Types of Headings

In a MARC authority record, a heading is the content of a 1XX, 4XX, or 5XX field that documents the form of heading used for indexing and retrieval or organizational purposes in a file. Two types of headings are defined in the authorities format:

Established heading: A heading that is authorized for use in other MARC records as a main entry (1XX), added entry (700-730), or series added entry (440 or 800-830) field or as the lead element in a subject access (600-655; 654-657) field. In authority records, established headings are used in fields 100-155 (headings) and fields 500-555 (tracings) for established heading (008/09, Kind of record, code a or f) records.

Unestablished heading: A heading that is not authorized for use in other MARC records as the lead element of a main, added, series, or subject access field. An unestablished heading may be a reference to a variant form of the established heading, a form of the heading used only for authority file organizational purposes, or a subject subdivision that is authorized for use with an established heading in an extended subject heading. In authority records, unestablished headings are used in the 1XX (heading) and 4XX (tracing) fields of reference (008/09, code b or c), subdivision (code d), reference and subdivision (code g), and node label (code e) records. An unestablished heading may also be used in the 4XX tracing fields of established heading (code a or f) records.

Headings may be names, name/title combinations, uniform titles, chronological terms, topical terms, genre/form terms, subdivisions, extended subject headings, or node labels.

Name heading - A heading that is a personal, corporate, meeting, or jurisdiction (including geographic) name.

Name/title heading - A heading consisting of both name and title portions. The name portion contains a personal, corporate, meeting, or jurisdiction name. The title portion contains the title by which an item or a series is identified for cataloging purposes and may be a uniform or conventional title, a title page title of a work, or a series title.

Uniform title heading - A heading consisting of the title by which an item or a series is identified for cataloging purposes when the title is not entered under a personal, corporate, meeting, or jurisdiction name in a name/title heading construction.

Chronological term heading - A heading consisting of a chronological subject term.

Topical term heading - A heading consisting of a topical subject term.

Genre/form term heading - A heading consisting of a genre/form subject term.

Subdivision heading - A heading consisting of a general (topical or language), form, geographic, or chronological subject subdivision term. An extended subdivision heading contains more than one subject subdivision term (subfields $v, $x, $y, and $z).

Extended subject heading - A name, name/title, uniform title, topical term, or genre/form term heading that includes one or more general, form, geographic, or chronological subject subdivision terms (subfields $v, $x, $y, or $z).

Node label heading - A heading consisting of a term used in the systematic section of a thesaurus to indicate the logical basis on which a category is divided.