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Every profession has terms that are unique and extraordinarily useful to its practitioners but puzzling to everyone else. Archivists, for example, use the expression "finding aid" but find it invites confusion even if its meaning is quite literal: a finding aid is something that helps you locate what you need in an archives or archival collection. It may be a simple inventory, a detailed database index, or a narrative description of a collection. But there is one kind of finding aid that is mysterious even to some archivists: the MARC record. MARC, an acronym for MAchine Readable Cataloging, is a descriptive format developed by the Library of Congress and endorsed the Society of American Archivists. MARC, a standardization of the usual elements of archival description in a coded format to allow information to be exchanged between computer systems, includes the following elements: Main entry (MARC code 100 or 110). Although the main entry for a book is its author, the main entry for an archival collection is the collection creator—the person, organization, or agency responsible for originating or putting the collection together. The main entry may be a personal name ("Jane Smith"), a family name ("The Smith Family"), a business ("Smith’s Tire Repair"), an organization ("Smithtown Historical Society"), or an agency ("Smith County Department of Public Works"). Title (245). Archival collections are best served by simple descriptive titles. The title includes a concise description of the material, including its type, function, and possibly even subject: "Family correspondence"; "Membership meeting records"; "Concert programs"; "Recipe files for the Millennium Bake-off." Dates (245). Dates are as specific as possible, or approximated if necessary. If a collection covers a large span of time but the majority of the material relates to a short period, a "bulk date" may be included. For example: "1895-1950 (bulk 1935-50)." Physical description (300). This includes the "extent," or quantity of material, and its format: "4 cassette tapes," "6 record cartons," "3 scrapbooks." Extent is sometimes measured in cubic or linear feet. To calculate linear feet, an archivist stacks the papers or pushes the files together and takes a measurement. Cubic feet is calculated in a similarly straightforward way: if a collection fits in a box that measures 2 feet by 1 foot by 1 foot, its extent is "2 cubic feet." Organization and arrangement (351). This element indicates how the material is divided into groups, such as series; and then how the material is intellectually ordered within those groups: "Organized into two series; arranged chronologically within each series." Biographical or historical note (545). This field gives background information on the collection’s creator, and thus provides a context for the collection. It may take the form of a brief biography or the history of an institution, project, or agency. Scope and content (520). The heart of a MARC record, this is a description of the actual contents of the collection: what kind of material is to be found here, what it is about, and why it is significant. Restrictions on access (506 and 540). Restrictions indicate that some material may not be used for a specific reason or until a certain date; that particular permissions are required; or that certain procedures must be followed to use a collection. Access terms (600s and 700s). For a description of an archival collection to be useful, researchers have to be able to find it. When a collection is indexed, the use of a controlled or standardized vocabulary of subject terms, personal names, and place names ensures that a search will pull up as many records as possible. For this reason, archivists turn to several accepted sources for these access terms. The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is a listing of subject terms to be used for cataloging books and other library materials, as well as for archives. Using LCSH terminology will ensure that your collection description will turn up in a search with other collections relating to the same subject. A thesaurus of terms relating specifically to folklore collections is planned. To see what a MARC record looks like, go to www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc. This is the homepage for the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, and it provides links to search pages for the archival collections in the RLG (Research Libraries Group) Union Catalog, and well as for OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). Doing a search here brings up MARC records for archival collections that match your search criteria. When the detailed view of a record is displayed, you may click "Tagged Display," which will then show the MARC record with all the numbered codes, each indicating a specific MARC field. The New York State Archives and Records Administration’s pamphlet, "Guidelines for Arrangement and Description of Archives and Manuscripts: A Manual for Historical Records Programs in New York State," includes easy-to-understand information on MARC format. Even if cataloging information about an archival collection will not be entered into a computer database, MARC format is worth considering. Following MARC guidelines ensures that a finding aid will include all the necessary descriptive information, and that consistent indexing terms will provide maximum accessibility for researchers. It’s really not so mysterious after all.

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