Draft Recommendations (October 2007)
Members:
Kelley McGrath, chairThe task force was charged
with creating a set of best practices for coding MARC 008/lang and 041
language information for videos, especially DVDs, and with using that
exercise to examine whether any changes could be made to the MARC format
(coding or directions) that would improve access to the multiple types
of language information found on videos.
The task force's recommendations
are based on the following premises:
After examining the types and
combinations of language information that occur in videos, we created
a list of types of language information that we thought were important
for retrieval and a list of those that we think can be adequately expressed
in free text notes in 546. We then focused our efforts on how best to
make spoken, written, and original language information consistently
and effectively accessible.
Below we have listed some recommendations
for general practice, particularly for what we perceived as tricky situations,
and for possible changes to the MARC format to support better use of
coded language data for moving images. Note that the examples use the
not-yet-implemented 041 subfield j, which was approved in May 2007 for
use for subtitles and captions instead of including them in subfield
b with summaries and abstracts (see http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi
This last needs a bit more
discussion, as currently the language of accompanying material can be
explicitly coded in 041 $g (defined as language code of accompanying
material other than librettos, or scripts or accompanying sound for
visual materials) when the material is considered significant. It is
not clear to the task force when this would be useful for retrieval.
Unlike musical recordings, few videos have significant accompanying
material and, in practice, this subfield generally does not seem to
be recorded if both the accompanying material and the video are in English.
It seems unlikely that most users would want to search separately for
the videos with accompanying material in a certain language (although
it might be useful contextual information once they are looking at an
individual record) nor that we would have enough data in such an index
to support a useful search option. We are also concerned about the use
of $h (language code of original and/or intermediate translations of
text) after $g, although it appears to be rarely used for moving image
materials, because it decreases the ability to use $h to help determine
the original language of the main material.
We therefore recommend that
the language of accompanying material be mentioned in a note if deemed
important, but do not think it is necessary to record it in coded form
in 041. However, there seem to be no negative impacts from coding $g
if it is so desired. Therefore, we recommend that $g be used for accompanying
material at the discretion of the cataloging agency, when the cataloger
deems that it is important and useful to code, but that it not be required.
Do not use $h following $g, even if the accompanying material is a translation and the original language is known.
Swedish film that has been
dubbed into English; credits (except for title) still in Swedish. Packaging
and menus in English
008/lang eng
041 1# $a eng $h swe
546 ## Dubbed in English; credits in Swedish.
Our Daily Bread. No
spoken dialogue, no intertitles, no subtitles; English credits, menus,
and packaging; originally produced in Germany.
00/8lang zxx
546 ## English language-credits version of a German film without dialogue.
Il Cerchio = The Circle.
Edizione italiana. Farsi soundtrack (original Farsi); English subtitles;
Italian credits on screen.
008/lang per
041 1# $a per $j eng $h
per
546 ## Farsi soundtrack with English subtitles. Onscreen credits in
Italian.
If we would like to be able to search spoken and written languages separately, the current definition of 008/lang and 041 $a for moving images creates ambiguous data. The definition seems to be intended to code the "main" language of the item, reverting to written language if there is no spoken language. We recommend coding 008/lang and 041$a only for spoken languages and using the MARC code zxx (no linguistic content) for videos with no spoken language. We recommend including intertitles in the definition of $j with subtitles and captions. We also recommend that sign languages be included with other non-spoken language information in $j. This would enable the separate retrieval of spoken and written languages when desired, as well as the creation of an index for "accessible in" languages that would include both 008/lang and 041$a plus 041$j.
Original English dialogue;
English packaging, menus, and credits
008/lang eng
Original English dialogue;
closed-captioned in English; English packaging, menus, and credits
008/lang eng
041 0# $a eng $j eng
546 ## Closed-captioned.
Japanese language film; English
subtitles; English packaging and menus
008/lang jpn
041 1# $a jpn $j eng $h jpn
546 ## In Japanese with English subtitles.
Japanese language film; optional
dubbed English soundtrack; optional English subtitles; English packaging
and menus
008/lang jpn
041 1# $a jpn $a eng $j eng $h jpn
546 ## Japanese or dubbed English soundtrack; optional English subtitles.
English language film with
English, French, or Spanish soundtracks; closed-captioned in English;
optional subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese,
or Thai. English packaging and menus
008/lang eng
041 1# $a eng $a fre $a spa $j eng $j chi $f fre $j por $j spa $j tha $h eng
546 ## Closed-captioned;
English or dubbed French or Spanish soundtrack; optional English, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, or Thai subtitles.
