The concept of the Registry of Digital Masters[1] developed out of the work of the Digital Library Federation. The Registry has been implemented as a subset of OCLC WorldCat. These Record Creation Guidelines are based on two Digital Library Federation (DLF) papers describing the functionality of a digital registry, Registry of Archival Masters of [Born] Digital Monographs and Serials Functional Requirements and Registry of Digital Reproductions of Paper-based Monographs. The documents may be found on the DLF Web site (http://www.diglib.org/collections/reg/reg.htm or digitally reformatted monographs and serials and born digital monographs and serials).

These Guidelines use MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data elements and OCLC (Online Computer Library Center Inc.) current cataloging system functionality for Phase 1 of the DLF digital registry project. MARC 21 field 042 “dlr” indicates that a bibliographic record is in the Registry.

It is also recommended that the DLF Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials (http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212) be used to document the minimum characteristics of digital materials: digital reproductions or born digital.

2 Purpose

By recording materials in the Registry, institutions are signaling the intent to preserve and maintain the accessibility of the described materials over an extended timeframe. This implies that materials were born digital or have been converted to digital form, that the digital objects are stored in professionally managed systems, and that the institution is committed to retain and preserve them. When registered, materials should already be digitized, or be in an active queue for digitization. It is recommended, but not required, that a use copy (a network-accessible, but not necessarily free, copy) of any material registered be available on-line to the general public. Where digitally reformatted materials are concerned, reproductions should be of meaningful bibliographic entities.

These guidelines detail which MARC 21 elements should be used to carry Registry-required information. Registry records describe materials that an institution intends to digitize, either from existing paper- and/or microfilm-based materials (“intent to digitize”), as well as born digital materials, and to indicate the standards by which the registered objects have been digitized.

A Registry record also provides information about whether a specific item has already been digitized, and if so, whether the digitization has been done at an adequate level such that another digital copy is not required, what institution is responsible for the digitization, what institution is responsible for the preservation of the digital content, and what specific materials are available.

3 Implementation Guidelines

The guidelines, produced under the aegis of the DLF Registry of Digital Masters Working Group, are designed to promote consistency in how Registry information is recorded, enabling more effective services to be developed for libraries and for users. We encourage all institutions taking preservation responsibility for digital content to produce records using the Registry elements and MARC 21 as described in this document and in the two DLF papers.

The MARC record should have a description of the born digital object or a digital reproduction. It should reference detailed holdings when appropriate, so that others can accurately gauge the extent of the digital material. The metadata may be derived from inspection of the physical material, the microform, or the digital object itself. One bibliographic record could represent all versions of an item, but it is preferred that a separate record be supplied for each manifestation when physical formats and system requirements differ from the original form of an item/object.

All Registry records should conform to either at least the first level of description from Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition[2], 2002 Revision or a national equivalent. In addition, the following MARC 21 fields should be used as appropriate to record DLF digital registry information as described in the guidelines:

· 007/00 for electronic resource

· 007/11 for source of a digital file

· 007/13 for access and/or preservation indicator

· 042 for identification of Registry materials

· 506 for access restrictions

· 533 for reproduction notes

· 534 for original production notes [not recommended]

· 538 for technical details about digital resource

· 583 for preservation/reproduction actions and/or links

· 856 for access to electronic resources

4 When to Use the Registry

The following table describes the type of item available—1) Master Only 2) Use Copy Only 3) Master/Use Copy 4) No Master/No Use Copy— and whether to include that type of item in the Registry or not: