Music Library Association Best Practices for serial number of musical work

Prerecording

Prerecording

Routinely record the element in authority records if used as a component of an authorized or variant access point. Record the element in other cases if readily ascertainable.

In bibliographic records: Record the element if deemed useful for identification or selection.

Record numbers that enumerate a work's sequence within a single opus number, rather than within a composer's entire body of work, as a component of a Work: opus number instead of a value for this element. Note that a work may possess both a serial number within a composer's entire body of work and within a single opus number.

Do not record a number that identifies one part within a larger work, either alone or in conjunction with a title, as a serial number; for such cases see Community Resources: preferred title of musical work: Anglo-American legacy instructions. One part of a musical work.

LC/PCC Core if the element is used to fulfill the LC/PCC Core requirement for Work: numeric designation of musical work.

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

Recording

Recording

In MARC: Record as an identifier using field 383 subfield $a.

See examples in MARC format: serial number of musical work

LC/PCC practice: Record a serial number even if works with the same preferred title do not have the same representative medium of performance, if such works are consecutively numbered in music reference sources.

Recording an unstructured description

Recording a structured description

Recording an identifier

Option

LC/PCC practice: Use Arabic numerals.

Option

LC/PCC practice: When recording a serial number that is accompanied in the source by a term such as "number," "book," "collection," etc., apply the following:

  1. If the term is the English word "number" or its abbreviation, or an equivalent word or abbreviation in another language, precede the number in the preferred title by the English abbreviation "no."
  2. If the term is a non-English term not meaning "number" and the preferred title for a single type of composition is in English, substitute the English equivalent of the term, using an English abbreviation as instructed in Terms in English.
  3. In all other cases give the term as it appears in the source, using its abbreviated form as instructed in Terms in English. If the term does not appear there, give the term as it appears in the source.

Condition Option

LC/PCC practice: Apply the option.

Condition Option

LC/PCC practice: Apply the option.

Recording an IRI

Document Date: 2025/06/06
Document: https://access.rdatoolkit.org/en-US_ala-72df926d-5182-3bdb-9bea-87100498fd20