Cataloging News 2007
meSH® 2007 — Implications for LocatorPlus™ and the NLM Catalog
The National Library of Medicine® (NLM®) adopted the 2007 MeSH vocabulary for cataloging and for records being created by collaborating data producers beginning on November 20, 2006.
Accordingly, MeSH subject headings in LocatorPlus were changed to reflect the 2007 MeSH vocabulary and appear in that form as of November 20, 2006.
When end-of-year activities are complete in mid-December, the NLM Catalog's MeSH database and translation tables will be updated to reflect 2007 MeSH. Bibliographic records with updated MeSH should appear in the NLM Catalog in mid-December 2006. Until then, note that there will be a hiatus in the addition of new and edited bibliographic records to the NLM Catalog.
MeSH Changes in NLM Bibliographic Records
In general, the Cataloging Section implemented the vocabulary changes in NLM bibliographic records for books, serials, and other materials, as they were applied for citations in MEDLINE®. For highlights about 2007 MeSH, see the articles What's New for 2007 MeSH® and MEDLINE® Data Changes — 2007.
Additionally, the following nine (9) terms previously treated as MeSH headings, coded, and viewable in the MARC View tab in the MARC 21 field 650 are now identified as publication types and appear in the MARC 21 field 655. For more information, see Tybaert S. MeSH® Category V Terms: Change in Treatment from MeSH Heading to Publication Type During Year-End-Processing for Both MEDLINE® and NLM Catalog. NLM Tech Bull. 2006 Sep-Oct;(352):e2.
- Support of Research1
- In Vitro
- Comparative Study
- English Abstract
In LocatorPlus, this change affects searching of these terms when using the "Advanced Menu Search" tab. In this case, enter the term in the "Search" box and select "Publication Type" from the "Search As" dropdown box as in Figure 1.
Additional Database Changes in LocatorPlus
The following changes were made to data structure in order to conform to the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data published by the Library of Congress.
- For continuing resources, 008 byte 20 has been changed to the value "blank" and the 022 $2 subfield representing the source of the ISSN has been implemented.
- Where possible, certain retrospective bibliographic records for integrating resources were changed to reflect current coding conventions (e.g., Leader byte 6 coded "i", the appropriate 008 fixed field for continuing resources, and, as needed, the appropriate 006 for non-textual integrating resources). Candidate records included identifiable updating print loose-leafs and bibliographic records created since December 2002 according to the interim practice in which Web sites, loose-leafs, and databases were cataloged as monographs. With this change, prospectively NLM records will conform to current MARC 21 guidelines.
Additionally, due to its role as a provider of bibliographic records, NLM has converted all existing valid 10-digit ISBN data to conform to the fourth edition of ISO 2108:2105 International Standard Book Number (ISBN)2 published in May 2005. Retrospective records containing a valid ISBN-10 now also contain a valid ISBN-13. All valid ISBNs appear in LocatorPlus (see Figure 2) and the NLM Catalog (see Figure 3) with the label "ISBN."
In the MARC View tab of LocatorPlus, all ISBN data displays in one or more occurrences of MARC 21 field 020 (see Figure 4).
1This term has not been used on any bibliographic records in LocatorPlus.
2For more information, see the Book Industry Study Group's Web site: http://www.bisg.org/ or NISO's ISBN FAQ for librarians: [This link was removed because it was no longer valid].
Jacobs A. Cataloging News 2007. NLM Tech Bull. 2006 Nov-Dec; (353):e4.
