Gifts: Using MARC Holdings Field 541 to Record Donor Information

541 Procedures  

541 is defined as "Immediate Source of Acquisition Note"

To record donor information, enter 541 field immediately after 852 and before other fields (866, etc.) in MFHD.

Use first indicator of 0 for private / non-public note. Will not be visible in the OPAC. Optionally, enter donor information in 852 $x if the information is not intended for display.

Use first indicator of 1 for public note. Will be visible in the OPAC.

Use second indicator blank. Undefined and only valid value.

Use the following subfields in this order. The content of each subfield has semi-colon for ending punctuation.

‡3 Materials specified. Only used when specifying volumes.

‡c Method of acquisition. Always use term Gift.

‡a Source of acquisition. Use personal or corporate name. Don't record name for anonymous gifts.

‡d Date of acquisition. Use year gift is added. End field with a period or bracket.

Examples of public notes:

541 1_  ‡c Gift; ‡a David Stowe; ‡d 2010.

541 1_  ‡3 Vol. 2; ‡c Gift; ‡a Harold Attridge; ‡d 2008.

See screenshots on next page for examples.

Note: A macro (541.mex) has been pushed out to technical services workstations. Import it into the standard Macro Express files as needed. The macro will add a 541 on the next line after the cursor (the cursor can be positioned anywhere in 852). It is assigned by default to Ctrl-Shift-7.

The macro will generate the following line:

541 1_  ‡c Gift; ‡a NAME; ‡d 2010.

Replace NAME with the donor name.

For large collections it is recommend that you edit the macro to put in the name of the donor so that you don't have to edit the 541 each time you add it.

If the optional $x is used instead of 541, the current Macro Express files include one under the name 852 |x Gift. (The easiest way to find it is to look in the Acquisitions folder in the All Categories window of Macro Express) Although it is mapped to Ctrl-4, the macro is currently not activated. To activate, open the macro, click on the Properties tab, click on the Hot Key button (Ctrl-4 should appear), and save the update.

Searching for Donor Information in Orbis

Information from 541 may be searched in Orbis in the cataloging module and in the OPAC.

To search in the cataloging module, choose "Holdings Boolean" on the keyword tab. Search for the donor name, last name is usually enough, plus the word gift and possibly the location if the name is common. For example, search "div and gift and attridge" (without quotes) to find materials given by Harold Attridge to the Divinity Library. Materials now shelved at the LSF will have to be searched with the correct LSF location, for example, lsfdiv.

To search in the OPAC, choose "Advanced Search" tab and search in "Holdings Keyword". Combine search terms of name, library location code, date and the word gift as necessary to retrieve results for a particular collection. For example, to search for all gifts from David Stowe, search this name as a phrase search.

See the screenshots for examples of both searches.