TitlePractices

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Contents 1 Titles in OAI Records 1.1 Summary of Best Practices 1.2 Types of Titles 1.3 Formats of Titles

[edit] Titles in OAI Records

Note: Summary of best practices added. Jenn Riley 10/12/05

[edit] Summary of Best Practices

• Provide a title in every OAI record. Supply one if necessary, according to established standards.
• Express multiple titles in repeated fields.
• Make the distinction between title and sub-title clear through the metadata format used or through standard punctuation.

[edit] Types of Titles

Titles are an important tool for users in sorting through search display results. Typically, service providers will build indexes based on the titles in metadata records and will also display titles in the results of a search query. Titles should be supplied in OAI records if at all possible.

Titles can originate from two main sources: the creator of the resource or the creator of the metadata describing the resource. When available, titles assigned by the creator of the resource are preferred, and should be transcribed as accurately as possible.

If a translated version of the title or an additional title is available this should be entered in a separate field. Because many schemata and syntaxes do not support ordering of elements, it is generally advisable to order the elements or fields so that the main title appears first. For example:

    <dc:title>Abbott Memorial Hall</dc:title>
    <dct:alternative>Series II: Buildings and Grounds</dct:alternative>
    <dct:alternative>Architects' Drawings 1</dct:alternative>
    <dct:alternative>Physiology Building 1</dct:alternative>

See QDC University of Chicago, Special Collections Research Center 1 for the complete record from which this example was taken.

In cases where there is no original title for a work, a descriptive title created by the metadata author may be supplied. Preferably this will be created in accordance with an established standard, and describe, as concisely as possible, the content of the work.

If the nature of the items is such that a title is neither provided nor useful (satellite images, for example) the provider should not default text in the title field indicating that there is no title, as this strategy often backfires in an aggregated environment. If possible, other descriptive information about the resource should be provided in a field other than the title field in order to allow adequate indexing of the metadata record as well as to support end user decision making. In the following example, the photographer's name and related keywords provide an adequate substitute for the lack of a title.

    <dc:creator>Cushman, Charles Weever, 1896-1972</dc:creator> 
    <dc:subject>Clouds</dc:subject>
    <dc:subject>Mountains</dc:subject>
    <dc:subject>Airplane wings</dc:subject>
    <dc:subject>Snow</dc:subject>

See DC IU Charles Cushman Collection 2 for the complete record from which this example was taken.

[edit] Formats of Titles

If using a metadata format that does not allow for specification of sub-title, title and sub-title may be collapsed into a single field, preferably separated by a colon or other punctuation:

    <dc:title>The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / 
    by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections 
    of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences 
    of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added 
    six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty 
    engravings from designs by eminent artists ...
    </dc:title>

See DC University of Michigan, Making of America 1 for the complete record from which this example was taken.

Multiple titles should be coded in separate fields. If one title is intended to be the primary one, and no distinction is available in the element name, the most important title should appear first. For example:

    <title>Social Science Research Building</title>
    <title>Series II: Buildings and Grounds</title>
    <title>Construction Sequence 10</title>

See DC University of Chicago, Special Collections Research Center 1 for the complete record from which this example was taken.