Title

Every item must have a title statement in the 245 field.

Identifying titles

Author names may be more prominent on title pages, making it harder to identify the title.

Misprints or errors in the title

Titles should be transcribed exactly as they appear on the item, even where there are misprints or misspellings. Follow the error with [that is, correction].

Titles with errors should also have a variant title recorded.

Variant titles

Variant titles should be recorded in a 246 field wherever there are possible variants that users might search for or know the item by. For a full list of when to record a variant title, see DCRMR 1.25.

The most common instances of variant titles are:

• misprints or misspellings

• cover titles

• caption titles

• half-titles

• running titles

• spine titles

Make a note on the source of the variant title in a 500 field.

No title

If there is no title on the item and none can be found in another source, formulate a title from the opening words of the text.

If the opening lines are not distinctive or descriptive enough, formulate a a brief descriptive title based on the content of the text. This should be recorded in square brackets.

Notes on titles

Notes on titles should be recorded in a 500 field.

Where relevant, the following notes should always be included:

• Source of information (if not the title page)

• Source of information for variant title (if from within the item)

• Title formulated by cataloguer

• Title page printed in black and red (also known as 'rubrication')

• Engraved or highly decorated title pages

• Missing title page (where ours is an imperfect copy, rather than the item is published without a title page)