Music Library Association Best Practices for Manifestation statements

Do not record manifestation statements in routine bibliographic cataloging of music materials. The primary (though not only) use case for these elements is to support unmediated machine transcription. Whenever possible, it is preferable to assign the information that would be recorded in a manifestation statement to the specific RDA elements to which the information corresponds, to the extent supported by the chosen metadata encoding standard.

There may be situations, such as rare or antiquarian material cataloging or specific projects, where the precisely literal representational character of a manifestation statement is desirable. In such cases, defer to local policy or another appropriate cataloging standard. If a manifestation statement is recorded, generally do so in addition to, rather than instead of, more specific RDA elements; that is, a manifestation statement should serve to enhance a metadata description set, not serve as a substitute for properly categorized data.

In MARC, a general Manifestation: manifestation statement may be recorded in field 881 subfield $a, and the narrower manifestation statement elements in subfields $b-$n. MLA recommends waiting for specific PCC guidance on field 881 before using it.