The new UNIMARC holdings format: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

In 2004 IFLA has published the final version of the new UNIMARC format: the UNIMARC holdings. The format follows four year later the MARC21 holdings format and sets new opportunities and challenges for the UNIMARC community users due particularly to its strong and evident relationships with the bibliographic format. In reality there is no practical implementation of the UNIMARC/H format. The present article is a theoretical analysis of the new holdings format and results from the need of the work group ITALE (the Association of the Italian ALEPH users) for the antiquarian book to deepen the topics related to holdings data treatment.
Chief aim of the UNIMARC/H format is to manage separately holdings data from bibliographic data, in order to obtain the following purposes: to permit the intersystems exchanges of holdings data at national and international level; to make easy for the users to locate and to gain information about the item.
The standard UNIMARC/H is based on the: ISO 10324: 1997 Information and documentation - Holdings statement- Summary level for the main concept; UNIMARC Manual- Bibliographic format, update 4, for the structure.
In relation to ISO 10324 record statement can adopt tree levels. Level 1 identifies the item and the holding institution. Level 2 adds to level 1 general guidance as to the extent of an institution's holdings and also as to the receipt or acquisition status, general retention policy, completeness designator and physical characteristics of an item. Level 3 includes a statement of summary extent of holdings. In conformity with UNIMARC/B, UNIMARC/H is structured in a record label and in the following functional blocks:

• 0XX - Identification block: contains numbers that identify the record or the holding.
• 1XX - Coded information block: contains fixed length data elements describing various aspects of the record or data.
• 2XX - Location and access block: contains information that identifies the institution, physical site or collection at which a bibliographic unit is located or from which it may be available.
• 3XX - Notes block: contains notes, that contribute to identification of the item described in the holdings record.
• 5XX - Holdings statement block: contains information for caption, pattern, enumeration and chronology of a specific bibliographic item for which a location is to be made.
• 7XX - Intellectual responsibility block: contains a form of responsibility heading related to the item described in the holdings record.
• 8XX - Source information block: contains the source of the record and cataloguer's notes about the data not intended for public display.
• 9XX - National Use Block: contains data local to the originator of the record. Field tags are not defined in the UNIMARC/H format for the intersystem exchange.

In conclusion the new format sets out additional challenges for libraries and new opportunities for data exchange, both at national and international level. Notwithstanding it is still a dilemma to define the boundary between bibliographic data and holdings data as well as the relationship between UNIMARC/H structure and FRBR model that is worthy to be further investigated.