Title changes
These instructions are for Titles of objects in the Visual & Material Culture collections
Before acting on a title change, check any images attached to a record are the right ones, a title may appear wrong but only because the wrong digital image is attached to the catalogue record - see Dealing with Image Links
When a title change is suggested, consider the existing title - it might be correct or may only require editing. For errors such as typos there is no need to record the the old title in 246.
Titles can be changed when one of the following issues apply:
The item has a title which has not been used in the title field
The title wrongly describes the subject of the item
The wording used could be considered offensive, outdated, not inclusive
The title is subjective
The title does not comply with Wellcome Collection Visual Cataloguing Framework.
Title change procedure
Copy the old title to a 246 field, using the following format:
Edit the existing 245 title field so it contains the new title.
Check the first and second MARC indicators (numbers following the main field number):
If the record contains a 100/110 entry the first indicator should be 1, if there is no 100/110 the first indicator should be 0.
If the title starts with an article (the, an, a) then the 2nd indicator needs to indicate how many spaces to skip when indexing: a=2, an=3, the=4 e.g. 245 12 A spaceman... 245 13 An apple... 245 14 The world...
When the title being replaced includes other information about the object (creator, medium/technique, date), then ensure this information is included in the appropriate fields in the record. They do not need to be in the title.
Add a note to explain the source of the title in a 500 note. A list of phrases to use is here.
If you are adding a title that has been given by the artist or is taken from text on the object, then add a brief description of the visual content of the image / object in the 520 field.
e.g. 5150i
245 10 Disease is disguised. Don't gamble with VD!
246 1# |iPrevious title, replaced November 2019:|aThe face of a beautiful woman is revealed as a mask covering her real face, which is hideously disfigured with syphilitic sores. Colour lithograph after Forsyth, ca. 1946(?)|5UkLW
500 ## The title has been taken from wording on the object.
520 ## The face of a woman is revealed as a mask covering her real face, which has visible syphilitic sores.
Detailed Sierra instructions on Visual collection titles are here
Changing titles regularly?
You can save the 246 1# field format in Sierra as a Macro, which you can use to easily add the text to a record in future:
In the top menu bar select Admin>Settings
Select the Macros tab
Select a free/empty f key and paste in the following:
Remember / make a note of the function key you allocated, then in future when amending records an empty field can be populated with the skeleton info required for the 246 1_ field. You’ll just need to:
add a new field to the record
populate it with the 246 data by pressing the allocated function key
amend the date
paste in the old title
Viewing live catalogue records as you edit
Edits take time to appear in Works, but appear instantly in the basic Sierra catalogue.
When in the Sierra record:
from the menu option (top left of the record) select View > Public Display
the Sierra catalogue view will open.
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