Survey on support for field 856 in Libraries Australia

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Introduction

MARC field 856 (Electronic Location and Access) is the MARC 21 field for recording the information needed to locate and access an electronic resource. For electronic resources field 856 is effectively the equivalent of field 850. Field 856 is included in both the MARC 21 bibliographic and holding record specifications. Currently the Amicus software supports field 856 only as part of the bibliographic record. It does not support its use as an institution specific field in the same way as field 850.

A number of respondents to the survey conducted by the former EAG on Access to Electronic Resources recognised that there is tension between the use of the 856 field as shared data for general use and the use of the field to record institution specific location and access information that would be more appropriately confined to local systems or restricted viewing. Respondents also noted that 856 data that describes access to a resource that is not freely available should not be included in the shareable bibliographic record.

While Libraries Australia will continue to support field 856 as a shared data field for generally available electronic resources, the large number of 856 fields that are being created in some ANBD records for institution specific access were also seen to be a problem.

The Libraries Australia Expert Advisory Group on the Cataloguing of Electronic Resources is currently considering how support for electronic locations could be improved in Libraries Australia. The EAG invites your comments on the importance of following options to your library. The EAG would also welcome other suggestions or comments regarding the support of electronic location information in the ANBD and in Libraries Australia services and products.

Your participation in this survey will help us develop Libraries Australia services to best meet the needs of Australian libraries.


Survey

1. Should Libraries Australia support the inclusion or addition of institution specific 856 fields in the ANBD and their output in Libraries Australia products, including:

1.1 batch uploading of institution specific 856 fields to the ANBD

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable

1.2 the ability to add, edit or delete institution specific 856 data using the Libraries Australia Client or Libraries Australia Search.

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable

OR

2. Should Libraries Australia enable institution specific 856 fields to be added to Libraries Australia MARC record products for electronic collections but not include this data in ANBD records?

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable
If you supported the inclusion of institution specific 856 fields in the ANBD:

3. Should all users be able to view all 856 data when searching on Libraries Australia, including data added by other libraries?

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable

4. Should libraries be able to view their own 856 data online in Libraries Australia?

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable

5. Should libraries be able to choose to receive only their institution specific 856 field in MARC record files supplied by Libraries Australia?

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable

(Note: This would be in addition to the standard MARC record output that includes all 856 fields in the ANBD record.)

6. How important would it be to use standard coding for 856 content?

Very Important
5

4

3

2

1
Undesirable

(For example would the use of non-standard coding (i.e. a MARC tag other than 856) for support of this data within the ANBD be acceptable? The coding would be converted to 856 in MARC record files supplied by Libraries Australia but not in records received from the Libraries Australia Z39.50 server.)

Other comments and suggestions

Contact Details

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Thank you for participating in this survey.