Recording of The Bridge,
an opera performed in sign language, simultaneously sung in English
008/lang eng
041 0# $a eng $j sgn
546 ## Performed with gestures, American Sign Language, a musical soundtrack, and in English.
Symphony performance; no spoken/sung
language; credits in German; disc menu and packaging in English.
008/lang zxx
A Chaplin silent film on DVD
with multiple subtitle tracks
008/lang zxx
041 1# $a zxx $j eng $j chi $j fre $j kor $j por $j spa $j tha
546 ## Silent film with English intertitles and musical acc.; optional French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, or Korean subtitles. Optional audio commentary track in English. Menus in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
The task force feels strongly that it is important to provide access to the original language of moving images. Users in many situations are interested in films that were originally in French, Spanish, Arabic, etc. and we do not currently have an effective, standard way to provide this information. The task force came up with three possible methods for addressing this:
We do not think the existing subfield $h can be made to work reliably for this purpose because a) it is defined to include languages of "intermediate translations" and b) since it is only used when something is a translation, if there is no $h, it is necessary to try to infer the original language from 008/lang and 041$a. However, for this to work, it is necessary to assume that catalogers always add an 041$h when it applies, which in practice is not true and thus unlikely to produce sufficiently reliable results.
A new subfield would be
unambiguous and would only have to be used by those who want to use
it. In the case of film and video, it seems unlikely that there would
be many languages of "intermediate translations" so OCLC could probably
populate this new subfield with the content of existing 041$h languages
for moving images.
If this were defined as
$o for original language, it might look like:
041 0 $a eng $o eng
041 1 $a spa $a eng $a fre $b eng $b spa $h spa $o spa [although the $h does become somewhat redundant with this practice]
By this we mean the development of some sort of record for the work that includes more information than current authority records. In the long run, this might be the most effective and efficient way to add this sort of information in a shared environment, but it would take longer to implement as it would necessary to set up a new infrastructure. This could be developed as something with lower entry barriers than NACO, but with some sort of provisions for quality control, such as saying where each bit of data came from so that the records could be improved over time and it would be easy to identify places where a cataloger has guessed at something or taken information from packaging so that the information could be confirmed in more authoritative sources. These work records could be linked to corresponding ISBNs, OCLC numbers, etc. and used to enhance local catalog access or to create new interfaces (say something like OCLC's Fiction Finder, http://fictionfinder.oclc.org/)
Data elements could include:
Title: Casablanca
Language: English
Date: 1942
Director: Curtiz, Michael, 1888-1962.
Country: United States
[could be expanded with other information such as cast, other production personnel, summary, subject and genre headings, setting (place and time period), awards, color, sound, aspect ratio, other technical details]
Although LC is currently working to implement LCSH genre-form headings for moving images, they are not planning to make any provision for the inclusion of language. Therefore, we recommend proposing a new 041 subfield for original language, as this is the simplest and quickest approach to implement. We will also ask CAPC to examine the issues related to developing work-level records for moving images.
Since 041 is a repeatable field,
use separate 041 fields when needed for different works on one manifestation.
Optionally, based on cataloger's judgment, if the language descriptions
for the works represented in one manifestation are numerous, code tag
041 for as many works as practical and use the code mul (multiple languages)
when necessary.
Shorts! Volume One :
15 Award-Winning Film Festival Shorts
008/lang eng
041 0# $a eng $j eng
041 1# $a dut $j eng $h dut
041 1# $a dan $j eng $h dan
546 ## Selected movies
are closed-captioned; soundtracks principally in English; The Chinese
wall in Dutch with optional English subtitles; John and Mia in Danish
with optional English subtitles.
Disc 2 of The Wild West.
Includes the Italian film C'è Sartana (Fistful of Lead),
dubbed in English, and the English language television feature The
Gunfighters.
008/lang eng
041 0# $a eng [not normally necessary]
041 1# $a eng $h ita
546 ## Fistful of lead in dubbed in English. The gunfighters in English.
Include brief or subsidiary
languages in 546 if thought important. Code lang/041 for languages which
are substantial and which the intended audience needs to be able to
understand to use the item.
The Internet Movie Database
tends to list all languages (see their record for The Godfather
at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/),
even from brief sequences; DVD packages tend to list soundtracks by
the language(s) of the intended listener (except in the case of originally
multi-lingual films described in the next section). We believe the latter
approach is more useful for most users of library catalogs.
