Material Types Table

The Material Types table is available in Sierra 4.0 and later. If you are using an earlier version of Sierra, you can edit material type codes using the Fixed-length Codes file.

To edit the Material Types table, you must be assigned permission 655 (Edit Fixed-Length Fields). If you are assigned permission 651 (View System Parameters) but not 655, you can view this table but cannot edit it. See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

The Material Types table defines accepted values and their corresponding meanings for material type codes. These codes are stored in the MAT TYPE field of the bibliographic record.

You can access the Material Type table via the following menu path:

Admin | Parameters | General | Material Types

For information on modifying this table, see Maintaining System Parameter Tables.

The Move and Copy tools are not available while editing this table because entries are ordered alphabetically by code, and each entry must be unique.

For more information, see Functionality Information and Data Elements.

Functionality Information

When viewing and modifying the Material Types table, note the following:

Maximum Number of Entries: The Material Types table can contain a maximum of 500 entries.

Data Elements

Entries in the Material Types table contain the following data elements:

Element	Description
Code	A one- to three-character code for the material type. Codes can contain lowercase alphabetic and numeric characters. Codes must start with an alphabetic character (for example, "v12" is valid but "12v" is not). Punctuation characters are not supported.
Meaning	A descriptive meaning of up to 25 characters (for example, "notated music" or "cartographic material").

See also:: Menu Options for Limit by Material Type