A. Titles and Title Types
A.1 Title¶
The following general guidelines for recording Titles largely apply across all the WVMI (Work, Variant, Manifestation, Item) entities, and all Title Types. Certain guidelines are specified as applying to one or more of the WVMI entities where pertinent.
When recording a title, apply the guidelines on capitalisation, numbers, diacritical marks, initial articles, spacing of initials and acronyms, and abbreviations, in Purpose. If those guidelines refer to an appendix, apply the additional instructions in that appendix, as applicable.2
A.1.1 Language1¶
Record titles for Works/Variants in the language and script in which they appear on the sources from which they are taken.
Transcribe titles for Manifestations/Items in the language of the title frames or screens. Otherwise, record titles for Manifestations/Items in the language and script in which they appear on the sources from which they are taken.
Optionally, record a transliterated form of the title for any of the WVMI entities either as a substitute for, or in addition to, the form that appears on the source.
A.1.2 Reflecting graphics of on-screen Titles¶
For graphics reasons, many moving image titles appear on screen all in capitals (e.g. ‘ALIEN’, ‘LAWRENCE OF ARABIA’), or all in lower case (e.g. ‘archipelago’) and some are mixed (‘ORANGES and SUNSHINE’, ‘young Hearts Run Free’).
It may be important to your institution to differentiate between a graphics decision and a linguistic decision. In some cases, the filmmakers specify that a title is meant to be written a certain way, and in those cases you may choose to follow the filmmakers’ wishes (e.g. ‘sex, lies and videotape’ is not capitalised; ‘GoodFellas’ takes a capital ‘F’ though the word is all capitals on screen.)3
A.1.3 Statements of responsibility¶
If the title on the Manifestation or Item includes a statement of responsibility, the name of a company, or a cast member, etc., do not include it as part of the title regardless of linguistic construction.
If the predominant form of the title in reference works includes a possessive statement of responsibility (e.g., “Il Casanova di Federico Fellini”/”Fellini’s Casanova”), the cataloguer may include it as part of the title. In doubtful cases, do not include the possessive statement of responsibility as part of the title. In most cases the statement of responsibility or name was not intended to be part of the title, but was included for publicity purposes. Create alternative titles for cases where, in the judgment of the cataloguer, such titles would be helpful points of access.
Example
Work
Preferred title: Victor/Victoria
Alternative title: Blake Edwards’ Victor/Victoria (title from onscreen)
Example
Work
Preferred title: Il Casanova di Federico Fellini
Alternative (Parallel) title: Fellini’s Casanova
Alternative title: Casanova
Variant
Preferred title for English language version: Fellini’s Casanova
(Research indicates that the possessive form of proper name
is part of the English release title.)
Alternative (Parallel) title for English language version:
Il Casanova di Federico Fellini
Alternative title: Casanova
Example
Work/Variant/Manifestation/Item
Preferred title: Fisherman’s luck?
Alternative (Part) title: Gandy Goose in Fisherman’s luck?
A.1.4 Possessives¶
Do not confuse possessive forms, or other grammatically related phrases, for statements of responsibility with such phrases or forms, which are not statements of responsibility, e.g., character names. Treat possessive forms as part of the title.
Example
Fatty’s wedding day
Example
Eliza’s Romeo
Example
Billy Bunter’s double
A.1.5 Other characters/unusual symbols¶
Where numbers, symbols (e.g. ½, &, +, %) or other characters (e.g. £, $, °) exist as part of the title, these should appear as they are on screen.4
An alternative title should also be added giving the numbers, symbols or characters in writing (in the language of origin) to assist in searching and sorting for list production.
Example
8½ [Preferred/Title Proper]
Otto e mezzo [Alternative]
Example
Catch-22 [Preferred/Title Proper]
Catch Twenty-two [Alternative]
Example
37°2 le matin [Preferred/Title Proper]
Trente sept deux degrees le matin [Alternative]
Trente-sept deux le matin [Alternative]
37.2 degrees in the morning [Alternative]
Example
The £25,000 kiss [Preferred/Title Proper]
The twenty five thousand pounds kiss [Alternative]
Example
Se7en [Preferred/Title Proper]
Seven [Alternative]
Where possible a word should be used as a substitute when creating the title if a symbol or graphic design used cannot be replicated, with a note explaining this. See Notes.
