Handling of Subfield "0" URIs

Scope: This document outlines current cataloging procedures for unique resource identifiers (URIs) in the authorized headings of bibliographic records.

Contact: Rich Murray

Unit: Resource Description

Date last reviewed: 11/1/2023

Date of next review: 11/1/2024

Bib records in Aleph now contain $0 URIs pointing to the Library of Congress authority file and other databases. These are being added by our new authority vendor MARCIVE and will help power our transition to a linked data information ecosystem. These $0s, which look like regular web addresses, may appear in a variety of fields including 1xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, 33x, etc.

You do not need to do anything new with these—you will not be expected to add them manually or manage them except for one exception—see “Deleting $0 When Manually Changing A Heading” below. Having these links in Aleph will make new searching and discovery possible for our users.

Here are some examples of where in a MARC field you might see a $0:

655  7  $$a Humorous fiction. $$2 lcgft $$0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026377

651  0  $$a Montenegro $$x History $$0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85087051 $$v Fiction. $$0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99001562

100 1  $$a Tuğluca, Murat, $$d 1978- $$0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2017047862 $$e author.

Of course, in Aleph’s stacked horizontal display, it will look more like this:

600 10  a  Descartes, René,
              d  1596-1650.
              0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79061201

If you ctrl-click on one of these links, you can see the records they are pointing to as part of the Library of Congress’ linked data service.

OVERLAYING RECORDS WITH $0:

Some brief records, vendor records, etc, have been modified with $0 subfields in the MARCIVE processing. When you encounter these records in the copy-cataloging workflow, please go ahead and overlay the record with the best OCLC copy as before and don’t worry about the $0. You do not need to try to preserve the $0. Go ahead and overlay the record and complete the cataloging, or triage it as usual, and the $0 will be (re)generated in the weekly MARCIVE processing.

DELETING $0 WHEN MANUALLY CHANGING A HEADING:

If you are manually changing a heading in an Aleph record to which a $0 is attached, please delete the $0, so a new, correct one will be generated during the next MARCIVE update.

Example: the existing Aleph record has the 100:

García, José Enrique.  $0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n91073816

You discover that the heading should actually be:

Garcia, José, $d 1966-

If you correct the heading manually, please delete the existing $0. Otherwise it will continue pointing to the authority record for the wrong José García. Of course, if you are overlaying the record because there are other things wrong with it, it will wipe out the $0 for you and you won’t have to worry about it.

IN GENERAL: If in doubt, it is better to delete a $0 and let it regenerate automatically than to leave in a $0 that might be incorrect.

If you have any questions about $0, or you have a specific case where you aren’t sure what to do with a $0, please ask me (r.murray@duke.edu).