Bib - Language Few

What is this?

Bibliographic records have a fixed field (008/35-37) which indicates the primary language of the work being cataloged using a code made up of three lowercase characters (from the MARC Code List for Languages. When you search a catalog by language (or limit your search results to a particular language) this is the field that is used.

When is this trouble?

If this fixed field contains a language code that is unusual in your catalog, it may be an indication that it has been entered in error. For example:

  • United States Census (HAITIAN CREOLE) with language code cre (should be hat)
  • Deutsches Alt-OĢˆsterreich with language code aus (should be ger)

How to Find

If you are in Alma, there is an analysis to search for this issue in the "Looking for Trouble" folder. Go to the "Bibliographic" folder and look for the "Language Few" analysis. This analysis searches for all language code field fields with fewer than five bibliographic records.