With the redefinition of field 016 in 1997, any national bibliographic agency can record its control numbers in this field.  Although the structure of numbers would vary from agency to agency, extensive use of field 016 has been made by Library and Archives Canada.  Their control number structure is given below.

The language code (character position 10) identifies, with a code "E" (English) or "F" (French), a bilingual item for which two separate bibliographic records, one in English, the other in French, are produced.

In January 2001, a structural change occurred to accommodate a four digit year.

Pre-Year 2001 Control Number Structure

Name of element

Number of characters

Character position in field

Undefined

1

00

Year

2

01 - 02

Serial number

6

03 - 08

Check digit

1

09

Language code

1

10

Undefined

1

11

Revision indicator

variable

12 - n

 

Control Number Structure for 2001 and Beyond

Name of element

Number of characters

Character position in field

Year

4

00-03

Serial number

6

04 - 09

Check digit

1

10

Language code

1

11

Revision indicator

variable

12 - n

To return, select:

016  National Bibliographic Agency Control Number