The Bibliographic Record: an analysis of the size of its constituent parts

This investigation into the structure of MARC records begins by summarising the findings of Williams and Shefner who analysed the 1974/75 Library of Congress MARC II database. Various changes in the average size of the records and the occurrence of fields was noted when compared with a previous study by Swanson in 1969/70. However, the Bradford investigation set out to establish the average size and occurrence of the various elements in each record on the UK MARC tape for 1975. After describing the methodology, the paper presents the results under eight headings. There are three tables giving details of the occurrence and rank of subfield codes. Two graphs show the frequency distribution of all unique subfields. The paper ends by stating that the study was concerned more with the factual results than with any conclusions. However, the facts in the analysis should enable the cost of COM catalogue production and the inclusion or omission of an element from the records to be calculated. 3 refs.