Question: Where can I observe the levels of the WEMI hierarchy in our current MARC bibliographic records?
Answer: Our current MARC bibliographic records are a mishmash of the levels of WEMI (Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item). Generally speaking, we create bibliographic records at the manifestation level and give access points for the work and expression levels, with item-level information stored locally in holdings/item records.
To see an example, do a title browse for “Hamlet French” in our OPAC, which will retrieve this record:
The MARC view looks like this:
In this example, the manifestation (this particular publication) is described via transcription from the book in the 245, 260, 300, and 490. Access to the titles of the works contained in this publication is provided in the 240 $a and 700 $t. Indications of the expressions of these works (language of translation, in this case) are appended to the work titles, in the 240 $l and 700 $l. Information about the item (our library’s copy of this publication) is stored in the 950 and in the holdings/item records.