BibFormats

Biog:  Biography

Record Type

BIB

Bytes

BKS: 008/34; 006/17

Input Standards

BKS: Optional. One-character code. Default:  blank character

Definition

 
BKS, 006

A code that indicates whether or not an item contains biographical material, and if so, what the biographical characteristics are.

Guidelines

 
BKS

The following types of material are biographical:

  • Straightforward accounts of the life of a person (character, thought, and activities).
  • Accounts of limited periods or aspects of the life of a person (e.g., Goethe as a government official). Collections of materials that serve as a source of or substitute for an account of a life. These include: (1) collections of correspondence unless they clearly relate to a particular subject or to an event not in the life of the writer (2) journals and diaries and (3) memoirs or reminiscences. Collective biographies.
  • Literary criticism if more than half of the work is biographical.
  • A work about a ruler and his or her reign if the ruler's life is given considerable attention.
  • A work about a doctrine or movement if the work is largely biographical.

The following are not biographical:

  • Documents relating to a person's life (birth, marriage and death certificates, commissions, diplomas, etc.). Obituaries, funeral orations, eulogies.
  • Collections of portraits unless accompanied by substantial biographical description.
  • Interviews and conversations.
  • Bio-bibliographies.
  • Genealogies.
  • A vita within a work does not qualify the work as biographical. However, a biographical work may have a vita.

Codes

 
 
blank character

No biographical material. Use also for fictional biography.

Biog     blank character
245 0 0 Dictionary of Russian verbs
Biog     blank character
245 1 0 Am I not a man? : ǂb the Dred Scott story / ǂc by Mark L. Shurtleff
600 1 0 Scott, Dred, ǂd 1809-1858 ǂv Fiction
 
a

Autobiography

Biog     a
100 1   Kennedy, Robert F. ǂq (Robert Francis), ǂd 1925-1968
245 1 Robert Kennedy : ǂb in his own words ...
 
b

Individual biography

Biog     b
100 1   Dampenon, Philippe
245 1 Michel Sardou / ǂc par Philippe Dampenon
 
c

Collective biography. Items containing two or more individual biographies.

Biog     c
245 Oxford dictionary of national biography : ǂb in association with the British Academy : from the earliest times to the year 2000 / ǂc edited by H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison
 
d

Contains biographical information

Biog     d
245 Correspondance inédite de Victor Jacquemont avec sa famille et ses amis, 1824-1832 : ǂb précédée: d'une notice biographique / ǂc par V. Jacquemont ...

Indexing

For indexing and searching information, see Searching WorldCat Indexes, 008/34.

MARC 21

For more information, including content designator history, see MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, 008/34 (Books).