The two types of uniform title

The term ‘uniform title’ can be confusing, because in AACR2 it is used in two different senses. These are called

This means that collective titles are just a particular kind of uniform title, but unfortunately there is no special name for the first (and main) kind of uniform title. The distinction is that a uniform title (in the first sense) refers to an individual work, whereas a collective title is used in relation to a collection or selection of more than one work.

To try to avoid confusion I shall refer to the latter as ‘collective title’ throughout this chapter, which means that ‘uniform title’ refers to the first kind only. In AACR2 ‘collective titles’ are sandwiched in the middle of Chapter 25, but I am leaving them to the end because I think this makes more sense.

Both kinds, ‘uniform titles’ and ‘collective titles’, are unusual in two respects:

The fact that they are optional means that an individual library can decide how far, if at all, it wishes to use uniform titles in its catalogue. It may decide to use them for some kinds of work but not for others; we shall look at possible examples of this later. If your library does not need to use them you can ignore this chapter altogether.

The reason that I think the second point is unusual is that AACR2 has nothing to say about filing, and indeed says nothing about the practical application of uniform titles or about the intended results that their presence should achieve in a catalogue.

Uniform titles for individual works

A uniform title is basically something very simple: it is a standardized title for an item which may have appeared under a variety of different titles. This means that, unlike the title proper, it is not copied from the chief source of information: it is something inserted by the cataloguer when required. The uniform title thus enhances the collocating function of the catalogue, by bringing together individual works regardless of the actual title on the title page.