Harvey Hahn wrote:
>
> Unfortunately, the most limiting aspect of the 24-character leader is
> that fact that only 5 digits (the first 5 characters of the leader) were
> specified as the maximum length of a MARC record.  Manipulating the
> various possible values of specific positions in the leader could lead
> to record/field/subfield sizes far larger than this, but the 5-digit
> (99,999 maximum) limitation is really *quite* limiting these days.

The truly evil solution to the record length issue: If byte 0 is in the
range '0'-'9', proceed as usual. If byte 0 is 'A'-'F', treat bytes 0-4 as a
hexadecimal number, subtract 0x87960, and convert to decimal. That way,
A0000 becomes 100000, and FFFFF becomes 493215. You've just quadrupled your
maximum record length while retaining some semblance of backward
compatibility.

(NOTE: Like most of my evil format-hijacking suggestions involving a meat
grinder and a shoehorn, I don't actually recommend putting this into
practice. The pain and anguish would far outweigh the temporary benefit.)

Michael

-- 
Michael B. Klein
Digital Initiatives Technology Librarian
Boston Public Library
(617) 859-2391
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