500 General Notes
All general notes are entered into the 500 field. General notes consist of information that will help the patron or fellow cataloger to further identify the item. If the information entered in the 500 field is a direct quotation (meaning it is an exact transcription from the item formally stated in quotation marks) the location from which the information was taken must be indicated unless it was taken from the title page; anywhere else must be stated.
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*Delete any notes that refer to a specific copy of an item held at another institution.
504 Bibliography, etc., Note
Check for bibliographical references, indexes, discographies, filmographies, etc. Make sure the codes in the fixed fields for Cont and Indx match what is in the 504 field.
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504 _ _ Sources: p. 125–152.
505 Formatted Content Note
The 505 field contains a list of the contents of separate works, or parts of a whole item. They can also include statements of responsibility for the various works or parts. In a book, the contents might include the title of each chapter.
There are two levels at which content notes can be encoded: basic and enhanced. For basic content notes, all information is entered in the first subfield a. The title and the statements of responsibility are separated by “ / “ . Each title of a separate work or part and the statement of responsibility are separated by “ –– “. Only capitalize the first word of the title and proper nouns.
An enhanced content note is similar to a basic note in information entered, rules of capitalization, and punctuation. The difference is that the subfields are added for better machine generated searching and sorting. Each title is entered into a subfield t,each statement of responsibility is entered into a subfieldr.
Example (Basic – without statements of responsibility):
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ǂt National security and climate change in perspective / ǂr Kurt M. Campbell, Christine Parthemore –– ǂt Can history help with global warming? / ǂr J. R. McNeill –– ǂt Three plausible scenarios of future climate change / ǂr Jay Gulledge.
Check the 1st and 2nd indicators. The first indicator tells the system what type of caption to use at the beginning of the content note. The second indicator tells the cataloger and the computer whether the contents are encoded at the basic level or at the enhanced level.
1st indicator codes:
0 = Contents (complete contents of item are listed)
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8 = No display constant generated (no caption generated for beginning of note)
2nd indicator codes:
blank = Basic
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Proofread and Spell Check for typos.
520 Summary Note
This is an unformatted note that gives a general description or summation of the scope and/or content of the item. Often these summaries are taken from the jacket of the book, or from a publisher’s description. If the summary is helpful, concise, and not biased, it is okay to leave it in. If the summary is really long, biased, and not helpful in determining usefulness of the book, delete or edit this field.
530 Additional Physical Form Available Note
This note provides information to the patron regarding other formats the same information is available in.
546 Language Note
The 546 field is for textual information regarding the language, printed characters, and symbols contained in the item being described in the bibliographic record. If this field is used in the record to indicate the presence of more than one language or that the item is a translation, the record should also contain a 041 field.
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*This field is not used when an item just quotes something in another language in order to critique or discuss it in English. This field is used when the material presented in the language(s) is a part of the text itself. For example, a record for poems written in French translated into English as a poetry book would have a 546 field and a 041 field. A literature book studying the various types of French poetry with examples given in French in order to discuss the poems would not have a 546 field.
590 Local Note
The 590 field is for notes that pertain only to the copy of an item held by a USU library. A 590 note is also used to indicate the presence of a gift plate, or to indicate that the item was a gift. A 590 note can be used to indicate the presence of an author’s signature in a book. It can also be used to state that the item is bound with other items.
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