Music Library Association Best Practices for copyright date

Routinely record the element. For notated music, routinely record the latest © copyright date. For audio recordings, routinely record the latest ℗ phonogram copyright date if that date can be determined to apply to the resource as a whole; otherwise do not record a phonogram copyright date. Also record the latest © copyright date for audio recordings if deemed useful for identification or access.

Do not consider a copyright renewal date or a copyright transfer date to be a copyright date.

Do not consider a license date to be a copyright date. For dates associated with licenses refer to Manifestation: restriction on use of manifestation.

In MARC: Record as an unstructured description using field 264 (second indicator 4) subfield $c. If multiple dates applying to the resource as a whole are recorded in field 264, encode dates in the same field using multiple instances of subfield $c. Do not supply punctuation between multiple dates.

Record as a structured description using field 008 bytes 11-14 if appropriate. Multiple dates and date types may be encoded in field 008/06 and 008/07-14. Consult OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards for guidance in determining precedence of date type when coding one or more dates in field 008.

See examples in MARC format: copyright date

Apply the option. However, if multiple phonogram copyright dates are present, record only the latest date that can be determined to apply to the resource as a whole as a Manifestation: copyright date. Optionally, record multiple phonogram copyright dates in a Manifestation: note on manifestation.

Cataloger's judgment. In MARC: If applying the option, encode multiple dates of expression in field 046.

Generally do not record manifestation statements. Refer to the Best Practices for Guidance: Manifestation statements for details.

In MARC: Follow MARC input standards when recording a date in field 008; that is, record only a four-digit value, without copyright or phonogram symbols.