Main Title Element Help

Definition

The main title form that is part of the full editing form combines two MODS top-level elements: Title and Note.  The full editing form allows you to include information for the entire Title element, including the subelements: Sub Title, Part Number, Part Names, and Non Sort.  This form also includes a field for the note type “Statement of Responsibility”, and allows you to identify the Language  or Authority terms for the title information.

The Title field is a word, phrase, character, or group of characters that constitutes the chief title of a resource (i.e. the title normally used when citing the resource).¹

In addition, the following subelements exist for the main title associated with the material:

Subelement	Definition
Subtitle	a word, phrase, character, or group of characters that contains the remainder of the title information after the title proper.2
Part Number	identifies the place a single item holds in a collection or series of works, for example, a volume or series number
Part Name	identifies the title of an individual item in a collection or series of works and should not be confused with the Subtitle field
Non Sort terms	includes any title-initial articles that should not be used during database searches, for example, if the title proper begins with “the”, “a”, or “an”, this initial article would be entered into the Non Sort field, and the rest of the title would be entered in the main title field.
Language	indicates the language of the main title, usually the same language as the text
Authority	may be used to indicate that a title is controlled by a record in an authority file
Statement of Responsibility	field is used to identify entities who have contributed to the content of the item being cataloged; information from this field usually comes from the cover or title page of the item itself.

Form Element

In the online templates, this element appears as below:

Upon clicking or typing in the main box, the form below appears to give access to all the individual components of the main title element:

Best Practices

Title: All items should include information in the Title field, and Non Sort terms should be entered in the Non Sort field.  Title information may come from the cover or title page of a book or document or may come from a description of a map or image.  The origin of title information may be noted in the Note field, for example, “Title information from cover page”.

      Example:             The Americans in Panama

Subtitle: Not all items will have a subtitle. Information that appears in a title after a colon, or appears after the title on the title page but not on the cover or half title page, should be included as a subtitle.

      Example:             The Aftermath of the Trujillo dictatorship: the emergence of a pluralist political system...

Part Number: Not all items will have a Part Number.  The part number should be included on the title page of an item.

      Example:             Saint Nicholas: Volume 9, no. 12. October 1882.

Part Name: Not all items will have a Part Name.  The part name should be included on the title page of an item.

      Example:             pending

Statement of Responsibility: Some items will not have a statement of responsibility.  If phrases such as “by” or “edited by” or “by the author of” appear on the item, this information should be included in the Statement of Responsibility.

      Example:             Jack and Florie, or, The Pigeons' wedding

Language: Languages should be entered either by the ISO code, or by the term from the MARC Code List of Languages.

      Example:             pending

Authorities: The name of the authoritative list for a controlled value is recorded here. An authority attribute may be used to indicate that a title is controlled by a record in an authority file (e.g. authority="naf"). A list of authority files is maintained at: www.loc.gov/marc/sourcecode/authorityfile/authorityfilesource.html.  Title authorities can also be accessed at http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First .

      Example:             pending

Sources

1. MODS User Guidelines Version 3, Detailed Description of MODS Elements
2. Ibid.
3. MARC Mapping to MODS version 3.4 : Title
4. MODS to MARC 21 Mapping version 3.3 : Title
5. MODS User Guidelines Version 3, Detailed Description of MODS Elements

Contributors

Nicola Hill, Mark Sullivan, and Laurie Taylor

All contributors >>