11.2 Title Types

This manual recommends a title + title type approach for the treatment of various titles that may be associated with any Moving Image Work, Variant, Manifestation or Item (WVMI).

This would be done with separate title and title type fields in close proximity.

However, this approach is optional, considering that not all systems may be able to accommodate title types in fields that establish the relationship of the title type to the title. Additionally, not all systems will be able to represent clearly the WVMI entities. In such cases, where possible or considered useful, it is recommended that the title + title type include an additional element or description intended to denote the entity to which it belongs. The underlying philosophy is to associate as many titles to the respective entities as possible, within the bounds of time/resources and systems, to facilitate discovery.

The different titles types have been combined in a single section to aid in real-world cataloguing, where one may have an item-in-hand but be making assessments about the title of the Work or Variant associated with the Item, as well as physical characteristics that are particular to the Item but which do not signal a change in the content itself. This is often the case for archival moving images where titles can be readily changed, misidentified by a well-meaning collector, or completely eliminated before the material reaches an institution.⁵

For guidance on wording, order, spelling, punctuation, accentuation and capitalisation, see Purpose.

For sources of information for the Title, see Sources of Information.

Primary Title Types ⁶

Work	Variant	Manifestation	Item
Identifiying	Identifiying
Preferred	Preferred
		Title Proper	Title Proper
Other title information	Other title information	Other title information	Other title information
Alternative	Alternative	Alternative	Alternative
Supplied/Devised	Supplied/Devised	Supplied/Devised	Supplied/Devised

11.2.1 Preferred

The title of a moving image Work or Variant when first released, broadcast, published or transmitted (i.e. mounted online) in the country or countries of origin ( see Country of Reference.

The preferred title is the chief name (also referred to as “main” or “original” title) of any moving image Work or Variant. The preferred title may include part title and series/serial information for moving image materials issued in multiple parts, e.g., episodes in a film or TV serial. See Moving images with probable or questionable titles.

In cases where the preferred Work/Variant title cannot be determined but there is a title on the Manifestation/Item, the title on the Manifestation/Item being catalogued may be used as the preferred title for the Work or Variant.

If the preferred title is ascertained at some point and is different from the Manifestation/Item title, the Manifestation/Item title may then be added to the Work or Variant as an alternative title.

When no title at all can be found for a Work or Variant, follow the procedure set out in the Supplied/Devised Titles (i.e. Creating titles for untitled/unidentified entities or production material) section.

11.2.2 Identifying (i.e. Uniform or Display)¹

A title that differentiates Works or Variants and which is designed for identification and differentiation purposes in display, i.e. the title which displays in search results.⁷

An identifying title is designed to identify the entity it represents quickly and concisely to as many users as possible, including users both familiar and unfamiliar with the entity being identified. This type of title will not be necessary in all systems, such as those utilising unique identifiers (e.g., ISAN or EIDR), or those that index other distinguishing elements in separate fields that will display with the title in search results, e.g., Year of reference. In those cases the Identifying and Preferred title will often be one and the same.

Where separate fields do not exist, create an identifying title using the preferred title of the Work/Variant as the starting point (if no title, see Partially Supplied/Devised Titles).⁸

Add whatever additions to the title are necessary to identify the Work/Variant and distinguish it from other Works/Variants with the same title.⁹ These types of additions are traditionally made within the title field itself (in parentheses or brackets) although other punctuation separators, e.g. full stop may also be used. Use multiple additions where necessary. If multiple additions must be made to the title field in order to identify the Work/Variant, distinguish each addition (e.g., through the use of punctuation such as space colon space, or space full stop space).

Example

Blade runner. Final Cut. 1982

Possible qualifiers include content terms (see for example D.18 List of form terms for Supplied/Devised titles), corporate bodies that are not principal creators of the Work/Variant but are closely associated with the Work/Variant and useful for identification of it, place of publication/release/distribution/broadcast, and date of publication/release/distribution/broadcast.¹⁰

Works:

Example

A Star is born (Motion picture : 1954)

A Star is born (Television programme : 1961)

Variants:

Example

Police story III – Supercop. English subtitled version

Blade runner (Motion picture. 1982. 2007 version)

Blade runner (Motion picture. 1987. 25th anniversary edition)

It is not necessary to append Variant information to the Work identifying title for every type of Variant; many of the types of modifications that lead to Variants are too complex to include and much of the data that identifies a particular Variant will consist of data elements that form part of the Variant description.

11.2.3 Title Proper

The title of a moving image Manifestation or Item. This is a transcribed element, reflecting the title as it appears onscreen.

