Journal, week 9
This week I did a lot of regular old cataloging but also got to catalog maps, which are a different beast. Technically these were already cataloged and what I did was clean up the records, but some of the items needed such extensive improvement that they may as well have been re-cataloged from scratch.
When working on a MARC record for a map, we use some fields that differ
from those of a text-based record. First, the fixed field is very
different: for example, Form is given the code r if the item is a
reproduction of a map, which often it is. We use Proj to denote the
type of projection the map uses (e.g. bd for a Mercator projection);
Relf to indicate the type/s of relief illustrated on the map; CrTp
to define the type of cartographic material; and SpFm to indicate
whether the map is presented in any kind of special format, such as on a
calendar (code k) or playing card (code p).
Field 034 is for coded cartographic mathematical data, including the
scale, projection, and specific coordinates of the map. Field 255
contains this same material in a human-readable format.
Fixed field 007 is particularly interesting because it offers a coded
description of the map as a whole. It accepts no indicators and its
subfields $a through $h tell you the physical makeup of the map very
simply. If we see the field filled out like so:
007 | _ _ | a $b j $d a $e a $f f $g z $h n
We can read it as a facsimile of a monochrome map, printed on paper. We
might also expect the 300 and 500 fields to read thus:
300 | _ _ | 1 map
500 | _ _ | Facsimile.
All of this information is from the OCLC BibFormats site (OCLC, 2024).