The Godfather is primarily
in English, but has a few Italian sequences and apparently some in Latin.
008/lang eng
546 ## In English with brief sequences in Italian and Latin with English subtitles.
(or no 546 if not deemed necessary to note Italian and Latin sequences)
no 041 (rather than 041 0# $a eng $a ita $a lat $j eng; ignore the Italian and Latin for coding purposes)
When substantial portions of
a video are in more than one language, code for all substantial languages
present.
An Algerian DVD that is a clear
mixture of French and Arabic. The characters often switch between the
two languages within a sentence and depending on who they are talking
to use either French or Arabic. No subtitles.
008/lang ara (since the
package and credits were in Arabic)
041 0# $a ara $a fre
546 ## Dialogue consists
of a mixture of Arabic and French.
This means that sometimes users
searching by spoken language will retrieve videos that are not usable
to monolingual speakers of languages coded in 008/lang and 041 $a. In
the examples of Joyeaux Noel and a hypothetical DVD below, both
have the same information in 008/lang and 041 $a, but only the second
example would be useful to a monolingual speaker of French or German.
The task force sees no way to compensate for this problem in the existing
MARC language coding structure nor do we believe that there are existing
user interfaces that are sophisticated enough to deal with these distinctions.
Joyeaux Noel. Soundtrack
of DVD and original film in English, French, and German; optional English,
Spanish, or Portuguese subtitles.
008/lang fre
041 1# $a fre $a eng $a ger $j eng $j por $j spa $h fre $h eng $h ger
546 ## Soundtrack in
a mixture of French, English and German; optional English, Spanish,
or Portuguese subtitles.
A hypothetical DVD of a French
film that has optional English, French, or German soundtracks and English,
Spanish, or Portuguese subtitles.
008/lang fre
041 1# $a fre $a eng $a ger $j eng $j por $j spa $h fre
546 ## French, English, or German soundtracks; optional English, Spanish, or Portuguese subtitles.
Intertitles: Generally associated
with silent films, intertitles usually appear as a separate frames containing
written dialogue or other information to aid in comprehension.
Subtitles: Subtitles are text,
usually appearing at the bottom of the screen, that provides a translation
or transcription of spoken dialogue. Intended for viewers who can hear
the soundtrack, subtitles are usually used for translations of foreign
language films.
Captions: Captions are similar to subtitles, but also include contextual clues for viewers who cannot hear the soundtrack, such as identification of the speaker when it's not clear from the action on screen, and sounds, such as explosions or phones ringing.
For VHS videos there is generally
a 1:1 correspondence between the function and the encoding format of
captions and subtitles.
VHS
| Function | Encoding format | |
| Closed-captions | Caption | Embedded in video signal. Requires hardware (line-23 decoder in VCR and in TV; included in all U.S. TVs 13" and over manufactured since July 1993) |
| Open-captions | Caption | Imprinted on the tape; usually look blocky like closed-captions, but cannot be turned off and do not disappear when tape is fast-forwarded |
| Subtitles | Subtitle | Imprinted on the tape; cannot be turned off |
Unfortunately, for DVDs this
is not the case and there is sometimes no practical way to tell if a
DVD has subtitle or captions.
DVD
| Function | Encoding format | |
| Closed-captions | Caption | Embedded in video signal. Requires line-23 decoder in DVD player or drive and in TV (included in all U.S. TVs 13" and over manufactured since July 1993). Not all DVD players or drives, especially older models, include the necessary decoder. In addition, the way the DVD has been encoded can interact with particular hardware and software configurations, such that the line-23 captions do not work (some captions will play on a stand-alone DVD player with TV, but not on a computer DVD drive or vice versa) |
| Open-captions | Caption | Cannot be turned off; may be encoded as part of the film image |
| Subtitles | Subtitle | Cannot be turned off; may be encoded as part of the film image |
| Optional subtitles | Subtitle | Digital subpicture bitmap overlay (not possible on VHS; usually turned on or off from the disc menu or remote, but sometimes hard-coded by the DVD producer so that they cannot be turned off) |
| Optional subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing/captions | Caption (Sometimes referred to by publishers as SDH, "subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing," or "English captions." Sometimes called "English subtitles" even though captioning information is also included) |
http://www.dvdfile.com/site
http://www.dvddemystified.com
http://joeclark.org/access/dvd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki