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Survey on support for field 856 in Libraries Australia
If you have any questions please contact us.
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.

