Mieke, On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 08:41:56AM -0400, Mieke Stroo wrote: > The positions 0-4 and 12-16 in the leader are unclear to us. According > to the MARC 21 standard this information should be computer generated. > Is it alright to use a set number (00620) for the positions 0-4 and > leave the positions 12-16 open?
A MARC record consists of three parts: leader, directory, and field contents. Leader/0-4 encode the length (in bytes) of the whole record, and leader/12-16 encodes the offset (in bytes) from the beginning of the record to the beginning of the field contents -- in other words, the length of the leader plus the length of the directory. So they have to be exactly right, which is why they're computer generated. I don't know enough about EG to know if it will tolerate incorrect values, but I doubt it. Paul. -- Paul Hoffman <p...@flo.org> Systems Librarian Fenway Libraries Online c/o Wentworth Institute of Technology 550 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 (617) 445-2914 (617) 442-2384 (FLO main number)