Dear Colleague,
This is a mis-statement that is often been made over the years. MARC is
only a format for data interchange and has nothing to do with cataloging
rules. It is the container for the cataloging data. I have often over the
years maintained that without making any significant changes to the MARC
format (USMARC, UNIMARC, or even MARC21) Arabs can use the format. They do
not need to carry the "alternate graphic representation" in USMARC
terminology in 880 fields. Arabs can place Arabic script data in the
standard 100, 245, etc. fileds.
The more important issue really is a standard for cataloging. That is,
standards for description of items, the establishment of names,
classification systems, and subject analysis.
It is on the latter points that there is often very vocal disagreement. And
to that I say, it doesn't matter, either--IF one indicates in the record the
specific rules one uses. In the MARC21 format leader positions 17 and 18
(encoding level and descriptive cataloging form) could be used to indicate
basic cataloging code standards. Of course leader position 09 indicates
the character encoding. At this point for the sake of universal exchange
of data I would hope that Unicode would be used for data exchange. For
subject analysis the second indicator in the 6XX and the $2 subfield allow
for alternate thesauri.
Many discussing this topic often confuse an internal format of a specific
system that they use (be it MINISIS, VTLS, OCLC, RLIN, etc.) with the
format used to send data between systems. The internal format is really
irrelevant
as long as it can import and export in this standard.
Enough of my ranting. I am willing to discuss offline with anyone who wants
more information.
John Eilts
Curator for Middle East Collection
Stanford University Libraries
Email:: [log in to unmask]
Quoting Eiman Al-Awadhi <[log in to unmask]>:
> Dear Collegues,
>
> Do you know of any work that has been done to establish Arabic MARC as a
> standard for Arabic cataloging?
>
> Thank you
>
> Eiman Al-Awadhi
>
> Department Manager, Information Services Department Kuwait Institute for
> Scientific Research-KISR
>
> tel: (965)483-6628
>
> fax: (965)483-6648
>
>
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