NASIGuide: Serial Holdings

by Frieda Rosenberg
Head, Serials Cataloging
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Edited by Betty Landesman and Lillian DeBlois
published in 2003

This guide is designed to serve libraries automating their local serial holdings, particularly those implementing the MARC21 Format for Holdings Data (MFHD). It also aims to help anyone who needs to understand the format. The Guide focuses on the functions of MARC coding in general serials control and display of information. Users may look at a range of options and alternatives provided in the Format, rather than single solutions. The hope is to design a guide that is easy to use. It may be useful to consult, as a reference, a more abbreviated Handbook to the most common fields, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20070808083739/http://www.lib.unc.edu/cat/mfh/.

The Guide is divided into parts:

• Overview of automated holdings and the purposes of coding
• Overview of the structure of a MARC21 Format for Holdings data record
• Individual codes
• Examples

Examples will also be provided throughout the text. When the result is displayed, it will conform to the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.71, Holdings Statements for Bibliographic Items (1999). This standard is available for free download at http://www.techstreet.com/nisogate.html. The Concise MFHD is available on the MARC web site: http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/holdings/echdhome.html.