RE: Count MARC Tags & Indicators

["Jackson, Richard" <rjackson at huntington dot org>]

Aya,

I haven't done a project quite like this, but I do know of a way to
count occurrences of MARC tags (but not indicators).  First, make a big
review file of some of your bib records.  I'll assume you can't fit all
of them into one review file, so you have to do this in batches.  Or
perhaps a large sample of your database will suffice.

Go to Data Exchange and select the process "Output MARC records to
another system ...."  You won't actually output the records -- you'll
just create the output file.  Click Create, select your Review file,
name the output file, and click Start.  (Creating the file can take a
little while; you might want to start small, say, 10,000 records.)
After the file is created, click Close.  Then select the file you just
created, click View, then click Count.

This creates a report showing how many occurrences there are of each
MARC tag in the file, which you can print out.  (This can be an
interesting report, such as when the number of 245 tags does not equal
the number of records.)  This might help you determine if there are tags
that are not being indexed but should be.

Richard V. Jackson
Head of Copy Cataloging / Database Manager
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108
rjackson at huntington dot org