MARC 246 Varying Form of Title

In order to make variant spellings of titles and variant forms of titles searchable, catalogers create as many 246's as necessary.

Commonly-used tags

Indicators
1st - Note/added entry controller (NB. the indicators originally served as flags controlling where on the card the information would print, and whether or not to generate additional cards to be filed elsewhere in the public catalog. Currently, they're used only to indicate whether or not the information should display publicly)

0: Note, no added entry [not used at the Folger]
1: Note, added entry [i.e. the 246 will be displayed] 
2: No note, no added entry [not used at the Folger]
3: No note, added entry [i.e. the 246 will not display] 

2nd - Type of title

#: No type specified
0: Portion of title
1: Parallel title
2: Distinctive title
3: Other title
4: Cover title
5: Added title page title
6: Caption title
7: Running title
8: Spine title

Subfield delimiters
ǂa - Main title
ǂb - Remainder of title
ǂi - Display text
ǂn - Number of part/section of a work
ǂp - Name of part/section of a work
ǂ5 - Institution

Policy and formulation

• If the title proper contains words spelled according to archaic or non-standard orthographic conventions, provide additional title access for modern spelling.
  • Exception: if the title proper contains examples of converted i/j/u/v characters (see the Collation for a quick intro to the i/j/u/v issue, or refer to DCRM-B Appendix G.4), provide the unconverted title proper in a 246 field.
• Do not include an initial article, as it will cause the field to index incorrectly.
• If the portion of the title in the 245 ǂa contains a variant spelling of "Shakespeare" (i.e. "Shaksper," etc.), include an alternate title with the modern spelling of "Shakespeare."

245 10 ǂa Proposd edition of Shakspere in old spelling

246 3 ǂa Proposed edition of Shakespeare in old spelling

• If an item is in verse, provide the first line as an alternative title, with a subfield ǂi for appropriate display text.

246 1 ǂi First line: ǂa Had I great Homer's sweet-Maeonian quill

• Use the introductory phrase "Folger card catalog title:" to provide access to former devised titles or incorrect titles.

ǂi Folger card catalog title: ǂa Commonplace book of Theophilus Alye, ǂf 1679-1716

External links

• MARC 246 Tag
• OCLC MARC 246 Tag