94 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 2/ 2 June, 1969 

APPENDIX II 

A PROPOSED UTILIZATION OF THE SUBRECORD DIRECTORY 
AND SUBRECORD RELATIONSHIP FIELDS IN THE PROPOSED 
AMERICAN STANDARD FOR A FORMAT FOR BIBLIOGRAPHIC 
INFORMATION INTERCHANGE ON MAGNETIC TAPE 

The following Appendix is not part of the proposed Standard but is 
included to illustrate a method for handling subrecords within a biblio-
graphic record. 

1. Subrecord Directory 
A subrecord directory will be used when a bibliographic record con-
sists of more than one subrecord. The subrecord directory, when 
present, will contain entries comprising a directory of the directory 
entries. 

0 

1.1 Entries in Subrecord Directory 

TAG 
ID 

The format of each entry in the subrecord directory is as 
shown: 

1 

TAG LENGTH STARTING 
CHARACTER 

TYPE-OF- BIBLIOGRAPHIC POSITION 
RECORD LEVEL 

2 3 6 7 11 

1.1.1 Tag 
The tag is associated with a complete subrecord. 

1.1.1.1 Tag ID 
The tag ID is a data element consisting of 
one basic character used to differentiate tags 
for multiple subrecords describing bibliogra-
phic units which have the same type-of-record 
and bibliographic level codes (See 3.2.4 and 
3.2.5). 

1.1.1.2 Type-of-Record and Bibliographic Level 
When the subrecord does not describe a pri-
mary bibliographic unit, the type-of-record 
and bibliographic level are assigned as though 
it did. 



Appendix II 95 

1.1.2 Length of Subrecord Directory 
The length of that portion of the directory associated 
with the subrecord. (This value is always a multiple 
of twelve and when divided by twelve, equals the num-
ber of entries associated with the subrecord.) 

1.1.3 Starting Character Position 
The starting character position is that of the first entry 
in the directory which pertains to the subrecord. It is 
·a five-digit decimal number relative to the first char-
acter of the bibliographic record. 

2. Subrecord Relationship Field 
A subrecord relationship field will be present if, and only if, a sub-
record directory is present. The subrecord relationship field, when 
present, shall contain fixed fields which are used to indicate the rela-
tionships of subrecords to each other. 

2.1 Relationship Fields 
The format of each relationship field is as shown : 

I TAG I RELATIONSHIP INDICATOR I TAG I TAG I 
0 2 3 5 6 8 9 11 

If a subrecord bears the same relationship to two subrecords, 
they may both be shown, otherwise the second tag field is 
padded with the padding character. There is no limit to the 
number of relationship fields or to the number of relationships 
which may involve a specific subfield. The relationship fields 
may be used to develop, and define tags for, hierarchies of 
subfields. One bibliographic record may contain no more than 
64 subrecords with the same type-of-record and bibliographic 
level. 

2.1.1 Tag 
The tags in the subrecord relationship field have the 
same format as those in the subrecord directory. 

2.1.2 Relationship Indicator 
A relationship indicator is a data element consisting of 
three ( 3) basic characters used to indicate the rela-
tionship between subfields.