505 - Formatted Contents Note

This is how BF&S defines a formatted contents note which goes in the 505 tag:

"Contents notes may be encoded at one of two levels: basic or enhanced. The use of enhanced (or subfielded) 505 notes is strongly encouraged to provide the level of detail allowed by RDA instructions.

"Contents notes contain the titles of separate works or parts of an item. They may also include statements of responsibility associated with the works or parts. Volume numbers and other sequential designations are included in a contents note, but chapter numbers are omitted."

The first indicator allows the cataloger to specify a label for the display of the tag indicating the completeness of the contents note:

• 0  Contents (used for the complete contents of an item)
  
• 1  Incomplete contents (all the parts of the contents were not available to the cataloger and so are not included)
  
• 2  Partial contents (all parts of the contents were available to the cataloger, but have not been included in the record)
  
• 8  No display constant generated

The second indicator tells you which level was used when creating the note: basic (value=blank) or enhanced (value=0).

Subfield g (miscellaneous information) may be used for either basic or enhanced contents notes. It is often used to provide a label for the information when something beyond the standard choices included in the first indicator are needed, such as "disc 1". It is also used to include information like the running time of each track on a sound recording or the date of a particular essay within a volume.

Subfield a contains the entire contents note when the basic level is used. The NHSL record for Library Systems Migration  includes an example of this kind of contents note. 

Enhanced contents notes (such as the one in the NHSL record for New England Nature) may include subfield r (statement of responsibility) and subfield t (title) as many times as needed to transcribe the contents of the item. Subfield g may also be used. 

Subfield u contains the URL link to an online version of the table of contents (NOT a link to the full item, but just to the table of contents). It may be included on its own or as part of a larger contents note. 

For either level of notes the various elements that make up the content of the item being cataloged are separated using specific punctuation which is detailed in BF&S.