AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource |
E. Style and Format Guidelines |
When composing biographies, abstracts and notes for AustLit records a few general matters of style should be followed uniformly. Widespread variations exist as a result of the way Austlit has developed. It will not be possible to carry out a retrospective standardisation of style throughout the database but wherever possible please amend records to make them consistent with these guidelines.
The following extracts from the MLA Handbook may be useful for those accustomed to other documentation styles (Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for the Writers of Research Papers. 4th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995.)
Within the Biography, Notes and Abstract fields, italicise the titles of works published independently : names of books, plays, long poems published as books, pamphlets, periodicals (newspapers, magazines, and journals), films, radio and television programs, compact discs, audiocassettes, record albums, ballets, operas, instrumental musical compositions, paintings, works of sculpture, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft (MLA Handbook, Section 2.6.2)
In the Title field in AustLit we can't use italics for titles within titles so we just have to hope that the capitalisation makes sense of where the title of a separately published work starts and finishes eg. The Shape of Indeterminacy in Patrick White's Fringe of Leaves and David Malouf's Remembering Babylon http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=C{k7 It is wrong to put these titles of separately published works in inverted commas because this implies that they are published within other works and is more misleading than nothing at all. There are a lot of examples where this has been done. Feel free to correct when you come across them. The lesser of the two evils is just to leave them unpunctuated.
Within the Biography, Notes and Abstract fields, use single quotation marks for unpublished works such as lectures and speeches and for the titles of works published within larger works: articles, essays, short stories, short poems, chapters of books, and individual epidodes of television and radio programs.
In the Title field in AustLit we can represent titles of works published within other works by using single inverted commas, as in Cliff Hanna's critical article on John Shaw Neilson's 'The Orange Tree', 'The Orange Tree' and the Limitations of Poetry: http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=CAY]
Quotes in titles:
If a title includes a quotation (from a poem, speech etc. etc.), or if an author has used quotes for emphasis etc. this should be preserved in our representation of the title, (although single inverted commas should be substituted for double)
e.g.
a) 'Woful Shepherds' : Anti-Pastoral in Australian Poetry (http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=C%233iI ) The author is quoting from a poem by Milton.
b) Patrick White: 'Failure' as Ontology (http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=CHhH ) The author wishes to emphasis the word 'failure'
Also use single quotation marks for quotations throughout.
Use maximum capitalisation when entering titles in AustLit,
EXCEPTION - Foreign Language titles - diacritics and capitals. Until our system moves to unicode, we must continue to strip diacritics from titles. When copying and pasting from library catalogues do not try to change their capitalisation to MLA style - we may make things worse not better as capitalisation conventions differ from language to language.
Capitalise according to the rules in the (MLA Handbook, Section 2.6.1) which are listed below. SEE ALSO some extra explanation at the end of this section.
In both titles and subtitles, capitalise the first words, the last words, and all principal words, including those that follow hyphens in compound terms e.g. Post-Colonial. Therefore capitalise the following parts of speech:
Do not capitalise the following parts of speech when they fall in the middle of a title:
EXAMPLES
EXTRA NOTE ABOUT CAPITALISTION: prepositions (above, across, against, along, among, at, below, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, despite, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, minus, near, next to, of, off, on, onto, opposite, out of, outside, over, past, per, plus, since, through, throughout, till, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, up to, upon, versus, via, with, within, without), conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), and articles (a, an, the) not occurring at the beginning of the title or subtitle are normally shown in lower case letters. The same rule applies to headings and subheadings as well. Occasionally, one may get confused as to whether a word should or should not be capitalized when a preposition is not used as a preposition but as a noun or an adverb in a title.For eamples see the following website http://www.bydewey.com/4format.html#capitalization
EXCEPTION FOR PREPOSITIONS: •Prepositions that belong to a phrasal verb e.g. How to Back Up a Computer)./p>
NB. First lines of poems should be entered exactly as they are presented on the work in regards to capitalisation and punctuation.
