Music Library Association Best Practices for date of work

Prerecording

Routinely record the element in authority records if readily ascertainable, even if date of work is also used as an additional element in an access point (that is, to distinguish two works with the same preferred title). Record the element in bibliographic records if deemed useful for identification or selection.

LC/PCC Core when needed to identify a treaty.

LC/PCC Core when needed to differentiate a work from another work with the same title or from the name of an agent.

LC practice: For moving image materials, the cataloger is strongly encouraged to record the date of the work. If the date of manifestation is not known, research is often required.

LC/PCC practice: See the Metadata Guidance documentation: Works.

LC/PCC practice: See the Metadata Guidance documentation: Series/subseries: Work: date of work.

Condition Option

LC/PCC practice: Apply the option.

Recording

In MARC: Record as a structured description using field 046 subfield $k and, if appropriate, $l. Use subfield $l only if a date range is explictly given for the creation of a work; do not use subfield $l for revisions. Do not use subfields $o or $p in authority records until LC-PCC/NACO guidance becomes available.

See examples in MARC format: date of work

Option

LC/PCC practice: Record dates in terms of the Gregorian calendar.

Option

LC/PCC practice: Apply the option.

Treaties

Recording an unstructured description

Recording a structured description

Record dates using Extended Date/Time Format except as noted in LC-PCC PS for Timespan: access point for timespan. In MARC: Identify the string encoding scheme used with the $2 code edtf.

Recording an identifier

Recording an IRI

View in Context Example

Document Date: 2025/06/06
Document: https://access.rdatoolkit.org/en-US_ala-372ceb4f-c20e-3897-9bc1-271e2b4169a3