New RDA field

It’s been transparent to many users but bibliographic records cataloged under the new RDA rules have been making their way into the NHU-PAC since 2010. At first it was just a trickle; more recently we’re seeing a dozen or more RDA records added to the database each week. That’s still a small percentage of the 1200 or so records added to the NHU-PAC in a typical week. Now we’re starting to see some RDA records with publication information in a new field which our system isn’t configured to display. Here’s an example:

What’s missing from the display is “Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, 2012,” which should appear above the ISBNs. In this and a handful (so far) of other RDA records, the publication information is entered in field 264 rather than field 260.  The Library of Congress MARC Standards site tells us “Information in field 264 is similar to information in field 260 (Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint)). Field 264 is useful for cases where the content standard or institutional policies make a distinction between functions.”

In addition to the display issue is the consideration that field 264 is not currently indexed for “Publication info includes” keyword searches.  As we expect the future to bring more records with publication information in this new field, NHAIS Services expects to modify the NHU-PAC for correct display and searchability of this field by the end of the year.