Caption. "A word, phrase, or abbreviation indicating the parts into which the publisher has divided the serial." Examples: "volume," "Band," "Teil," "part," "tome."
12a. ANSI Z39.71-1999. p. 29. Recording captions is optional. Yale applies the option. If parts of a unit do not have captions, captions are not supplied.
12b. "Transcribe captions associated with enumeration in the vernacular form appearing on the publication, transliterated when needed. Record captions in the singular. Optionally, captions may be translated. If the parts of a unit have no captions, do not supply captions." (p. 29)
Yale does not apply the translation option, i.e. if the caption is Bd., use Bd. as the caption rather than v.
EXCEPTION: East Asia and Near East cataloging translate captions instead of transliterating. Hebraica will use "v." if caption is lengthy and no abbreviation (see 12c.) is available.
12c. Per ANSI Z39.71-1999 (p. 30), if an AACR2 caption abbreviation is available, the abbreviation is used. ANSI option if no abbreviation in AACR2 is "other standard lists or ISO 832 rules." With Voyager Yale will now apply both the AACR2 and ISO abbreviations in MFHD. If the caption abbreviation is not listed in either AACR2 or the ISO list, it must be transcribed in full, unabbreviated form. Use of additional lists need to be documented; touch base with the Chief Cataloging Librarian. CAUTION: only AACR2 abbreviations may be used in the bibliographic record.
Combined AACR2 and ISO abbreviations are available on the Cornell Technical Services page:
Cornell AACR2/ISO caption abbreviation list
Use lowercase for captions unless the language of the caption (e.g. German nouns) requires an uppercase first letter.
12d. If a symbol (e.g. #) is used as a caption and it has a recognized textual equivalent, record the textual equivalent [ANSI Z39.71-1999 (p. 30)]; use the AACR2 abbreviation if listed:
Caption on piece: #1. Record in 866 as:
| 866 | 4 | 1 | ‡8 0 ‡a no.1(2003) |
12e. If enumeration follows an unabbreviated caption (i.e., no end punctuation), leave one space between the caption and the enumeration. (p. 30)
In the following example, there is no authorized abbreviation for Heft and it is transcribed as is. Since there is no end punctuation, a space is entered betwen Heft and 1.
| 866 | 4 | 1 | ‡8 0 ‡a Heft 1(2000) |
12f. ANSI: "Captions need not be repeated after the hyphen. However, captions may be repeated after the hyphen when needed for clarity."
Yale practice is to repeat the caption in all instances to promote standardization:
| 866 | 4 | 1 | ‡8 0 ‡a Heft 1(2000)-Heft 2(2001) |