Example
I [heart] Huckabees [Preferred/Title Proper]
I love Huckabees [Alternative or Non-preferred]
(Onscreen title shows a heart symbol for the middle word.) [Note]
Moving images created for social media platforms and sites, e.g. YouTube, TikTok, etc. can often use mixtures of capitalisation and characters, symbols, and emojis in the titles given to them on their uploaded entries. Institutions are already starting to acquire materials from these sources, so should decide on the titling principles and stylistics they will follow and apply systematically.
Sometimes the titling of these can be challenging because they frequently do not have an actual title on the moving image itself, so the only available one that can be used is what the individual who uploaded it called it. This can often cause problems with existing titling stylistics in an institution's cataloguing systems, and also ties in with questions about how much of often long titles should be included. Thus, in the example below of a 5 hours and 21 minutes moving image uploaded onto YouTube the first part of the title is all in capitals, then after two exclamation marks moves to a mixture of capitals and lower case, and finally to all lower case:
Example
ASMR HELLO KITTY TOYS SURPRISE UNBOXING 5 HOURS !! HUGE Sanrio Mystery Blind Boxes mini toys
An institution may decide to keep the title in full and exactly as laid out for their main preferred title proper, as with the above example; or, may decide to standardise capitalisation in line with their existing practice for the main preferred title proper, e.g.
Example
ASMR Hello Kitty toys surprise unboxing 5 hours !! Sanrio mystery blind boxes mini toys [Preferred/Title Proper]
ASMR HELLO KITTY TOYS SURPRISE UNBOXING 5 HOURS !! HUGE Sanrio Mystery Blind Boxes mini toys [Alternative or Non-preferred]
(Alternative title capitalisation and punctuation reflects that of the YouTube site title) [Note]
Or further decide to remove unusual punctuations in the middle that may create searching and access issues in their systems.
Some social media platform titling incorporates identifying # key words, which is drifting into the area of descriptions, forms, and genres for which an institution may have separate fields:
Example
Part 3. Toast [bread emoji] mukbang#asmr#mukbang#food#eating#toast#bread#shorts#viralvideo#fyp
An actual bread emoji is used within the title on YouTube, so as with the I love Huckabees example above, titling options include
Example
Part 3. Toast [bread emoji] mukbang#asmr#mukbang#food#eating#toast#bread#shorts#viralvideo#fyp [Preferred/Title Proper]
Part 3. Toast mukbang#asmr#mukbang#food#eating#toast#bread#shorts#viralvideo#fyp [Alternative or Non-preferred]
(A bread emoji features after the word Toast in the YouTube site title.) [Note]
Or
Example
Part 3. Toast [bread emoji] mukbang [Preferred/Title Proper]
Part 3. Toast mukbang [Alternative or Non-preferred]
Part 3. Toast mukbang#asmr#mukbang#food#eating#toast#bread#shorts#viralvideo#fyp [Alternative or Non-preferred]
(A bread emoji features after the word Toast in the YouTube site title, and the second alternative title reflects the full titling on YouTube) [Note]
It is for an individual institution to decide on the best form of title to use in these cases, balancing exact replication or consistency of stylistics, with database capabalities, search functionalities, and user access.
-
Adapted from RDA 5.4 Language and Script ↩
-
Adapted from RDA 6.2.1.3 General Guidelines on Recording Titles of Works ↩
-
BFI CID Stylistics Manual, A.2.3 Words not to be capitalised (unless the last word of the title), p. 10 ↩
-
BFI CID Stylistics Manual, A.2.4.4 Numerals in the title; A.2.4.5 & (ampersand) occurring in a title; A.2.4.6 Other characters; A.2.4.7 Unusual symbols not on the system ↩