Audience note

Use of the Audience Note (MARC 521 field) is strongly recommended for use in the CCS database when the information is readily available but is not required. The Audience note is especially useful for Reader Levels (RL) and Interest Levels (IL) for children's books, MPAA ratings for video recordings, ESRB ratings for video games, and recommended reader levels (e.g. "For mature readers" or "Teen 16+") for graphic novels.

If there is already a 521 field in a fully-cataloged record in the CCS catalog but the information does not appear on the item in hand, leave the note in the record. If there is already a 521 field in a full-MARC preliminary record in the CCS catalog or in an OCLC record being brought into the CCS catalog but the information does not appear on the item, please remove the note from the record.

Differences in the contents of the 521 field do not constitute warrant for a new record except for video games and video recordings, because a difference in the MPAA rating or the ESRB rating may indicate a significant difference in content. For everything else, if there is already a 521 field in a fully-cataloged record in the CCS catalog but the audience information on the item in hand is different, leave the old note in the record and add additional 521 fields as needed, quoted and qualified by the version. (e.g. "521 0_ "3.1"--1999 printing.)

521 Note - Bibliographic Formats and Standards

521 Note - MARC21