Advanced Field Code Keyword Searching
Finding Event Dates and Places Using the
033 Field Code

Field 033 contains specially formatted information representing the date, time, and place of an event, especially of a captured broadcast, recording, or filming. The rules call for a textual description of this event in a note whenever field 033 is used. The official USMARC description of this field is available at

Date and Time
• Subfield |a, and the 033A search, relates to dates and times. As with 045B, a 033 field may contain multiple subfields |a, with the significance of each specified by an indicator unfortunately not available for examination in keyword searching. It may be a specific date, a beginning date, or an ending date. This example finds materials coded for March, 1965:
• Sample Keyword Command Search:
  033A 196503?

Geographical Codes

• Subfields |b and |c contain a geographical location as a number and a Cutter line, respectively, from the G section of the Library of Congress classification (the subsection for maps). Specific counties and cities usually require both subfields. Here are the codes for a few of the world's major cities:

Field Codes for Major Cities

Name	033B	033C
Boston	3764	B6
New York	3804	N4
Philadelphia	3824	P5
Washington, D.C	3850
Chicago	4104	C5
Los Angeles	4364	L8
London	5754	L8
Paris	5834	P3
Berlin	6299	B3
Vienna	6494	V4
Rome	6714	R7
Moscow	7004	M6
Tokyo	7964	T7

• The following example finds material coded for Chester County or West Chester, PA:

  Sample Keyword Command Search:
  (033B 3823 AND 033C C5) OR (033B 3824 AND 033C W?)

• The following Web page from NYU includes a list by country giving their numbers in LC class G, with examples of a few cities.
  http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tsd/cat/033fram.htm