The following examples are a guide to styles for citing books and journal aticles in text fields such as Biographies, Abstracts, and Notes and the BAL Further Information field. The journal citations follow the MLA style except for pagination extent, other examples are BAL style but can be used in AustLit.
No diacritics are fully supported in AustLit and so none should be used in any searchable fields other than notes. Please ensure that you strip non-supported diacritics from titles and other text. Where necessary a note should be added giving information on the work/agent with the necessary diacritics, for example if adding an agent such as Heinrich Boll, add a note saying 'This author is more generally represented with the name in this form : Heinrich Bõll'.Discuss problems of interpretation/translation with content managers or language specialists.
The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) Section 1.5B4 pp.43-45 and 2.5B, pp.71-76. is the authority for determining and describing extent. The extent of an item can be recorded using the following common terms and abbreviations:
| p. |
pages
an item with pages printed on both sides. Use Roman numerals for recording preface/introduction data and Arabic numerals to indicate the number of pages within the main body of work.(eg. xi, 97p.). |
|
|
When the pagination consists of just Arabic numerals (eg. 97), don't add the 'p.', as it will be generated automatically. However, when you enter both Roman and Arabic numerals, you will need to enter 'p.' at the end (eg. xi, 97 p.). Use a comma to separate these elements. |
| leaves |
leaves
an item with unnumbered leaves printed on only one side Do not use the abbreviation l.(eg. 6 l.) as this is too easily mistaken for a numeral 1 in our font. |
| v. |
volume(s)
an item is not paginated (eg. 1v. or 2 v.), or is multi-volumed (eg. 2 v. or 4 v.) |
| min. / sec. |
minutes, seconds
an item which is a audio or visual recording |
| MB. / KB. / GB. |
megabyte, kilobyte, gigabyte
for recording the size of an electronic object (document, image, etc.), eg. 926 MB. |
| Folded leaves |
an item which is made up of folded leaves. |
| Parts |
an item consisting of more than one part. |
When creating records for monographs and other complete works, enter the details in an Extent attribute at the manifestation level, using the relevant extent descriptions.
Use the [Brackets] option if the item is unnumbered and you have counted the pages. If it is a large unnumbered item, estimating the page numbers is entirely appropriate, but place 'ca.' before the numbers, as well as using the [Brackets] option.
When recording the extent of an article, poem, short story, etc., which is published in a journal, anthology, collection, etc., enter the page span (eg. 35-45) in the PAGE INFO field of the Source attribute at the expression level. An automatically generated 'pp.' will appear in the display (NB. pp. means multiple pages, and is only used in this instance). Use the [Brackets] option if the pages are unnumbered and you have counted them.
For personal names, use the form 'Surname, Other names (Title/honorific)', eg. 'Lee, Benjamin (Major)'. If a personal name is given in the form of a statement, record as given, eg. 'Australian Colonist' or 'A Gentle Midwife', not 'Colonist, Australian' or 'Midwife, A Gentle'.
For organisation names, record the name as a statement, eg. 'Angus & Robertson', 'Association for the Study of Australian Literature', 'The University of Melbourne'.
If there is any confusion about the preferred form of a name, check relevant authorities for clarification. For Australians, check Libraries Australia, the National Library of Australia Catalogue, or the Australian Dictionary of Biography. For non-Australians, the first two sources mentioned above are also useful.
For publishers' names refer to special instructions relating to forms of publishers' names.
For agents whose names include separately written prefixes, follow the English-speaking practice of entering the surname under the prefix (AACR II p.396ff.) and capitalising the relevant article or preposition. For example, D'Alpuget, Blanche, not d'Alpuget, Blanche; Van Toorn, Penny, not Toorn, Penny van or van Toorn, Penny. See http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=Cx%2ba.
Always check for possible variations in methods of entering an agent's name to avoid duplication.
