format Designation for Non-Book Materials

In order to provide informative OPAC full record displays and browse lists, as well as to support searches by format or medium, Minerva libraries will...

  1. Use only standard General Material Descriptors (GMDs), with the addition of [periodical] and [newspaper].
  2. Proper values will be used in the 300 Physical Description field.

back to top

Access Points

  1. Adding access points: You may add access points (subject headings, author-, series- and title-added entries) to a bib record, but you should not delete existing access points unless specifically directed to do so by Minerva documentation.  All added access points should be formed properly based on MARC 21 and AACR2 rules.  But see section 5 below, as well as  How to Handle Subject Headings for additional information.
  2. Notes fields: The following notes fields are indexed for keyword retrieval and should be considered access points as well.
  3. Local notes of general interest: Sometimes information about a particular library's copies has research value, or is of general interest to users of the OPAC.  Since item record notes do not appear in the OPAC, a bib level note is required.  In such cases, the cataloger should put the information in a 590 field and clearly indicate the library-specific applicability of the note. 
    • Examples:
      590  Oddwall PL copy includes tipped in autographed photo of Marshall McLuhan.
      590  Coleridge College copy contains pencil annotations by author of typographic errors introduced into this edition.
  4. Subject heading indicators: Proper designation of subject heading fields is crucial to support for subject indexing and for maintenance of the authority control structures in the system.  Proper values must be entered in the second indicator position of 6xx fields: 0 for Library of Congress, 1 for LC Children's Subject Heading Project, 2 for National Library of Medicine, 4 for local, and 7 for a subject heading source named in the |2 subfield.
  5. Refrain from adding new subject headings, whether local, Sears or from some other source, if that heading already exists as a cross reference in the catalog. An established principle within Minerva is that libraries may add new access points (6xx subject headings and 5xx notes) if they are generally applicable and are properly designated following MARC 21 and AACR2 practice.  For subject headings, this means proper use of subfields and, especially, proper use of the 2nd indicator to specify the source of a heading.  However, if the subject heading a library wishes to add is already present as a SEE reference to an LC subject heading, using the non-LC heading will serve to confuse rather than aid the user.  In this case, adding a heading that is identical to a SEE cross reference is actually duplicating access points to no constructive end.

Hence, before adding non-LC subject headings, catalogers are asked to search the catalog for that heading and, if there is a SEE reference from that heading to an LC heading, to refrain from adding the heading.

As part of ongoing database clean-up by Maine State Library staff, existing local, Sears and other headings that duplicate SEE references to LC headings will be removed in order to make the cross reference system more consistent and useful to users.

back to top

Genre: Use of Form/Genre Headings in the 655 Field

(This is an abbreviated overview. For further info see: http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdsubj.html#mrcb655 )

From Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, etc.:

"A genre is a type or category of imaginative work that is readily identified by some of the following characteristics: style, plot device, mood or tone, character type, and theme. Form/genre headings indicate what the work is, rather than what the work is about."  (p. 4).  Some examples of form/genre headings are Love stories (gsafd), Historical fiction (gsafd), Domestic fiction (LCSH), and   Audiobooks (LCSH).

655 Indicators and Subfields

 The first indicator is normally blank.

 The second indicator is for the source of the term:

0 - Library of Congress Subject Headings:                   
The subject added entry conforms to and is appropriate for use in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and the Name authority files.

1 - LC subject headings for children's literature:
The subject added entry conforms to the "AC Subject Headings" section of the LCSH and is appropriate for use in the LC Annotated Card Program.

2 - Medical Subject Headings
The subject added entry conforms to the NLM authority files.

7 - Source specified in subfield $2 .

Examples

655  7  Love stories.|2gsafd

655  7  Adventure films.|2gsafd

655  7  Historical fiction.|2gsafd

655  0  Domestic fiction.                       (LC heading used as genre term)

655  0  Audiobooks.                            (LC heading used as form term)

Standard published lists must be used to determine the genre and form terms.  Form and genre headings should be taken from ALA's Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, etc.(gsafd). LC subject headings may also be used as genre or form terms if an equivalent term does not appear in the Guidelines.   For example: for an individual mystery story (as opposed to an anthology of mystery stories), choose "655  7 Mystery fiction.|2gsafd" over 655  0 "Detective and mystery stories." But, for a psychological novel, the LC heading "655  0  Psychological fiction" may be used, as there is no equivalent term in the Guidelines.

