MARC 372 Field of Activity

MARC field 372 in the authority format contains information

• For a person: a field of endeavor, area of expertise, etc., in which the person is engaged or was engaged
• For a corporate body: a field of business in which the corporate body is engaged, its area of competence, responsibility, jurisdiction, etc.

Policy and formulation

• Prefer broader term "Book industries and trade" for Field of activity, and "Booksellers" for Occupation
• Use Shakespeare as field of activity for all people who have anything to do with Shakespeare--which we know because we're cataloging it--even if it's only one thing and the person is terribly obscure
• Restrict to actual fields of endeavor; don't apply to literary or artistic movements
• Use whichever controlled vocabulary is most convenient for the cataloger

Confirmed terms

For terms agreed on in second round of NACO training, winter/spring 2014-2015

372  Book industries and trade ǂ2 lcsh
372  Christianity ǂ2 lcsh

Legacy terms

This section contains text copied from legacy files and may or may not reflect current information.

This is the list the catalogers came up when first being trained but before much experience in autumn 2013. All terms here should be reconsidered and others added.

Refer to the following list for terms commonly used in the 372:

(brainstormed... verified forms say so)

• Acting (for people known primarily as actors it is not necessary to use Theater as well)
• Book industries and trade ǂ2 lcsh (i.e., use the broad term for "field of activity" and a specific term for occupation, pending discussion on DCRM-L; goal: be able to move from more specific to more general and vice-versa by machine later, so need one type of term in one category, the other in the other).
• Calligraphy $2 lcsh
• Classical literature $2 lcsh (e.g. for commentaries on Virgil, translations from ancient Greek; there isn't a more specific term)
• Drama (for playwrights)
• Drawing
• English language |2 lcsh (added 21 Oct 2013)
• English literature $2 lcsh (added Oct. 9, 2013) [e.g. for a scholar translating Shakespeare]
• Illustration of books $2 lcsh
• Painting $2 lcsh AND $2 lctgm (always prefer lcsh? or prefer lctgm if it means not having to repeat a field? --Erin Blake (talk) 21:06, 7 January 2015 (EST))
• Poetry (for poets)
• Preaching $2 lcsh (added Oct. 9, 2013)
• Printmaking $2 lctgm
• Printselling -- but need to find an authorized form
• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 |2 naf (for Shakespeare scholars, biographers, et al.)
• Theater $2 lcsh (i.e., theater-folk broadly speaking, incl. directing; also use narrower term "Acting" when appropriate)
• Translating and interpreting $2 lcsh
• Writing $2 lcsh (i.e., what people who write penmanship manuals do)

Considered, but rejected:

• Renaissance humanism (it isn't in lcsh, and it isn't a field of activity)

External links

• MARC Authority 372
• MARC Authority 372 in Cataloger's Desktop (Access limited to Folger staff)
• LC guidelines for MARC Authority 372 in Cataloger's Desktop (Access limited to Folger staff
• DCM Z1 (372) (Access limited to Folger staff)