Standards for Bibliographic Items

Back to Help documentation

Standards for Description of Bibliographic Items

BHL standards for description of bibliographic items, be they serial units or multi-volume monographs, are based on conventions established in: Holdings Statements for Bibliographic Items (ANSI/NISO Z39.71-2006). Z39-71-2006.pdf

Pages 30-37 in particular, describe standards for display of enumeration and chronology of bibliographic items. Table 3.1 on pgs.11-12 describes the use of punctuation in item descriptions. Standard abbreviations for captions such as volume, number, part, band, heft, etc., may be found in Appendix B.9 of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. AACR2 B.9. Roman Alphabet Abbreviations.pdf

• Item descriptions in the BHL portal consists of a statement with standard numbering designations and chronology.
• The order of the data is from the largest entity to the smallest, e.g., series, volume, number / years, parts of a year, months
• The data uses standard caption abbreviations, punctuation, and spacing

BHL Enumeration and Chronology Standards starting page 3