Note

650  0  Large type books.

It is important to remember that the 655 field should only be used for individual works of fiction. For anthologies of fiction, use regular LC subject headings in a 650 field.

back to top

Use of "Maine Author" Headings

The subject heading "Maine Author" may not be used in the catalog.  The heading "Authors, American--Maine" may only be used for books about a Maine author. It may not be used for books that are written by Maine authors.   Instead, a note field (545 0_ ) may be used for information about an author.  (Details at  http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdnot2.html#mrcb545.)

The note should be formulated to contain the phrase "Maine author" for keyword searching, as well as the name of the author and the author's connection to Maine, for clarity. For example:

545 0_ Maine author. Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Brunswick, Maine from 1850-1852.

(Note: At first, existing records with an "Authors, American -- Maine" heading or similar will just have a 545 0_ with "Maine author" inserted in a batch fix. Details about the authors can be added as you come across these records in your cataloging.)

It is recommended that catalogers also add a link in MARC tag 856 (first indicator "4" and second indicator "2") from the bib record to the author's listing in Molly Williams' Maine Writer's Index (http://www.waterborolibrary.org/MWI_home.php), if the author appears in this index.

For an example of a note and link, scope to CML and search for title: "Men, horses, and beans". (Click on "MARC Display" to see how the link is set up for this example).

Approved by Executive Committed August 1, 2003

back to top

Use of "Maine Imprints" Headings

The heading "Imprints (Publishers' and printer's statements) -- Maine" should be used only as a subject heading for books about publishing and printing in Maine.  It may not be used for books that are published in Maine Records for items published by Maine publishers can be retrieved through a keyword search (e.g. "me OR maine" ) and by using the limit search feature in the OPAC.  Also, a correctly-formulated 710 field for a particular publisher can be added to a bib record if this is felt to be useful.

back to top)

Guidelines for Assigning Subject Headings to Children's Materials

Types of materials that should get juvenile subject headings

Juvenile subject headings and subdivisions should be assigned to materials intended for children up through age 15 or 9 th grade.

Where to find juvenile subject headings:

Juvenile subject headings should be taken from LC's Annotated Card program (LCAC). The headings are listed at the beginning of vol. 1 of LCSH.

You can also use LC's Authorities Web site ( http://authorities.loc.gov/ ) to identify subject headings from the Annotated Card program. Such a heading would have “LC Subject Headings for Children” next to it in the Type of Heading column.

There are approximately 1,000 LCAC headings. When assigning subject headings to juvenile materials, LCAC headings should be used when they exist. However, when no LCAC heading has been established for a particular subject, a regular LC subject heading should be used, but it should be coded as a children's subject heading with second indicator ‘1' (see directly below).

MARC coding

LCAC headings, as well as regular LC subject headings used as children's subject headings, should have second indicator ‘1'.

Example of an LCAC heading:

650 _ 1 Test tube babies.

(The equivalent LCSH heading is “Fertilization in vitro, Human”)

Example of LCSH headings used as children's subject headings:

600 0 1 Cleopatra, |c Queen of Egypt, |d d. 30 B.C.

651 1 Egypt |x Kings and rulers.

(There are no equivalent LCAC headings established for these subjects).

Nonfiction books for children

Each record for a nonfiction children's book should contain:

* an authorized heading or headings from LCSH with the subdivision

|v Juvenile literature . (Such headings should have second indicator ‘0').

and,

* an equivalent children's subject heading or headings without the ‘Juvenile literature' subdivision. (Second indicator ‘1').

For example, a children's book on the topic of astronomy should have both the following subject headings:

650 _ 1 Astronomy.

650 _ 0 Astronomy |v Juvenile literature.

Fictional books for children

Each record for a children's fiction book should contain a children's subject heading followed by the subdivision |v Fiction . For example:

650 _ 1 Mice |v Fiction.

It is alright to add equivalent adult subject headings (650 _0 Mice |v Juvenile fiction), but not necessary.

back to top