Release Date: September 29, 2022
This release of changes to WorldCat Validation involves the following new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.
These enhancements and fixes are the result of announcements of new MARC elements and codes by the Library of Congress as well as feedback and requests from members of the OCLC community.
You may now use all new MARC Codes announced by the Library of Congress in the following LC Technical Notices:
The following source code has been added to the Entity Type Source Codes for usage in appropriate fields and elements.
The following source code has been added to the Genre/Form Code and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.
The following source code has been added to the MARC Authentication Action Code List for usage in appropriate fields and elements.
The following source code has been added to the National Bibliography Number Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.
The following source codes have been added to the Standard Identifier Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.
The following source codes have been added to the Subject Heading and Term Source Codes list for usage in appropriate fields and elements.
You may now begin to use the following changes to Bibliographic elements implemented as part of OCLC-MARC Bibliographic Update for September 2022, based on the MARC 21 Bibliographic format changes announced in MARC 21 Bibliographic Update No. 34 (July 2022):
You may now begin to use the following changes to Authority elements implemented as part of OCLC-MARC Authority Update for September 2022, based on the MARC 21 Authority format changes announced in MARC 21 Authority Update No. 34 (July 2022).
Note: These changes apply only to the OCLC-MARC Authority validation rule set that includes all valid elements of MARC 21 Authority Format and cannot be used in the LC/NACO Authority File.
Caution: Name Authority Cooperative (NACO) participants cannot use these authority format changes in the LC/NACO Authority File at this time. The Library of Congress and OCLC will announce the implementation of these elements for use in name and subject authority records in the LC/NACO Authority File at a future date.
You may now begin to use the following changes to Holding elements implemented as part of OCLC-MARC Holdings Update for September 2022, based on the MARC 21 Holdings format changes announced in MARC 21 Holdings Update No. 34 (July 2022):
OCLC continues work on moving toward the use of the standard numeric MARC 21 Encoding Levels in Leader/17 and away from the OCLC-defined alphabetic Encoding Levels. In early 2021, OCLC began to convert the nearly 26 million WorldCat Encoding Level K records to the standard MARC values blank, 7, or 3, as appropriate according to algorithmic determinations of record fullness. In August 2022, we announced that all of the approximately 25.6 million K-level records had been converted With the completion of this phase, OCLC has now made Encoding Level value K invalid in WorldCat.
Beginning in February 2022, OCLC began converting the roughly 40 million Encoding Level I records in the same manner and have now completed about 17 million. Beginning in mid-2022, OCLC began converting the approximately 350 million Encoding Level M records and have completed about 3 million. To preserve the historical metadata that identifies Encoding Level M records as having been batch loaded, OCLC has been adding field 936 with the designation BATCHLOAD to these formerly M-level records.
When entering original cataloging records into WorldCat, all OCLC participants are encouraged to create records using the appropriate MARC 21 Encoding Levels: value blank for full level, value 7 for minimal level, or value 3 for abbreviated level. Please follow the definitions, restrictions, and requirements outlined in BFAS Chapter 2.4, “Full, Minimal, and Abbreviated-Level Cataloging” and the page for Encoding Level. For further information on the rationale behind these changes, please see “Updates on OCLC Encoding Levels,” the June 2020 Virtual AskQC Office Hours presentation slides, WebEx recordings, and Q&A, all available on the Previous AskQC Office Hours page.
In Bibliographic field 382 (Medium of Performance), if subfield $e (Number of ensembles of the same type) is present, then either subfield $a (Medium of performance) or subfield $p (Alternative medium of performance) must be present.
Unicode characters are now valid in the following Local Holdings Record (LHR) subfields:
In all OCLC-MARC Authority rule sets, field 080 subfield $2 will now accept correctly formatted edition identifiers, and fields 082 and 083 subfield $2 will now accept correctly formatted edition information.
In Bibliographic field 046, the validation relationships among subfields $a (Type of date code), $b (Date 1, B.C.E. date),$d (Date 2, B.C.E. date), and $e (Date 2, C.E. date) have been corrected.
Validation relationships related to subfield $2 have been corrected in:
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