Best Practice for Recording Audience and/or Creator/Contributor Characteristics (MARC21 fields 385 and 386)

Overview

MARC21 field 385 allows for the recording of Audience Characteristics, that is, a category of persons for which a resource is intended.

MARC21 field 386 allows for the recording of Creator/Contributor Characteristics, that is, a category of persons to which the creator(s) of a work or compilations of works, or the contributor(s) to an expression or compilation of expressions, belongs.

Recommendation

The Metadata Standards Working Group recommends the recording of Audience Characteristics and/or Creator/Contributor Characteristics in original or enhanced cataloging of bibliographic records, especially in cases where patron access would be positively affected and with a particular eye towards EDIBA-related demographic groups. 

Ethics and Demographic Group Terms

Identifying, establishing and using terms for demographic groups and individuals must be done with accuracy and respect, taking into account the importance of self-identification.  Please consult the Library of Congress instructions on L400 in the Demographic Group Terms Manual when working with LCDGT.  L400 lists which sources we should consider for self-identification generally, and specifically for recording gender terms. Please also consult relevant best practices for particular groups, for example, Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources.  In addition, we recommend that you consult with your own unit’s local policy on the gender element if following the PCC’s Revised Report on Recording Personal Name Authority Records. 

Vocabularies

Demographic group terms that describe the characteristics of the intended audiences and/or creator/contributors of resources that will be useful for discovery purposes may be assigned from any controlled vocabulary, including, but not limited to, the  Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT) , Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Homosaurus, African Studies Thesaurus, First Nations House of Learning Subject Headings, Chicano Thesaurus for Indexing Chicano Materials, A Women’s thesaurus, National Museum of the American Indian Reference Lists, International Thesaurus of Refugee Terminology, or any other controlled vocabulary with a MARC code recognized by Harvard’s Library Technology Systems (see HOLLIS data elements LTS wiki page). A complete list of MARC source codes may be found at Subject Heading and Term Source Codes.  

In addition to the documentation on the websites listed above, LCDGT terms have extensive documentation, particularly in the Demographic Group Terms Manual.

Encoding

The Library of Congress maintains complete coding information for both MARC21 field 385 and MARC21 field 386.

How to use these fields

An authorized demographic group term is assigned in $a, with $2 subfield containing the source code placed at the end of each field.

385 – Audience Characteristics

Examples

385## $a People with visual disabilities $2 lcdgt

385## $a Cree $2 fnhl

386 – Creator Characteristics

Examples

386## $a Non-binary people $$2 homoit

386## $a Autistics $2 lcdgt

Multiple authorized terms may be assigned in repeated 385 or 386 fields. 

Please note: when using multiple authorized terms, the best practice is to use separate fields for each term, even if they are from the same vocabulary.

Examples

385## $a Children of divorced parents $2 lcdgt

385## $a Preteens $2 lcdgt

385## $a Middle school students $2 lcdgt

385## $a Junior high school students $2 lcdgt

Optional codes for LCDGT

Use of $m or $n subfields designating a demographic group category or code is optional.  If used, be sure to use the group terms or codes exactly as found in the Library of Congress Demographic Group Categories Term and Code List.

Examples

385## $m Age group $a Children $2 lcdgt

385## $n age $a Children $2 lcdgt

HOLLIS Index and Display

MARC21 fields 385 and 386 are indexed and display in HOLLIS.  See HOLLIS data elements LTS wiki page for details.