538  System Details Note (R)

Definition

A note about the technical information for the item. Such information includes the absence or presence of certain kinds of codes or the physical characteristics of a computer file such as blocking factors, mode of access, parity, recording densities, software programming language, computer requirements, peripheral requirements, trade name or recording systems, number of lines of resolution, and modulation frequency.

Links to technical details relating to digital resources may also be recorded.

Some of the information included in field 538 may also be recorded in such fields as 340, 344, 345, 346, and 347.

For information on punctuation, see the Punctuation section below.

For software, enter data such as computer requirements (e.g., computer manufacturer and model, memory requirements, or operating system), peripheral requirements (e.g., number of disk or drum units, number of tape drives, number of terminals, or other peripheral devices, support software, or related equipment) or software programming language.

For sound recordings and video recordings, use for information about the trade name or recording system(s) (e.g., VHS), modulation frequency, and number of lines of resolution.

For guidance on describing and encoding the attributes of audio recording carriers, see “Supplement 1” of the Music Library Association’s Supplements to Best Practices for Music Cataloging Using RDA and MARC21.

1st Indicator

Undefined. The 1st indicator position is undefined and contains a blank.

	Undefined

2nd Indicator

Undefined. The 2nd indicator position is undefined and contains a blank.

	Undefined

Subfields

Punctuation

For records containing punctuation, follow these instructions:

• Optionally, follow an initial subfield ǂ3 by a colon-space or a space-colon-space if following an open date
• Follow subfield ǂi by a colon-space
  
• Include incidental punctuation needed within any subfields, e.g., commas, periods (following abbreviations or initials), etc.
• Optionally, add a terminal period at the end of the field (preceding subfields ǂi, ǂu, and ǂ5) unless the last subfield ends with an ellipsis or period (following an abbreviation or initial)

For records containing minimal or no punctuation, include incidental punctuation needed within any subfields. Otherwise, omit the punctuation outlined above.

For more information on punctuation, including OCLC policy, see section 2.8, Punctuation.

Indexing

For indexing and searching information, see Searching WorldCat Indexes, field 538.

MARC 21

For more information, including content designator history, see MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, field 538.