Note: Where a work has been published under an AKA this information should be recorded in the 'Written As' field. When the common name (eg. Thomas Keneally) is chosen at the Creation of Work level on the work record the name variation (eg. 'Written as Tom Keneally' ) will then be entered in the field for example Keneally's Bettany's Book : http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=CedP. Use the exact wording on the manifestation if possible.
If a pseudonym is used as the Common name it should be enclosed in single quotes.
Do not use honorific abbreviations - AO, KCMG, FRCS etc.- in either the Common Name field or the AKA field. They may occasionally be necessary in biographies or notes and should be represented there without punctuation.
Do not use personal titles (eg. Rev, Sir, Honourable, Dr, Mrs, Captain) in the Common Name field.
A title or honorific may be recorded in the AKA field (eg. Rev, Sir, Honourable, Dr, Mrs, Captain) if it is is clearly stated on the title page (or on the cover, in the absence of a title page)of a work. In this case it should also appear in the "Written as' field.
EXCEPTION: Include the title 'Mrs' in the Common Name field if a female agent has published using the title together with her husband's name(s) or initials, or her initial and surname, or her surname (eg. Mrs Alick Macleod, Mrs W. C. Browne, Mrs A. Blitz). The name should be represented as
Browne, Mrs W. C. :http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A-DX
Macleod, Mrs Alick : http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A-7@
Blitz, Mrs A. : http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A(Fj
Use full stops and spaces to separate initials. Eg. 'Milne, R. A. C. V.', rather than 'Milne, R.A.C.V.', 'Milne, RACV', or 'Milne, R A C V'.
If a work is created under a name consisting solely of the agent's initials, enter the initials as they are given. Eg. if Henry Edward Martin also published using his initials, H. E. M., the name should be entered as H. E. M.. The name should not be entered as M., H. E., even though the authority form of his full name is: Martin, Henry Edward. When agents create works using only their initials, their initials may be entered as their Common Name (if we don't know who they are) or as an alternative writing name (using the Uses Alternative Writing Name attribute).
No diacritics are fully supported in AustLit and so none should be used in any searchable fields other than notes. Please ensure that you strip non-supported diacritics from titles and other text. Where necessary a note should be added giving information on the work/agent with the necessary diacritics, for example if adding an agent such as Heinrich Boll, add a note saying 'This author is more generally represented with the name in this form : Heinrich Bõll'.Discuss problems of interpretation/translation with content managers or language specialists.
The AustLit stores dates and year information relating to a range of different events - dates of birth and death, dates of publication, dates of arrival in Australia. AustLit also includes dates and date information relating to subjects and settings of works. Dates may be a simple year, a range of years, or eras.
For Works
For published material featuring dates of publication, use the year which is recorded on the manifestation item (eg. on the title page or verso of a book; cover insert of a CD; header or title page of a Internet text or periodical, etc.). For published items without publication details (eg. early Australian novels, poems, etc.) or unpublished items (eg. manuscripts), further research may be required.
For Agents
Check relevant authorities to identify the birth name for the particular agent (eg. contact with the agent, birth certificate, Registry of Births, archives, or another authoritative reference source). The information is considered 'known' if found in any of these types of sources.
Before Christ (B.C.)
To represent a B.C. date, simply put a '-' (minus) symbol in front of the date. A good example is the agent record for Julius Casar: http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A2En
Year
In many cases, the information recorded is a four digit year, eg. 1800, 1994, 2001.
Full Date
In AustLit text fields - notes, abstracts, biograpies etc. - record dates in the following way: 26 May 1945 (not May 23, May 23rd etc. Spell out months in full. Follow this in Issue details field for periodicals/newspapers. Special forms of dates are required for sighted notes for websites where the date is recorded in the form: dd/mm/yyyy e.g. 26/05/1945.
Date Range
Use the form 'starting year-ending year' with no spaces around the hyphen. A date range can be used to indicate, for example, that the date range of a run of a periodical (eg. 1956-1990), or that an issue runs over the end of a year (eg. enter December/January in the PERIOD field and record the year at the Manifestation level as 2000-2001).
