kyle, I can tell you why the systems I worked on did not fully exploit
the fixed field values you mention below: they are often not filled in,
ironically, because most systems do not exploit them. So if you use them
for any kind of search or limitation, your results are wrong wherever
the value is missing.

The only solution that I see is to have ONLY fixed fields for certain
values, and have these drive both search and display. So you key the
codes for illustrations in the 008, and the value "illustrations" "maps"
etc. appears in the display of the appropriate variable field. As long
as coding and variable fields are redundant, and display is only taken
from the variable fields, the coded areas will be unreliable.

kc

On 5/4/17 6:28 AM, Kyle Banerjee wrote:
> I never could believe there was ever any mandated terminating punctuation
> for any field or subfield since even computers from days of yore could
> handle this.
> 
> I am leery of relying on fixed fields as they often are not encoded
> correctly -- I'd guess electronic records encoded as paper cause headaches
> for more than a few people here.
> 
> There is also the issue of updating systems to behave correctly in response
> to a field definition. For decades, the MARC format and cataloging practice
> have supported the ability to use fixed fields alone to limit searches to
> Festschrifts containing facscimilies and comics supported by an index and
> bibliography on tangible but unspecified electronic media -- but to my
> knowledge no system exploits this power :)
> 
> kyle
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 10:19 AM, Roy Tennant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Presumably you could check the appropriate leader element:
>>
>> "In 2010, MARBI (Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information Committee)
>> approved MARC proposal no. 2010-07 submitted by the Deutsche
>> Nationalbibliothek to add a code to Leader/18 (Descriptive Cataloging Form)
>> to indicate the omission of ISBD punctuation in MARC 21 records."
>>
>> Roy (who can't believe that we're finally doing this)

-- 
Karen Coyle
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m: +1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet/+1-510-984-3600