Best Practices for Item Record Chronology Field

General guidelines

• Use full years (2001-2002 not 2001-02)
• Use numerical codes for months and seasons in the item record Chronology fields (Description fields, however, use spelled out form)
• For non-Western calendars with non-numerical years, liturgical seasons, etc., use words.
• Generally prefer to record true chronological designations such as coverage date or date of meeting, if these exist, over date of publication.  If it is important also to convey the date of publication, this can be done in a note in the holdings record (see Example 51 in MARC Holdings Examples). Optionally and in consultation with one’s manager, the date of publication can also be recorded in the Description field:

Description field: 1920, published 1923

• If a date is used in the Enumeration field, it should not be present in the Chronology field as well. Please note, however, that changing an established pattern of recording these dates will result in split sorting of records. 

Hierarchical nature of Chronology fields

Mirroring 85X/86X fields in MARC holdings records, Chronology fields I-M are hierarchical, with Chronology I being the highest level. Information about parts of a higher level should not be recorded in a lower hierarchical field when what is recorded in the higher level represents a span of values (i.e., involves a hyphen). In other words, details about the months of a year that are included in an item can be expressed in Chronology J only when a single year is recorded in Chronology I.

Indicating gaps

Indicate gaps through the use of a comma and space:

Description field: 1980,1982

Chronology I field: 1980, 1982

Description field: 1977:jan.,may

Chronology I field: 1977

Chronology J field: 01, 05

Special problems

Periodical issues that span calendar year

Only code highest level of chronology.

Description field: no 6 (2016:d́́́éc./2017:mai)

Chronology I field: 2016/2017

Chronology J field: blank

Winter issues published at beginning and end of same calendar year

In most cases, numbering uniquely identifies each issue, so the fact that two issues have the same chronological designation is not a problem, and their chronology can be recorded as is in the Chronology fields. 

In cases when no numbering is present and the year serves as the volume number, the year/season will be recorded as a bracketed value in the Description field only. 

In cases when no numbering is present and the year serves as the volume number, the year/season will be recorded in Enumeration fields A and B. If additional information is necessary to distinguish the two issues, information that is unique to the issue for the purposes of disambiguation may be supplied as a bracketed month of publication, a work letter, a date, or any other available information that is unique to the issue, in the Description field only. 

Case 1 -two issues with same chronological designation but numbering uniquely identifies each issue:

Description field: v.17:no.1 (2004:Winter)

Enumeration A field: 17

Enumeration B field: 1

Chronology I: 2004

Chronology J: 24

Description field: v.17:no.4 (2004:Winter)

Enumeration A field: 17

Enumeration B field: 4

Chronology I: 2004

Chronology J: 24

Case 2: no numbering present, same year/season for issues published at beginning and end of same calendar year:

Description field: 1984:Winter

Enumeration A field: 1984

Enumeration B field: 24

Description field: 1984:Winter [Dec.]

Enumeration A field: 1984

Enumeration B field: 24

Monographic series

For monographic series, it is recommended to record enumeration and chronological date in the item record only when the item record is attached to the main series record. When an item record is attached to the bibliographic record representing the individual volume, then there is no need to record volume enumeration or chronological date unless the bibliographic record represents multiple volumes (a work-in-parts) and enumeration or chronological date is needed to identify the part.  (NB: since enumeration and chronology can now be sorted independently of one another in Hollis, recording out-of-order dates of publication in the Chronology field is no longer a problem for end users.)

Bd. 3:Tb.3

Bd.3:Tb.4 (1993) [revised version of 1952 Bd.3:Tb.4, published as part of the original series and attached to main series record]