Fun with Cataloging

JC on MARC: "Indicators! I hate these. They remind me of a key signature: sharp or flat. I digress. One-digit numbers. Sometimes used as yes/no with the definition varying by field. Not all fields use indicators."

JC on series title: "The 440 field was made obsolete in 2008 – I was looking for 490/830. Tricky, tricky!"

JC on cataloging practices pertaining to publication dates and order of preference:
"Publication date pertains to the date the work was published or made available to the public, e.g. JC Brown. The printing date is technically referred to as the manufacture date: the date the work was printed and assembled. I like to think of it as the book’s birthday. Corny, I know. Copyright date refers to the date that the work was registered with copyright office. In MARC, these items can be found in the 260 field. In cataloging practice, the publication date is preferred, but that is not always available. The next best thing is the copyright date and if that is not available…(have a cocktail)…use the printing date (aka manufacturing date). A date that is unknown is sometimes put in square brackets, e.g. [16--] for a work that is suspected of being produced in the 1600s. Early in the cataloging practice, the abbreviation 'nd' was used for 'no date'.”