Introduction

MARC 21 field 752 (Added Entry-Hierarchical Place Name) is a repeatable field containing a hierarchical form of geographic name to give access to place names (e.g., for newspapers, the name of the community served; for rare books, the place of publication or printing), according to the MARC 21 format. It collocates place names that have changed historically or appear in different forms. Although originally set up to provide a hierarchical form of geographic access to newspapers, the field has been generalized to provide access to any place of publication and production.

The entry is a structured heading with subfields:

|a Country or larger entity

|b First-order political jurisdiction (State, province, territory)

|c Intermediate political jurisdiction (County, region, islands area)

|d City

|e Relator term

|f City subsection

|g Other nonjurisdictional geographic region and feature

|h Extraterrestrial area

NB: Harvard currently recommends use of subfields a-h, with the possibility of additional subfields to be used in the future.  This best practices document will concern itself with these subfields.

Punctuation

Field 752 ends with a mark of punctuation unless the last word in the field is an abbreviation, initial/letter, or other data that ends with a mark of punctuation. Subfield |e is preceded by a comma. No other punctuation is recorded between subfields.

Reference

For further information on the 752, see the MARC 21 documentation: https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd752.html.

For further information on establishing geographic names, see the NACO website at: http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/naco/geogfaq.html

Related fields

Although 662 (Subject Added Entry-Hierarchical Place Name) would follow the same format as 752, Harvard does not recommend use of this field.

Guidelines

1. Authoritative Form

There is no authority file for field 752.  Each subfield should be based on the established name for the place, omitting any qualifiers.  If the name has not been established in the LC/NACO authority file, consult the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) or the GEOnet Names Server through Cataloger’s Desktop. If these provide no answers, please consult standard reference sources.

NB: Although individual subfields should be drawn from controlled vocabularies, Harvard does not recommend the use of subfield |2 to reference a controlled vocabulary for the field as a whole.

2. Place Names

2.1. Places in the United States, Australia, Malaysia, and Canada

For places in the United States, Australia, Malaysia, and Canada, always include the name of the state or province in subfield |b. The heading is usually set up without the county, region, etc., in subfield |c. This subfield may be populated to disambiguate a more specific entity within a larger jurisdiction (for example, if two separate towns with the same name exist in different counties of the same state). Please note that the US Newspaper Program included the name of the county, region, etc. in subfield |c. The same local place, therefore, may occur in the file both with and without this higher administrative unit.

NB: If a name can be found in more than one subdivision, prefer use of subfields for disambiguation (i.e. |b New York |d New York, not |b New York (State) |d New York)

Examples:

151 |a Salem (Ohio)

752 |a United States |b Ohio |d Salem.

151 |a New York (N.Y.)

752 |a United States |b New York |d New York.

151 |a Toronto (Ont.)

752 |a Canada |b Ontario |d Toronto.

151 |a Melbourne (Vic.)

752 |a Australia |b Victoria |d Melbourne.

151 |a Lumut (Perak, Malaysia)

752 |a Malaysia |b Perak |d Lumut.

2.2. Places in the British Isles

Use England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales in subfield |a. Use Great Britain in subfield |a only when the local place name is unavailable and the country is unknown. (N.B.: This practice differs from that in some other libraries, notably the Folger Library).

Examples:

151 |a Lancaster (England)

752 |a England |d Lancaster.

151 |a Bangor (Wales)

752 |a Wales |d Bangor.

2.3. Overseas Territories

Overseas territories and islands should have the name of the territory in 752 |a.

Examples:

151 |a Pago Pago (American Samoa)

752 |a American Samoa |d Pago Pago.

151 |a Goose Green (Falkland Islands)

752 |a Falkland Islands |d Goose Green.

2.4. Places Elsewhere

Use subfield |a Country and subfield |d Local place.  Include an intermediate level if necessary to distinguish places in the same country.

Examples:

151 |a Oslo (Norway)

752 |a Norway |d Oslo.

151 |a Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany)

752 |a Germany |b Rhineland-Palatinate |d Mainz.

(There is another Mainz in Bavaria)

2.5. Historical Place Names

When working with materials related to an earlier political subdivision or country, prefer the present-day form of the place.

Examples:

151 |a Strassburg (Germany)

151 |a Strasbourg (France)

752 |a France |d Strasbourg.

(The city was part of Germany from 1871 to 1918.)

151 |a Belgrade (Serbia)

752 |a Serbia |d Belgrade

NOT 752 |a Serbia and Montenegro |b Serbia |d Belgrade.

(Serbia was part of the union of Serbia and Montenegro between 2003 and 2006.)

3. Use of additional subfields

Additional subfields may be used as necessary or desired for additional access.

|e Relator term

Harvard prefers |e relator terms over |4 relator codes for discoverability. Use of this subfield is optional. Vocabulary should be taken from RDA relationship designators if available; if not, RDA glossary terms should be used.  Precede subfield with comma.

Examples:

752 |a England |d London, |e place of publication.

752 |a Scotland |d Edinburgh, |e place of manufacture.

|f City subsection

Example:

151 |a Little Tokyo (Los Angeles, Calif.)

752 |a United States |b California |d Los Angeles |f Little Tokyo.

|g - Other nonjurisdictional geographic region and feature

Example:

752 |a Africa |g Nile River |g Sixth Cataract.

|h Extraterrestrial areas

Example:

151 |a Dao Vallis (Mars)

752 |h Mars |h Dao Vallis.

Policy as of February 12, 2018, Metadata Standards Working Group.

Previous standards outlined here: Hierarchical Place Name (Bibliographic Standards 2006)