336 - Content Type

This is another tag that came into the MARC record as part of RDA. 

Content Type is defined in BF&S as:

"The form of communication through which a work is expressed. Used in conjunction with Type, which indicates the general type of content of the resource. Field 336 information enables expression of more specific content types and content types from various lists. Multiple content types should be recorded in separate occurrences of field 336."

We haven't talked about the Fixed Field yet (which is where "Type" comes from) so let's pause a minute to explain what that is. Type is a single-alphabetic-character code found in the 6th position of the fixed field of a MARC record and it indicates the kind, or type, of material the bibliographic record describes. For example, a type value of e indicates a "Cartographic material" which is defined as "including published print cartographic material, original microform publications of cartographic material, microform reproductions of published cartographic material, and published cartographic electronic resources. Examples include aeronautical charts, atlases, celestial charts, computer-generated maps, globes, maps, navigational charts, remote-sensing images, etc. ... Use code e for online cartographic material, including digitized cartographic manuscripts and published cartographic material."

The subfield a of the 336 tag can contain any of the terms defined in the list of RDA content types which includes 24 different terms that reflect "the fundamental form of communication in which the content is expressed and the human sense through which it is intended to be perceived." 

Taking cartographic material as our example (and it is one where this coding is particularly useful), if I want to figure out how to drive to Portland ME from Concord NH, a globe (which is a "cartographic tactile three-dimensional form") won't be very helpful. I probably want a paper map ("cartographic image") or an online map ("cartographic dataset"). The information in the 336 tag differentiates these types of cartographic materials (all type e) from each other.

Subfield 2 contains the "Source of term" code, which will be rdacontent. There are special rules here for materials cataloged in languages other than that of the item itself, but we aren't going to worry about that for now.