Language Fields Index and Display

MARC records include a primary language and supplemental language data. For faceting and initial release language display we will include only the primary language, which is found in the fixed fields. In future releases, we may include secondary languages in additional fields.

The current Cat only displays the supplemental language data in an unprocessed field, e.g.:

Language codes: eng fre por spa eng fre por spa eng in https://cat.libraries.psu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/57/5/0?searchdata1=25070225%7BCKEY%7D&searchfield1=GENERAL%5ESUBJECT%5EGENERAL%5E%5E&user_id=WEBSERVER

with no distinction of types, which means it's not a high priority for inclusion. Instead, we will use the Language Note field to add additional context, see indexing notes.

Language Fields

The first table contains the primary field which we will use for main facet/advanced search/primary display.

MARC Field	subfield	description
008	[35-37] (character position, not subfield)	The 3-letter code for the primary language of the work is in this character position in the 008 field. We will use it for our faceting and display

Enhancement: IF the 008 value is "mul" (and only if "mul") then we will want to check whether the 041a exists and, if so, index the language codes in the 041a (a repeating field).

MARC Field	subfield	description
041	a	Primary language code

Sometimes the 041a will also contain "mul" so in that case we'd want to make the list values unique.

Language Fields for Facet

Language as indexed from 008[35-37] and possibly 041a (if multi). The language codes are translated to English names of the languages.

Language Fields for Advanced Search

(Same as above)

Language Fields for Display

In single item page, display language facet labeled as Language.