Hi Paige,
Thank you very much for responding to my question (and so quickly!). Your answer does give me a better sense of when to use the 522. I’m all for using more granular fields to convey note data. I am curious as to why it’s not indexed in
OCLC. It is, however, indexed at my institution (Ex Libris—Alma) so the lack of indexing in OCLC wouldn’t affect local access. Indexing it in OCLC would, of course, make it easier to retrieve examples of how it’s used. (Of course, catalogers
never catalog by example!)
By the way, a good example is #51829496 (Penn State
😊), which is in the form of a “covers” note.
Best regards,
Craig Thomas
Senior Operations Cataloger
Metadata Creation
Harvard Library Information and Technical Services
617-384-7158
625 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Hours : 10-7
Mon-Tue : remote
Wed-Thur : on-site
From: Andrew, Paige G. <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 2:46 PM
To: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]>; Thomas, Craig K. <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: 522 field
Craig,
To be hopefully helpful to patrons, I use the 522 field most often for any kind of map that encompasses a non-jurisdictional area that is not well-explained by a
title (or one of two or more titles) and/or subject heading(s). This can be an area that overlaps multiple states or countries or counties, the area encompassing a river watershed or even the path of a river (or similar body of water) that flows across two
or more jurisdictions, or even a multi-county area within a state (or similar situation in another country).
Another way I use this field is to convey how many sheets completes the geographic coverage intended by a map set or series when using just "maps" in the 300$a field.
For instance, you will see the following note sometimes:
522 Geographic coverage complete in 68 sheets.
Of course, an alternate means of conveying this kind of information is to use a 500 note. That said, why use a "general" note when there's one established that focuses
on geographic area situations.
Paige Andrew
Cartographic Resources Cataloging Librarian
Penn State University
From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Craig Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 12:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 522 field
Hi all,
This is my first query to the group.
Could anyone give me some guidelines on the use of the 522 field? The MAGIRT Guidelines and MARC 21 provide information concerning its use, that is, to provide additional information about the geographic coverage of the map (usually survey maps), "particularly
in cases where the coverage is not clearly indicated by the title, is not easily defined by a single name, covers small portions of multiple jurisdictions, etc." (MAGIRT). However, the note is not indexed in Connexion. That being the case, when (or why) would
one tend to use this field as opposed to the general 500 nature and scope of item note, which is indexed?
Thank you for your collective wisdom!
Best regards,
Craig
Craig Thomas
Senior Operations Cataloger
Metadata Creation
Harvard Library Information and Technical Services
Email: [log in to unmask]
617-384-7158
625 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Hours : 10-7
Mon-Tue : remote
Wed-Thur : on-site