R | D | A TOOLKIT
  • Entities
    • RDA Entity
    • Work
    • Expression
    • Manifestation
    • Item
    • Agent
    • Person
    • Collective Agent
    • Corporate Body
    • Family
    • Nomen
    • Place
    • Timespan
  • Guidance
    • Introduction to RDA
      • Objectives and principles governing RDA
      • Standards related to RDA
      • Data elements
    • Aggregates
    • Application profiles
    • Content and carrier
      • RDA resource categorization
      • RDA carrier and content categories
      • RDA resource category extension
      • Extension plans
    • Data provenance
    • Diachronic works
    • Entity boundaries
    • Fictitious and non-human appellations
    • Manifestation statements
    • Nomens and appellations
    • RDA implementation scenarios
    • Recording methods
    • Representative expressions
    • Resource description
      • Coherent description of an information resource
      • Minimum description of a resource entity
      • Effective description
      • Describing a work
      • Describing an expression
      • Describing a manifestation
      • Describing an item
    • Terminology
    • Transcription guidelines
      • Guidelines on basic transcription
      • Guidelines on normalized transcription
    • User tasks
    • Well-formed RDA
  • Policies
    • BLPS
      • BLPS Entities
      • BLPS Guidance
      • BL PS Community Resources
    • LAC PS
      • LAC PS Entities
      • LAC PS Guidance
    • LC-PCC PS
      • LC-PCC PS Entities
      • LC-PCC PS Guidance
      • LC-PCC PS Community Resources
    • MLA BP
      • MLA BP Entities
      • MLA BP Guidance
      • MLA BP Community Resources
    • NLNZ PS
      • NLNZ PS Community Resources
    • OLAC BP
      • OLAC BP for Entities
      • OLAC BP Guidance
    • RBMS PS
      • RBMS Policy Statements for Entities
      • RBMS Policy Statements for Guidance
  • Resources
    • Glossary
    • VES Vocabularies
    • Community Resources
      • Legacy RDA Community resources
    • Revision History
  • Original Toolkit
  • Help
  • English
    • English
    • Catalan
    • Finnish
    • French
    • Norwegian
    • Spanish
    • English
    • Catalan
    • Finnish
    • French
    • Norwegian
    • Spanish
    • Normal
    • Large
  • Submit Feedback
  • Entities
    • RDA Entity
    • Work
    • Expression
    • Manifestation
    • Item
    • Agent
    • Person
    • Collective Agent
    • Corporate Body
    • Family
    • Nomen
    • Place
    • Timespan
  • Guidance
    • Introduction to RDA
      • Objectives and principles governing RDA
      • Standards related to RDA
      • Data elements
    • Aggregates
    • Application profiles
    • Content and carrier
      • RDA resource categorization
      • RDA carrier and content categories
      • RDA resource category extension
      • Extension plans
    • Data provenance
    • Diachronic works
    • Entity boundaries
    • Fictitious and non-human appellations
    • Manifestation statements
    • Nomens and appellations
    • RDA implementation scenarios
    • Recording methods
    • Representative expressions
    • Resource description
      • Coherent description of an information resource
      • Minimum description of a resource entity
      • Effective description
      • Describing a work
      • Describing an expression
      • Describing a manifestation
      • Describing an item
    • Terminology
    • Transcription guidelines
      • Guidelines on basic transcription
      • Guidelines on normalized transcription
    • User tasks
    • Well-formed RDA
  • Policies
    • BLPS
      • BLPS Entities
      • BLPS Guidance
      • BL PS Community Resources
    • LAC PS
      • LAC PS Entities
      • LAC PS Guidance
    • LC-PCC PS
      • LC-PCC PS Entities
      • LC-PCC PS Guidance
      • LC-PCC PS Community Resources
    • MLA BP
      • MLA BP Entities
      • MLA BP Guidance
      • MLA BP Community Resources
    • NLNZ PS
      • NLNZ PS Community Resources
    • OLAC BP
      • OLAC BP for Entities
      • OLAC BP Guidance
    • RBMS PS
      • RBMS Policy Statements for Entities
      • RBMS Policy Statements for Guidance
  • Resources
    • Glossary
    • VES Vocabularies
    • Community Resources
      • Legacy RDA Community resources
    • Revision History
    • Original Toolkit;
    • AACR2;

Policies

OLAC Best Practice for language of expression

Prerecording

Prerecording

Follow LC-PCC practice. Supply the languages of secondary content present in the manifestation if it is judged that this information will be useful to the patron. If primary language is not obvious from the rest of the description, provide a free text note.

LC/PCC Core.

LC/PCC practice: In addition to recording the language of the primary content, also supply the languages of other content (summaries, tables of contents, etc.) if it will assist identification and selection.

LC/PCC practice: See the Metadata Guidance documentation: Expression: language of expression.

LC/PCC practice: See the Metadata Guidance documentation: Series/subseries: Expression: language of expression.

Recording

Recording an unstructured description

Recording a structured description

Recording an identifier

Option

Follow LC-PCC practice.

LC/PCC practice: Apply the option. The identifier should consist of the language code taken from the MARC Code List for Languages or the ISO 639-3 Code Tables.

Recording an IRI

View as Relationship Example

View in Context Example

Document Date: 2026/02/06
Document: https://access.rdatoolkit.org/en-US_ala-aadb10e4-7e95-31ca-94cf-4be11056a1fd

  • Previous: OLAC Best Practice for intended audience of expression
  • Next: OLAC Best Practice for medium of performance of musical content

© 2026

ISSN 2167-3241

Administration
About RDA and RDA Toolkit
FAQ
Support/Contact

Create Link

Link Copied to Clipboard

View Citation

Citation Copied to Clipboard

R | D | A TOOLKIT

Log Out