On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 07:50:39PM -0600, Ed Summers wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 08:11:39PM -0500, Morbus Iff wrote:
> > MARC::Field->new('100','1','', a=>'Logan, Robert K.', d=>'1939-'),
> > MARC::Field->new('100','1','#', a=>'Logan, Robert K.', d=>'1939-'),
>
> I don't like this. The # is used simply as a typographical convention in LC's
> online docs. It has nothing to do with the actual content found in MARC
> records.
I think Ed is right. As I recall, OCLC used to use an underscore for
blank indicator positions, but now they seem to be using the doodad
represented in this image:
http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/images/specchar/blank.gif
The OCLC conventions are probably much more widely known than the LC
ones simply because most libraries doing copy cataloging use OCLC as
their utility.
The point about the hash sign as a typographic convention is also worth
noting. That raises the (for me largely idle) question of whether a
blank space ought to be acceptable as the value for an indicator
position.
Chuck
