Music Library Association Best Practices for date of expression

Prerecording

Record the element in bibliographic records if deemed useful for identification or selection. Note that for recordings the date of expression is usually equivalent to Expression: date of capture.

Do not record the element in authority records that may represent more than a single expression.

LC/PCC Core when needed to differentiate an expression of a work from another expression of the same work.

LC/PCC practice: See the Metadata Guidance documentation: Expressions.

LC/PCC practice: See the Metadata Guidance documentation: Series/subseries: Expression: date of expression.

Condition Option

Apply the option.

Recording

In MARC: In bibliographic records: Record as a structured description using field 046 (first indicator 2) subfields $k, $l, $o, and $p as appropriate.

Option

LC/PCC practice: Record dates in terms of the Gregorian calendar.

Option

LC/PCC practice: Apply the option unless a more specific date is needed to distinguish one expression from another expression.

Recording an unstructured description

Record dates in EDTF format. In MARC: Identify the vocabuary encoding scheme using the $2 code edtf.

Recording a structured description

Recording an identifier

Recording an IRI

View in Context Example

Document Date: 2025/03/25
Document: https://stage.rdatoolkit.org/en-US_ala-a8187902-30f0-30de-8396-7999b1da34b4