Manifestations

The title proper corresponds to that of the Manifestation of a Work/Variant, i.e. the title used for a theatrical 35mm release, the title used for a DVD release, the title used for a Television broadcast, the title used for an Internet release, etc. It may reflect the title used in secondary sources or the title as viewed by the cataloguer from a moving image Item belonging to the considered Manifestation. It is the chief name of any Manifestation and represents the primary access point.¹¹

Ideally record in a note or dedicated field the source of the title proper.

If it is impossible to determine the title proper or if the Manifestation is the embodiment of a Work not intended to have a formal title, construct a supplied/devised title (see Supplied/Devised Titles (i.e. Creating titles for untitled/unidentified entities or production material)).

Specify in a note or dedicated field if the title proper is not determinable or if the Manifestation embodies a Work not intended to have a formal title.

Items ¹²

Ascertaining the Title Proper of Items differs from ascertaining those for Works, Variants and Manifestations in that what is on or affixed to the Item or physical copy itself takes precedence.

The title of an Item may differ, either slightly or wholly, from the title of the Manifestation and/or Work/Variant to which it is linked hierarchically. In particular, where an incomplete physical product of the Manifestation has been acquired (see Analytics/Components of identified newsreels/cinemagazines).

If it is not possible to establish a title from either the Item or its container then secondary sources or a supplied/devised title can be used.

Titles should be transcribed in accordance with the cataloguing guidelines and stylistics applied to Works/Variants and Manifestations.

Items may also have title-like information on film leader, cans, and containers.

Ideally, the title proper of an Item is determined by the following:

i) The title frame or frames, or title screen or screens, or title that is permanently printed on, affixed to, or embedded in the resource.

ii) If the resource contains none of (i), then use any label bearing a title that is physically affixed to or within the container of the item, or printed on accompanying textual material.

iii) In the absence of either (i) or (ii), and if catalogued within a WVMI structure, then replicate the title of the Manifestation to which the Item will be linked.

iv) In the absence of either (i) or (ii), and either not catalogued within a WVMI structure, or Work and Manifestation have not yet been identified, then a supplied/devised title should be created. In the latter instance, any subsequently created Work and Manifestation to be linked to the Item record should have the same title and a supplied/devised title type (See Supplied/Devised Titles (i.e. Creating titles for untitled/unidentified entities or production material)).

11.2.4 Other Title information²

Other Work/Variant/Manifestation/Item title (WVMI) information is defined as a word or phrase appearing in conjunction with, and subordinate to the title, and which qualifies, explains, or completes the title to which it applies or which is indicative of the character, contents, etc., of the WVMI, or the motives for, or occasion of, its production or publication.

Other title information includes subtitles, avant-titres, etc., but does not include alternative titles.¹³ Cataloguers may constitute subordinate phrases as part of the Work or Variant title when, in their judgment, such phrases form an integral part of the preferred title.

If other title information appearing on the Manifestation/Item is considered to be important (either for identification or for access), transcribe it as it appears on the source of information, following the principle of transcription and according to the general guidelines on transcription given in Relationship of FIAF Cataloguing Rules to Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Resource Description and Access (RDA) and The European Standards Committee (CEN) Cinematographic Works Standard EN 15907, section entitled “Representation (or principle of transcription).

Example

Dr. Strangelove, or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

Example

Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero, Stamattina alle 10 in Via del Fiore nella nota casa di tolleranza

Example

Claymation: three dimensional clay animation

Example

This Britain: Heritage of the sea

Distinguish the other title information through the use of spacing or punctuation, or a separate or dedicated field. If a general material designation is used, place it after the preferred title and before other title information.¹⁴

Example

Claymation [motion picture]: three dimensional clay animation

Example

This Britain [motion picture]: Heritage of the sea

11.2.4.1 Abridging or omitting other title information

If other title information is lengthy or of very minor importance, either give it in a note or omit it. See Appendix B, Cataloguer’s Notes. Abridge other title information only if this can be done without essential loss of information.¹⁵

If other title information is clearly of very minor importance, for example a newsreel slogan, or it is an avant-titre which grammatically cannot follow the title proper, place it in a note.¹⁶

Example

CBS news special. Challenge in the coal mines : (other title information) men against their union

But (without separation into “title proper” and “other title information”):

Example

Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt

Pompeii, frozen in Fire

11.2.5 Alternative³

Ensures that users can search under any variation of the title that has been used for a Work, Variant, Manifestation or Item, and be led to the content or particular physical object that they seek.

Alternative titles for the Work differ from uniform, preferred, and other title information and may be encountered in the course of cataloguing its Variants, Manifestations and Items. If the Work could reasonably be sought under the title(s) of one of these Variants/Manifestations, the alternative title should be indexed in such a way that a user who searches on it is led to the Work.

Alternative titles for the Manifestation differ from the title proper or other title information.¹⁷

Alternative titles on a Manifestation can have a different nature, expressing the possible different designations of the Manifestation during its production, release, publication or archival history that may be different from the title proper or parallel titles.

