[MinervaCats] Cataloging Tip

[Ellen Conway]

Dear Catalogers,

This week I would like to review the use of the 505 field, the Formatted
Contents Note.  This field is optional and repeatable, and I recommend that
you consider using it if you are cataloging an item that is a collection of
works.

The 505 field, if used correctly, can enable your patrons to search for
specific titles and authors that do not appear in a record's main entry.
This can be extremely useful in cases where a person may be searching for a
specific short story, play, song, or other such item that may not be
available except as part of a larger unit.

When using the 505, selecting the appropriate indicators is essential:

*For the first indicator*, you would use "0" if you are listing the complete
contents of the item you are cataloging.  Use "1" if the contents are
incomplete, either because it is an unfinished work or the information is
not available to you.  "2" means that you have chosen to list only partial
contents-- this would make sense if for example a book contains 50 short
stories and you wish only to list the 10 most popular titles.

*The second indicator* is very important because it affects the way the
search function will look at your note.  Leaving the 2nd indicator
blank means that the 505 is just a basic list of contents.  It will be
searchable by keyword only.  Using "0" for the 2nd indicator means that your
contents note is "enhanced" and this will allow searching by title or
author.

To illustrate how this works, imagine that you have a book that is a
collection of short novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne, including the titles
Fanshawe, The scarlet letter, The house of the seven gables, The Blithedale
romance, and The marble faun.

First, remember that entries in the 505 field should be separated by a
space, 2 dashes, space.  Thus, a "blank" contents note would be entered in
this manner:
505 0_ Fanshawe -- The scarlet letter -- The house of seven gables -- The
Blithedale romance -- The marble faun.  A patron searching for "The marble
faun" would have to enter the title in a keyword search in order to find
this specific volume.

An enhanced contents note requires the use of subfields to identify the
types of information being entered.  Use a "t" for titles, "r" for author,
"g" for miscellaneous information such as volume numbers, dates, etc.  For
our Hawthorne collection, the enhanced note would look like this:
505 00 Fanshawe --|tThe scarlet letter --|tThe house of seven gables --|tThe
Blithdale romance --|tThe marble faun.  It is not necessary to put the
subfield in front of the first title, and the following subfield codes are
entered directly after the dashes, leaving no extra space.  In this case, a
title search for "The marble faun" would yield this volume.

Imagine that you have a book titled "Famous short novels" that contains 3
novels by different authors.  You may want to use an enhanced contents note
that provides the titles and the authors' names.  If you include the
subfield "t" and "r" this information would be entered this way:
505 00 The scarlet letter /|rNathaniel Hawthorne --|tBartleby, the scrivener
/|rHerman Melville --|tThe legend of Sleepy Hollow /|rWashington
Irving.  Notice
that the title and author are separated by a space and forward slash.  Title
and author searches in the OPAC would yield this volume.

In the case of the preceding imaginary book, it would be advisable to
include 740 added entries for the authors' name authority headings.  This
would likely not be necessary if the item you are cataloging is a
contemporary music CD with different songs, performers, or composers.

I have tried to give a basic overview of the 505 field and how it functions,
but there are more features and uses that I have not mentioned.  If you have
any questions or have specific issues that I have not addressed, please
contact me.
Thanks,
Ellen

-- 
Ellen M. Conway
Maine InfoNet Cataloging Consultant
797-9464, cell ph. 329-5443
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