Decades and Centuries
For decades, use the form 'xxx0-xxx9' (eg. 1940-1949). For centuries, use the form 'xx00-xx99' (eg. 1800-1899). The date information will render as a phrase in the display of a record. Eg. 1900-1999 will display as '20th Century', and 1920-1929 will display as '1920s'.
Eras
To represent an era for temporal subjects and settings, enter a year or a year range and choose the relevant subject concept from the Thesaurus. For example World War II as a subject concept and 1939-1945 as a date range.
Not Recorded on Item, but Certain
When the date is not recorded on the item, but you have evidence of the correct date, the date is displayed to the user in square brackets, eg. [1906], as this represents that the information is surmised and not taken from the source. To render the square brackets when entering such a date, click on the [Brackets] box next to the particular attribute field.
Concluding date in date range not known
To represent a continuing or open-ended date period enter the start date followed by a hyphen and the year 2999. For example to indicate that Nathan Hollier and Katherine Wilson took up editorship of the journal Overland in 2003 and are still the editors, enter the year in which they began their tenure, 2003, and a concluding year 2999. This last date will not appear and the date will display as 2003 - . See Overland http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowWork&workId=CZsR.
Circa
May be provided to indicate an approximate date, which the system renders with a 'ca.' prefix, eg. a publication year, [ca.1906], indicates that there is evidence that the item was published sometime around 1906. To render the circa prefix when entering such a date, click on the circa box next to the particular attribute field. To render the square brackets, click on the [Brackets] box.
Not Recorded on Item, still Uncertain
When the date is not recorded on an item, and there is uncertainty about the year of publication, give a 'best guess' at a year or year range, based on research or experience. When research indicates it is likely that a publication appeared in 1906, use a date span such as [1905-1906] or [1906-1907] to represent the date. This practice differs from the traditional use of '1906?'. To render the square brackets when entering such a date, click on the [Brackets] box next to the particular attribute field. To represent the date more fully, provide information regarding the date in a Note, eg. 'Evidence from Morris Miller suggests that this book was published in 1906, however there is still some doubt.'
Unknown Year, Known Decade
Year is not known, but the decade may be known (or guessed at). Use the form [xxx0-xxx9], eg. [1920-1929]. To render the square brackets when entering such a date, click on the [Brackets] box next to the particular attribute field.
Unknown Year, Known Century
Year is not known, but the century may be known (or guessed at). Use the form [xx00-xx99], eg. [1800-1899]. To render the square brackets when entering such a date, click on the [Brackets] box next to the particular attribute field.
Date Recorded on Item, but Incorrect
Record the date that is correct, but use square brackets (by clicking on the [Brackets] box next to the particular attribute field), and include information about the date as shown on the manifestation in a Note field. Eg. for a book published in 1986, which features the date of publication as 1968, enter [1986] as the publication date, and a note such as 'Date incorrectly printed as 1968'.
NO DATE [n.d.]
If there is no date on the item and there is no reliable evidence to give an approximate date even by estimating, or if you are copy-cataloguing from an existing record where this has been used, use the [n.d.] option. In the date field enter -9900 and this will render in the public screen as [n.d.]. This feature won't be used too often but will be useful for people doing the retrospective BAL work.
The system will allow searching based on exact and 'fuzzy' dates.
If an agent's birth year is entered as [1906], the system would only return this date in an exact match on 1906, or in a range including this date.
If the year is entered as ca.1906, the system would only return this date in an exact match on 1906, or in a range including this date.
If the year is entered as 1912-1914, the system would return this date in an exact match on 1912, 1913 or 1914, or in a range including any of those years (and hence for a range constructed if the query asked for agents born in the era 'World War I').
