Contents Fixed field Access points 0xx 1xx 2xx 3xx 4xx 5xx 6xx 7xx 8xx 9xx Control subfields

546 Language Note (R)

Record Type
BIB
Input Standards
Field (Full/Minimal)
Required if applicable/Required if applicable
1st Indicator Undefined
	Undefined
2nd Indicator Undefined
	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.

	Undefined

2nd Indicator

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

	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.

This page last revised: October 31, 2022

5xx Fields