[ale] Linux in libraries (a heads-up for June 2002)

[Ben Ostrowsky]

>Can you explain why that is so?  Is it because the MARC data structure is
>hierarchical?

I think it's got to do with repeatable fields.  Here's a sample MARC record:

  LEADER 00962nam  2200289Ki 4500
  001    fla97047300
  003    FLA
  005    20010427183412.0
  008    970901s1996    caua          001 0 eng d
  020    1565921496 (pbk.) :$c$40.00
  035    526575
  040    FLA$cFLA$dWaOLN
  245 00 Programming Perl /$cLarry Wall, Tom Christiansen, Randal L. 
Schwartz with Stephen Potter.
  250    2nd ed.
  260    Sebastopol, CA :$bO'Reilly & Associates,$cc1996.
  300    xxi, 646 p. :$bill. ;$c24 cm.
  490 1  A Nutshell handbook
  500    Accompanied by booklet "Quick reference guide" (19 p. ; 21 cm) 
inserted at end.
  500    "Covers Perl 5"--Cover.
  500    Includes index.
  650  0 Perl (Computer program language)
  700 1  Wall, Larry.
  830  0 Nutshell handbook.
  920    970923
  930    970923
  945    997 FLA ils
  949 10 $b3 2396 00329 1527$cFLAANF$d005.133P WALL$mTBLC$nFLA$p40.00$tFLABK

Note that there's a fixed-width leader, and that each field has two 
characters called indicators (such as "00" in the 245 field), which are 
often null.  There are also three 500 fields.  Each of these numbers has a 
specific meaning like "Main title", "Publisher", "Edition statement", 
"Additional author", "Series title", etc.

Subfields are listed as $ followed by one character.  So the 300 field has 
two null indicators, contains the text "xxi, 646 p. :", and has two 
subfields, $b ("ill. ;") and $c ("24 cm.").

It does get messier than this, of course...

Ben

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