arsclist Raw Marc Record, Orecords.mrc

[Premise Checker <checker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Frank Forman here:

Ralph,
many thanks for sending this, and here's feeding it back for those who
can't open it. Each character is a byte, or eight 0s and 1s. Good old
DOS-Shell lets me look at each one, represented as two hexademical
numbers. A hexadecimal number ranges from 0 to 9 and then A to F, or
sixteen characters, instead of ten decimal characters. The very first
character in the file is 30 in hexadecimal (48 in decimal) and is the
ASCII character for 0. You will see this zero below. The second is hd 31
or 1 in ASCII, and so on. The n you see is hd 6E (decimal 110). The spaces
between m and 2 are hd 20.

On the 7th line (which begins 000.0), you may or may not see a question
mark after N/A<space>><space>. It is really hd 1E (decimal 30) and is a
non-typewriter key that means record separator. (Whether it shows up as a
question mark depends on the software you are using that converts a Byte
to a character on your screen.) There are lots of these record separators
in the MARC record.

What I can't seem to be able to do is show that the ? also represents
hexademical 1F, which is for unit separator, though I can see it clearly
in DOS-Shell. So let me just say what the last several characters are:

874-1951<period><unit separator>4cnd<record separator>2
<space><unit separator>aBoston<space>Sympho
ny<space>Orchestra<period><unitseparator>4p
rf<record separator><group separator>

The group separator is hd 1D and, I suspect, allows the next recording to
follow immediately.

I do not understand all the characters that precede the information and
what they accomplish, but it seems clear that unit, record, and group
separators delimit fields, which are set up in advance. I don't know what
happens when a field is blank. Someone who has actually made a MARC record
can clue us in.

I don't know whether MARC is a format everyone on the Planet must use or
whether it is a program that you can fit in fields to suit yourself (which
raises compatibility programs). So I don't know what happens when you want
to add matrices, recording dates, and so on, which of course discographers
want to do.

Anyhow, here's what your MARC record looks like under the hood.

01140njm 22003614a
45000010012000000030006000120050017000180070015001290080041000350100017000
76035002300093040001300116028001900144028001700163028001700180028001700197
02800170021402800170023104200080024805000200025610000340027624501020031024
60027004122600037004393000046004764400031005225110062005535000023006155000
04100638650002100679700004200700710003600742>ocm49737131>OCoLC>20021214000
000.0>020405s1935 njuspn i N/A > ?a 02567649 > ?a(OCoLC)ocm49737131>
?aDLC?cDLC>sd|dmsennmslub>02?aAM
257?bVictor>00?a8624?bVictor>00?a8625?bVictor>00?a8626?bVictor>00?a8627?bV
ictor>00?a8628?bVictor> ?apcc>00?aRDA 09833_09837>1 ?aStrauss,
Richard,?d1864_1949.>10?aAlso sprach Zarathustra?h[sound recording]
=?bThus spake Zarathustra : op. 30 /?cRichard Strauss.>31?aThus spake
Zarathustra> ?aCamden, N.J. :?bVictor,?c[1935?]> ?a5 sound discs
:?banalog, 78 rpm ;?c12 in.> 0?aMusical masterpiece series>0 ?aBoston
Symphony Orchestra; Serge Koussevitzky, conductor.> ?a"Red seal record.">
?aProgram notes inserted in container.> 0?aSymphonic poems.>1
?aKoussevitzky, Serge,?d1874_1951.?4cnd>2 ?aBoston Symphony
Orchestra.?4prf>:



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