Most of the Austlit functions are accessible by using either the keyboard or the mouse. Try to use the keyboard as much as possible for carrying out maintenance tasks. You can TAB through all dialogue boxes and edit screens, using ENTER to activate a function (use SHIFT + TAB to move backwards). The following instructions include other keyboard shortcuts and hints for using special features and elements of Austlit.
The following keyboard shortcuts are available in the Maintain Agent or Maintain Work modules.
| F2 | When pressed in an attribute text field, F2 displays a list of common terms/phrases appropriate to that field. These standard text selections will save keystokes and ensure consistency of terminology and style. To cancel the list, hit ESC. A term/phrase may be selected from the list and inserted in the text field by using the up/down arrows and then hitting ENTER, or by double-clicking on the relevant term/phrase. |
| F7 | Deletes the currently selected attribute. Does not work if the attribute is mandatory and cannot be deleted (eg. Title attribute). |
| F8 | Repeats the currently selected attribute. Does not work if the attribute can only be assigned once (eg. Gender attribute). |
| F9 | Repeats the last 'add attribute' action (whether initiated by clicking on the '+' icon, selecting an attribute from a drop-down list, or pressing F8). |
| F11 | Toggles between full screen view or regular view of the Internet Explorer window. |
| TAB
| Moves forward through elements or fields of a record. |
| SHIFT + TAB
| Moves backward through elements or fields of a record. |
| ESC
| Closes a dialogue box. |
| PAGE UP / PAGE DOWN
| Scrolls the cursor toward the beginning or end of a document or record in large increments (except when the cursor is in a field or text box, in which case it moves toward the beginning or end of the field/text box). |
| HOME / END
| Moves the cursor to the beginning or end of a document or record (except when the cursor is in a field or text box, in which case it moves to the beginning or end of the field/text box). |
| ALT + F4
| Closes the current Internet Explorer window and returns to the previous activity (or the previous Internet Explorer window if more than one is open). |
| ALT + U
|
Updates the Maintain Agent/Maintain Work record. |
| ALT + C
|
Cancels the Maintain Agent/Maintain Work function. |
| ALT + S
|
In the choose dialog box, shows the record for the agent/work selected from the search results field. |
| ALT + N
|
In the choose dialog box, opens a Maintain Agent/Maintain Work screen for a new agent/work. |
| ALT + E
|
In the choose dialog box, opens the Maintain Agent/Maintain Work screen for an existing agent/work selected from the search results field. |
| ALT + O
|
In the choose dialog box, activates the OK button. |
| CTRL + C
| Copies the selected text. |
| CTRL + X
| Cuts the selected text. |
| CTRL + V
| Pastes the selected text. |
Repeats the currently selected attribute. The '+' icon is located on the right-hand side of the particular attribute field or event section.
NB. If the '+' icon is not present, the attribute or event can only be assigned once (eg. Gender attribute).
Deletes the currently selected attribute. The '–' icon is located on the right-hand side of the particular attribute field or event section.
NB. If the '–' icon is not present, the attribute is mandatory and cannot be deleted (eg. Title attribute).
Opens a text editor dialog box. The text editor is available for certain attributes (eg. Biography, Abstract).
Clicking on the paintbrush icon opens up a separate dialogue box which facilitates typing of extended text, and provides formatting options for the text (eg. to italicise a book title referred to in a Note attribute). To save text formatting changes in the text editor, click on SAVE. To cancel the text editor function without saving any changes, click on CANCEL. You should then be returned to the Maintain Agent/Maintain Work screen.
You may enter text directly into the attribute text field. However, the font size in the text field can be small, and usually only a few lines of text are displayed at once. It is therefore better to use the text editor to enter and manipulate text in these attributes.
If importing text from another document, be careful to ensure that all and only the desired text is brought over, and always check the text for errors, formatting changes, diacritics, etc. NB. Austlit supports the ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1 - West European) character set for diacritics.