Ideally record in a note the source(s) for the alternative title(s).

Some institutions may wish to name the type of alternative title. Record the Alternative Title Type by taking the most suitable term from a controlled list elaborated in-house or referring to an authoritative existing list.

If no specific alternative title type is known, the information can be omitted.

A controlled list, not exhaustive and open to further and continued implementation, is suggested below:

11.2.5.1 Alternative title types

• Working: A provisional title, given during the production or the manufacturing process.¹⁸

• Acquisition title: A title under which a moving image was acquired, with no other discernible title discovered.

• Pre-release title: A provisional title, given to the Manifestation before the release or publication with the definitive title of the related Work.¹⁹

• Abbreviated title: A title given in order to designate it quickly by the institution.²⁰

• Translated title: A title given to designate the Manifestation in the language of the institution, in a literally translated form (not to be confused with the Parallel title).²¹

• Transliterated title: A title given to designate the Manifestation in the alphabet of the institution, following international standards of transliteration, such as ISO 9 (not to be confused with the Parallel title).²²

• Corrected title: A title given in the corrected form by the institution, when it is recorded incorrectly in the sources of information, if it is considered to be important (either for identification or for access).²³

• Help/Search: Titles which may or may not have been used in verified sources but which clearly help when searching. Use the “Help/Search” title type for stylistic variations including, abbreviations (e.g., Dr./Doctor), numerals (e.g., 45/forty five), acronyms (e.g., FIAF/International Federation of Film Archives) symbols and other characters (e.g., &/and, £/pound), different spelling (Southsea/South Sea).²⁴

Example

The fast & the furious 5

The fast and the furious 5

The fast & the furious 5 Rio heist

The fast and the furious 5 Rio heist

Fast & furious 5

Fast and furious 5

Fast & furious 5 Rio heist

Fast and furious 5 Rio heist

The fast & the furious five

The fast and the furious five

The fast & the furious five Rio heist

• Series/Serial title: the series/serial title of a Work that constitutes an episode/part

Example

Mary Tyler Moore show = Series/Serial Title

Chuckles bites the dust = Preferred Title

(see Title)

• Parallel title : the title in another language or script.

In most cases, a Parallel title correlates to Variants for different language versions.

For archival moving image cataloguing, the concept of a parallel title includes any title qualifying as a preferred title but which is not used as the preferred Work title (e.g. parallel titles for international co-productions, a title which cannot be reproduced) and any title by which the Work is commonly known to users and researchers.

Parallel titles are recorded with wording and spelling as established by an appropriate principal source. Where this involves transcription between scripts, use an appropriate standard for transliterations.²⁵

Example

Chandralekha [No English language title translation available;

archive holds Indian release copy – title is romanized.]

When a title is an international co-production, or is produced in a bi- or multi-lingual country of origin, and is released simultaneously under separate titles in the languages of the country of origin or countries of co-production as well as in other languages, record all the parallel titles in the languages of the countries of co-production and in the language of the copy the institution holds, if it is in an additional language.

If it cannot be determined whether the Work was released simultaneously or the release order cannot be determined, the cataloguer should select one of the qualifying titles in accordance with a consistent policy (for example from a list of languages in the institution’s preferred order, or by reference to an authoritative source.) ^{26 27}

Historically, parallel titles have been placed within the title field itself, following the preferred title and an equal sign to represent the title frame (i.e., the fact that both titles appear onscreen). These guidelines recommend the use of separate fields that distinguish between the preferred title and any subsequent parallel title(s) but if this is not possible, the older approach is acceptable.

Example

Der Fangschuss = Coup de grâce [Work is a German-French co-production. The Work was released in the U.S. under the French title.]

Der Fangschuss (Preferred Title)

Coup de grâce (Parallel Title)

Alternatively, an institution may opt to have fewer Title Types and simply use Preferred and Alternative Title Types (i.e., designating parallel titles as Alternative Title Types). For example, with co-productions, a Preferred title for the Work is established with all other language titles added both as Alternative title types to the Work and as the Title Proper/Other Title of an associated Variant and/or Manifestation.

A parallel title of a Manifestation corresponds to the title proper in another language or script.²⁸

Record in a note the source of the parallel title, as appropriate. Institutions may choose to distinguish between distinct Parallel and Alternative title types or adopt a wider definition of “Alternative” which incorporates both.

For parallel titles of a Manifestation distributed in distinct geographical regions, record the region(s) to which the parallel title applies.

(For the treatment of the geographical names, see Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), or some other recognised standard.)

