Wednesday, February 20, 2013

MARC by the Numbers


I happen to visit this website which gives details about number of tags, subfields and other units used in MARC21.  

Source: http://futurelib.pbworks.com/w/page/13686649/Data%20and%20Studies



MARC by the Numbers (With Apologies to Harper's)



The MARC21 Bibliographic Format, by the numbers
(with apologies to Harper's Magazine)
(Note: all figures exclude fields 863-887)


Number of total tags defined in the MARC21 bibliographic format: 182
Number of variable field tags: 175
Total number of subfields defined: 1711
Total number of unique subfields, based on their names: 551 (32%)
Number of the 352 indicator positions that are undefined: 211 (60%)
Number of subfields that are a type of title: 87 (5%)
Subfields in order of occurrence: $a: 174; $8: 172; $6: 161; $b: 108; $c: 83; $d: 70; $7: 67; $g: 56; $n: 52; $h: 50; $3: 50; $z: 46; $f: 45; $k: 45; $e: 44; $x: 41; $m: 39; $u: 38; $t: 37; $2: 37; $s: 35; $p: 33; $o: 32; $i: 29; $y: 29; $r: 28; $l: 27; $v: 20; $5: 20; $w: 17; $j: 17 $4: 14; $q: 14; $1: 0; $9: 0 (Note: numeric subfields generally have the same value in every field in which they appear. Non-numeric subfields can have a different value in every field in which they appear.)
Number of fixed field values (006-008): 2401
Number of 006 values: 688
Number of 006 values that are unique: 0
Number of 007 data elements defined: 118
Number of unique 007 data elements (based on their names): 55 (47%)
Total number of 007 data values in all 007 positions: 867
Number of 007 unique data values in all 007 positions: 434 (50%)
Number of 007 data values that are defined as "Unknown": 70
Number of 007 values that are "Other": 66
Number of 007 values that are "No attempt to code": 90
Total percentage of 007 values that are one of the three above: 26%
Number of 008 data elements defined for all formats: 82
Number of unique 008 data elements (based on their names): 58 (71%)
Number that are obsolete: 17 (21%)
Number of 008 data values in all positions: 846
Number that are unique: 485 (57%)
Number of 008 data values that are "Unknown" or "Other": 51 (6%)
Approximate number of defined data value lists included in the MARC21 standard: 201


To check these values, or try for others, I (kc) have two tab-delimited files that can be uploaded into a database or spreadsheet. They are:
The data elements are:

tag (3 digits, e.g. 006)
format to which it applies (3-5 chars, e.g. MUSIC)
position in the field (2 digits, e.g. 01)
vocabulary name (var char, e.g. Motion picture presentation format)
MARC code for the value (1 char, e.g. p)
textual name of value (var char, e.g. Standard sound aperture (reduced frame))

The data elements are:

MARC Tag (3 digits, e.g. 010)
Subfield (1 to 3 chars. If Subfield="n/a" then this is an indicator position. Position (next data element) is indicator position)
Position (2 digits, e.g. 02; if "n/a" then this is a subfield, not an indicator)
Data Element (var char, name of data element from MARC21 concise)

Monday, February 18, 2013

Use of apostrophe

One of my students - Raghu - has sent me this article on apostrophe.  I found it interesting too.

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/JplhLh0YZeoFX0cd6SbOMN/Aspects-of-the-apostrophe.html


Sunday, February 17, 2013

Dvorak Keyboard Design

Students of MLISc second semester of the University of Mysore 2013 batch did a small experiment to test the alphabet frequency in a given text.  Four students took one page each from a randomly selected text book and counted the alphabet frequency.  The results are shown below.  This experiment was done in connection with the alphabet arrangement in the home row of the Dvorak Keyboard design. The result showed that the alphabets on the home row and the top ranked alphabets in the experiment done by the students match to a very great extent; and thus testifying that the most frequently used alphabets are place on the home row of the Dvorak Keyboard.

Alphabet Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Total Percent
e 151 116 180 200 647 12.01
t 119 94 165 139 517 9.60
a 131 78 135 129 473 8.78
o 112 90 110 111 423 7.86
i 150 70 78 124 422 7.84
r 100 74 81 98 353 6.56
s 106 64 78 91 339 6.30
n 110 52 77 82 321 5.96
l 63 63 38 78 242 4.49
h 50 28 77 69 224 4.16
d 66 44 60 39 209 3.88
c 65 46 46 48 205 3.81
f 48 28 31 56 163 3.03
m 28 18 48 51 145 2.69
u 20 28 35 55 138 2.56
p 29 28 31 38 126 2.34
g 38 12 26 19 95 1.76
b 34 18 17 18 87 1.62
w 10 14 33 27 84 1.56
y 11 10 20 19 60 1.11
v 15 9 16 12 52 0.97
k 0 4 4 11 19 0.35
q 0 0 4 11 15 0.28
j 0 12 0 0 12 0.22
x 2 5 3 2 12 0.22
z 0 1 1 0 2 0.04
5385