BibFormats

546  Language Note (R)

Record Type

BIB

Input Standards

Field (Full/Minimal)
Required if applicable/Required if applicable
1st Indicator  Undefined
blank character Undefined
2nd Indicator  Undefined
blank character Undefined
Subfields (R=Repeatable  NR=Nonrepeatable) Input Standards (Full/Minimal)
ǂa Language note (NR) Required if applicable/Required if applicable
ǂb Information code or alphabet (R) Required if applicable/Required if applicable
ǂ3 Materials specified (NR) Optional/Optional
ǂ6 Linkage (NR) System supplied/System supplied
ǂ7 Data provenance (R) Optional/Optional
ǂ8 Field link and sequence number (R) Optional/Optional

Definition

Textual information on the language or notation system used to convey the content of the described materials. A description of the alphabet, script, or other symbol system (e.g., Arabic alphabet, ASCII, bar code, logarithmic graphing) may also be included, but for musical notation system terms, prefer field 348.

Coded language information is contained in Lang and/or field 041.

For information on punctuation, see the Punctuation section below.

1st Indicator

Undefined. The 1st indicator position is undefined and contains a blank.

blank character

Undefined

2nd Indicator

Undefined. The 2nd indicator position is undefined and contains a blank.

blank character

Undefined

Subfields

 
ǂa Language note

Specifies the language(s) of the resource.

Lang     eng
041 0   eng ǂa fre ǂa ger
546     Text in English, French, and German
Lang     eng
041 0   eng ǂa sgn
546     Open signed in American Sign language
[Sign language interpretation is included]
Lang     hun
041 0   hun ǂb eng ǂb ger ǂb rus
546     In Hungarian; summaries in English, German, or Russian
ǂb Information code or alphabet

Specifies the alphabet, script, or notation system that is used in the resource. This includes specialized codes, scripts, or typefaces (e.g., Arabic alphabet, Arabic numerals, ASCII, bar code, BCD, braille, ciphers, Cyrillic alphabet, EBCDIC, Fraktur, Greek alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, hieroglyphics, pictograms, Roman alphabet, Roman numerals, or logarithmic or semilogarithmic graphing, etc.).

For musical notation system terms, follow the Interim Music Library Association Best Practices for Form of Musical Notation and prefer field 348 subfield ǂc. If desired, record musical notation system terms in both field 348 subfield ǂc and field 546 subfield ǂb.

546     Mongolian; ǂb Cyrillic alphabet
546     ǂ3 Marriage certificate ǂa German; ǂb Fraktur
ǂ3 Materials specified

For information about subfield ǂ3, see Control Subfields.

546     ǂ3 John P. Harrington field notebooks ǂa Zuni; ǂb Pictograms; ǂb Phonetic alphabet
ǂ6 Linkage

Data that link fields when non-Latin script is entered. This subfield is system supplied and does not appear in OCLC online displays. Do not manually add subfield ǂ6. For more information about subfield ǂ6, see Control Subfields.

ǂ7 Data provenance

For information about subfield ǂ7, see Control Subfields.

ǂ8 Field link and sequence number

For information about subfield ǂ8, see Control Subfields.

Punctuation

For records containing punctuation, follow these instructions:

  • Optionally, follow an initial subfield ǂ3 by a colon-space or a space-colon-space if following an open date
  • Precede subfield ǂb by a semicolon-space when subfield ǂa also occurs in the field
  • Include incidental punctuation needed within any subfields, e.g., commas, periods (following abbreviations or initials), etc.
  • Optionally, add a terminal period at the end of the field unless the last subfield ends with an ellipsis or period (following an abbreviation or initial)
546     ǂ3 John P. Harrington field notebooks: ǂa Zuni; ǂb Pictograms; ǂb Phonetic alphabet.

For records containing minimal or no punctuation, include incidental punctuation needed within any subfields. Otherwise, omit the punctuation outlined above.

546     ǂ3 John P. Harrington field notebooks ǂa Zuni ǂb Pictograms ǂb Phonetic alphabet

For more information on punctuation, including OCLC policy, see section 2.8, Punctuation.

Indexing

For indexing and searching information, see Searching WorldCat Indexes, field 546.

MARC 21

For more information, including content designator history, see MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, field 546.