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1. Term “Identifying title” corresponds with EN 15907. This is the equivalent of “Uniform title” in FRBR and “Preferred title” in RDA. ↩

2. Adapted from FIAF, 1.4. Other title information, p. 25. ↩

3. Adapted from YCR, 1.3 Work access, p. 39. ↩

4. This section, including form terms and examples, is based on or taken from FIAF 1.4.3 Additions to titles;Yee/UCLA 5.1.2; AMIM2 1F1.1 ↩

5. FIAF Cataloguing Rules, p. xiii ↩

6. For simplicity’s sake, this table does not present sub-types of Title Types, i.e., sub-types of Alternative and Supplied/Devised titles. Suggested sub-types and definitions can be found under the headings for the primary Title Types. ↩

7. OLAC TF, Part 3a, p. 5. ↩

8. Both YCR (0.9.3 Normalized human-readable identifiers or headings) and EN 15907 (6.4 Identifying Title) recommend the construction of a human-readable identifier for result list displays, with disambiguation using data such as Genre, Year, etc. ↩

9. YCR, 0.9.3 Normalized human-readable identifiers or headings, p. 8 ↩

10. YCR, 1.1.2.3 Unique identifiers for works identified by title, pp. 21-22 ↩

11. In this FRBR-based context, the title of a moving image Manifestation corresponds strictly to the traditionally ISBD concept of “title proper”. Vice versa, in the previous FIAF Rules the title proper was defined as “the title of the original release in the country the origin”, which, in a FRBR-based approach, corresponds to the “preferred title” of a Moving Image Work. ↩

12. Item Title Types and definitions taken from BFI CID Stylistics Manual. 2nd Edition. May 2012 ↩

13. FIAF glossary and FIAF 1992, 1.4: “Other title information: a word or phrase, or a group of characters appearing in conjunction with, and subordinate to, the title proper of the item. Other title information also occurs in conjunction with and subordinate to: parallel titles, variations of the title proper, episode titles, contents titles, titles of series, or of subseries. Other title information qualifies, explains or completes that title to which it applies, or is indicative of the character, contents, etc. of the item or the Works contained in it, or is indicative of the motive for, or the occasion of, the item’s production. The term includes subtitles and avant-tîtres.” Differently, in the RDA glossary and RDA 2.3.4: “Other title information is information that appears in conjunction with, and is subordinate to, the title proper of a resource. It may include any phrase appearing in conjunction with the title proper that is indicative of the character, content, etc. of the resource or the motives for, or occasion of, its production of publication. Other title information includes subtitles, avant-titres, etc., but does not include variations on the title proper such as spine titles, sleeve titles, etc. (see 2.3.6 ) or designations and/or names of parts, sections, or supplements (see 2.3.1.7 ).” ↩

14. FIAF, 1.4.1.1, 1.4.1.2., 1.4.1.3., pp. 25-26. ↩

15. FIAF, 1.4.2, p. 26. ↩

16. Based on FIAF 1.4.2 ↩

17. The definition is based on the explanation of the “Variant title” title given in RDA (glossary and 2.3.6), but in this case, to avoid confusion with the “Variant” entity, the term “Alternative” has been adopted. The main reference and reason for this choice is the FIAF Glossary where “Alternative title” is in parallel with the RDA “Variant title” and practically with the same meaning: FIAF Glossary, 2008 revision, A 1.12 “Alternative Title, Alternative title. Any title by which a film is known other than the Original Title”. ↩

18. Based on FIAF 1.3. ↩

19. Based on FIAF 1.3. ↩

20. Based on FIAF 1.3. ↩

21. Based on FIAF 1.3. ↩

22. Based on FIAF 1.3. ↩

23. Based on RDA 2.3.6. ↩

24. CID Stylistics Manual – 2nd edition. BFI. 2011. ↩

25. FIAF, 1.3. Parallel title, p. 22. ↩

26. FIAF, 1.3.4., pp. 23-24. ↩

27. Such lists will normally give preference to the languages most familiar to researchers in the country of the archive. For example, the standard list for archival moving image cataloguing in the United States is: 1. U.S. title (if an American company is involved in the production). 2. U.K. title (if a British company is involved in the production). 3. Other English language title (if an English language speaking country is involved in the production). 4. French title (if a French company is involved in the production). 5. German title (if a German-speaking country is involved in the production). 6. Other Romance language title (if these language companies are involved in the production). 7. Other Germanic language title (if these language companies are involved in the production). ↩

28. Differences between FIAF 1992 and RDA: FIAF expands the concept of Parallel title to any title qualifying as an original but not used as a title proper (the attempt was to include as many alternative titles as possible), but gives to the archives the responsibility to decide whether to enter them in the appropriate area or in the Notes area. RDA makes a distinction among the different characteristics of a title and considers the parallel title strictly as “the title proper in another language or script”. In this context the RDA approach has been considered more appropriate. ↩

29. Based on OLAC (2009), Part 3a, pp. 8-9. ↩