A note on bullet points. The preference is to use a series of individual notes if there are several points to be noted on a record, however you can use the formatting options available within the Text Editor. Either method is acceptable but a combination of the two will usually result in an untidy combination of different (solid and hollow) bullet points.
NOTE: Do not make hyperlinks if links already exist in other parts of the record e.g. through Related Work links.
Moves highlighted text from one field to another using the mouse.
To drag and drop text, highlight the text that you want to move. Select the text, and then use the mouse button to drag the text to the desired location. Release the mouse button. The text should now move from its original location to the new location. Selected text may also be moved or copied using the keyboard (CTRL + C to copy, CTRL + X to cut, and CTRL + V to paste).
The use of square brackets is a convention indicating that the person describing the document, the indexer, has supplied information not derived directly from the document in hand. For example, if you have obtained title information, a date or an agent's name from a source other than the work itself - perhaps a news item or review or reference source - you should indicate this by ticking the [Brackets] box which will enclose the information in square brackets. A review may appear without any title: the indexer supplies the words Untitled in the title field and ticks the [Brackets] box because these words do not appear on the document. Similarly a work may have no publication date but reference sources state that it was published in a particular year: the indexer enters this date in the date field and ticks the [Brackets] box.
The [Brackets] feature may be used in conjunction with the Circa feature.
When supplying information not derived directly from the document in hand always make a Maintenance Note indicating the source of your information.
To activate this option, click on the [Brackets] box on the right-hand side of the attribute field.
Designates an attribute as 'private', ie. not for current public display.
See our Privacy policy at: http://www.austlit.edu.au/about/privacy
Use the private display option for attributes (eg. Biography attribute) which contain personal details that are not in the public record, or when you are unsure of the validity or sensitivity of the information. Also use for attributes (eg. agent Note or LAW Further Details attributes) which may contain information that needs to be reviewed or modified before being made publicly available. Certain attributes (eg. work Maintenance Note attribute) are permanently marked as private.
Allow public display of attributes that contain information that is in the public record, either published in reference works or otherwise legally available.
Circa
Designates a date attribute as approximate which the system renders with a 'ca.' prefix, eg. a publication year, [ca.1906], indicates that there is evidence that the item was published sometime around 1906; a date is post-World War II but not definite, [ca.1948-1950] indicates that there is evidence that the item was published sometime in that 2-year period. To render the circa prefix when entering such a date, click on the circa box next to the particular attribute field. To render the square brackets, click on the [Brackets] box.
Opens a dialog box for searchable authority lists of names or terms, eg. to choose a place name for the Place of Birth attribute, or to choose a subject for the Subject-Concept attribute.
Drop-down lists (indicated by a small down arrow on the right hand side of an attribute field) are available for certain attributes (eg. Form attribute) where you are prompted to choose an item from a list of items.
Display a drop-down list by clicking on the down arrow next to the attribute field. Scroll through the list and select the desired item.
You can also use the keyboard to display and select items in a drop-down list. Move to the field featuring a drop-down list using TAB (forwards) or SHIFT + TAB (backwards). Select an item from the list by typing the first letter of the desired item (eg. 'o' for 'obituary' in the Form attribute list) or moving through the list using the up and down arrows. NB. these keyboard shortcuts do not work for the ADD: ATTRIBUTE or ADD: EVENT drop-down lists.
For certain attributes in the Maintain Agent/Maintain Work display (eg. multiple Reviewed By attributes), a list of multiple attribute fields may be 'hidden' in the display by clicking on CLICK TO HIDE. The list may be revealed again by clicking on CLICK TO SHOW.
Use in search mode. Can be used at the beginning of a search term or phrase (*borough), in the middle (edin*gh), at the end (edin*), or surrounding the term/phrase (*rough*).
When searching for an agent name, search for all forms of the name (eg. Robert Brown, Bob Brown), variant spellings (eg. Browne), surname only (eg. Brown), surname and initial only (eg. Brown, R.) etc.
In process. Preliminary instructions sent as a team update February 2007