On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 07:43:52AM -0500, Morbus Iff wrote: > >The OCLC conventions are probably much more widely known than the LC > >ones simply because most libraries doing copy cataloging use OCLC as > >their utility. > > The LC also uses $ to represent sub-tags (I think that's what > they're called; just woke up... the $a/$b things). But, I > seem to see _a and _b more often. Which is more prevalent?
They are called subfields. A variable data field (01X-8XX in USMARC Bibliographic) comprises a 3-character tag, two indicators, and one or more subfields. Well, if I were representing a MARC field in longhand, I would use the dollar-sign with the alpha-num character identifying it. I think the underscore is used in MARCBreaker pretty-print. I've also seen the vertical bar used in other applications. My feeling is that the dollar-sign is the most common, unless you are trying to emulate the output of a particular app (e.g. MARCBreaker) that follows a different convention. Chuck
