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Thank you all for chiming in. I will adopt the solution of printing zeros by default, but I will retain the record length from an original MARC21 file, assuming the record was actually read from a MARC21 record and no changes have occurred in memory since. Thanks again! Mark V Sullivan Digital Development and Web Coordinator Technology and Support Services University of Florida Libraries 352-273-2907 (office) 352-682-9692 (mobile) [log in to unmask] ________________________________________ From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Reese, Terry [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 10:14 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Leader in MarcXML Files ( Record Length ) If im writing marcxml from scratch, I agree. If I'm converting it from marc, i print out the length value from the record more for historical purposes. Tr ************************************* Terry Reese, Associate Professor Gray Family Chair for Innovative Library Services 121 Valley Library Corvallis, OR 97331 541.737.6384 ************************************ ________________________________ From: Devon Sent: 6/29/2012 7:09 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Leader in MarcXML Files ( Record Length ) When writing MARC XML, you should use zeros. The following document [1] says you can use blanks, but the schema [2] uses a pattern that indicates digits should be used. When reading MARC XML, you should just ignore whatever is in those positions. [1] http://www.loc.gov/standards/marcxml/marcxml-design.html [2] http://www.loc.gov/standards/marcxml/schema/MARC21slim.xsd /dev On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Sullivan, Mark V <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > All, > > > > I received a question regarding a software library I have created and released as open source. The record length in the leader ( positions 0-4 ) was not being calculated correctly when writing as MarcXML. However, this raises a more philosophical and larger question. What is the point of the first five digits of the leader, outside of a ISO2709 / MARC21 encoded record? Should I calculate the record length AS IF it would be encoded in ISO2709? This would be computationally non-trivial and would likely double the time necessary for my software to write a MarcXML file. Should I just make the first five digits of the leader '00000', since it means nothing in the context of a MarcXML file? > > > > Has anyone else pondered this question or have any input on how current systems work? > > > > Keep in mind I could be writing a MarcXML record for a record created or modified in memory, so just using a pre-existing record length is not an option. > > > > Many thanks for your consideration. > > > Mark V Sullivan > Digital Development and Web Coordinator > Technology and Support Services > University of Florida Libraries > 352-273-2907 (office) > 352-682-9692 (mobile) > [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> -- Sent from my GMail account.