How To Use the "Explanatory Text" Subfields of the 856 Field Field?

from OCLC-CAT@OCLC.ORG11.27.07 Re: [OCLC-CAT] How To Use the "Explanatory Text" Subfields of the 856

Subfield $y (Link Text) contains the natural language text that can display as a hot link, underneath which is the URL found in subfield $u. 

For example, the OCLC Web site contains the following sentence: "Log on to OCLC Usage Statistics using your Connexion authorization number and password." The hot linked text "OCLC Usage Statistics" would be the natural language designation that goes in subfield $y, but when one clicks on that hot linked text, it is the URL underneath,http://www.stats.oclc.org/cusp/nav, that is the actual link that goes in subfield $u.

Subfield $z (Public Note) contains any sort of explanatory note, in a form suitable for public display in a bibliographic record, that relates to the

URL found in subfield $u. For instance, LCRI 9.7B and OCLC's "Cataloging Electronic Resources: OCLC-MARC Coding Guidelines" suggest such a note for subfield $z in cases where the electronic address in subfield $u is no longer accessible: "$u [Dead URI] $z This electronic address not

available when searched on [Date]."

Subfield $3 (Materials Specified) contains the designation for a specific part of a usually larger Web site or a reference to a related resource

that one may want to highlight. In the record for a particular Web site, you may want to give special reference to its bibliography or Webliography section, for instance. In that case, the designation of that specific section would go in subfield $3, followed by the URL for that specific section in subfield $u: "$3 Webliography $u [URL for the site's Webliography]".

Jay Weitz

Senior Consulting Database Specialist

OCLC Online Computer Library Center

MC 139

6565 Kilgour Place

Dublin, Ohio, USA 43017-3395

Phone: 614-764-6156

Fax: 614-718-7195

E-mail: jay_weitz@oclc.org