Use of MARC21 control field data in University Library OPACs in Karnataka: A study

This study discusses about importance of MARC21 control field and its effective implementation in university libraries OPACs in Karnataka. The catalogue records available through library web OPACs of universities under study formed the data source for this study. The university library web OPACs which we examined in this study have used Koha ILMS. One thousand and eighty-eight (1088) records were randomly selected from the nine university library web OPACs for the study. The study examined the proper implementation of 008 control field of MARC21, which is an important data element in information retrieval. The study found that average length of a cataloguing record was 1572.78 characters. The study as also revealed that libraries web OPACs under study have given scant attention for control fields, 001 and 003 were the two tag numbers that have been used extensively. Overall the university libraries have neglected control fields data element in their OPACs. This adversely affect the data retrieval from the user point of view. The study strongly recommend that libraries should fill up the data required for control fields while cataloguing their records.