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   There are several items of interest to the cartographic community to
be discussed at ALA in meetings of the Machine-Readable Bibliographic
Information Committee. In my role as the Map and Geography Round Table
liaison to MARBI, I've summarized the papers here. The full text
of the papers and proposals can be found at http://www.loc.gov/marc/
 
The major proposal to be discussed is Proposal 96-8, which attempts to
bring CAN/MARC and US/MARC into close alignment. The proposal covers
both the bibliographic and authory formats. Given the complexity
of the proposal, it is broken down into subproposals. The subproposals
dealing specifically with cartographic fields are:
 
  96-8/007-01 (Globe): Adds two addidtional values for lunar globe and
    unknown;
  96-8/007-02 (All): Removes all coding for original vs. reproduction
    and makes the definition of the position obsolete;
  96-8/008-18-21 (Maps): Changes definition of relief code c from
    "gradient tints" to "gradient tints/bathymetric tints" and adds
    code m for "rock drawings";
  96-8/008-22-23 (Maps): Two options: Option 1 is to add codes for
    azimuthal--other specific projection, cylindrical--other specific
    projection, conic--other specific projection, Chamberlin trimetric,
    and Lambert conformal; Option 2 is to add all codes in Option 1
    and make obsolete the codes for azimuthal--specific type unknown,
    cylindrical--specific type unknown, and conic--specific type
    unknown;
  96-8/008-24-25 (Maps): Make obsolete the codes for Prime Meridian
    and maintain the current codes for Type of Cartographic Material;
  96-8/009 (Maps): Calls for additional codes in 007/04, 007/06, and
    008/25.
 
  Discussion Paper 95 addresses adding coding to the 007 field for
remote sensing.  This paper was posted on MAPS-L in a slightly
different form.
 
  Proposal 96-7 suggests minor changes for FTP file labels and comes
from a European group interested in sharing records via FTP.
 
  Discussion Paper 96 concerns the possible creation of a field
defined to contain the Uniform Resource Name for resources on the
Internet.  The URN identifies a unit of information independent of
its location and will be less changable than the URL.
 
  Discussion Paper 97 explores questions concerning the coding of
digital items in the Leader/06.  The focus of the paper is to code for
the content of the item, not the format.
 
  If anyone has any comments on any of the items to be addressed by
MARBI, please feel free to either share them with me
([log in to unmask]) or attend the MARBI sessions.  The agenda is
available at http://www.loc.gov/marc
 
Thank you
 
Susan Moore
Catalog Dept., Rod Library
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA  50613