151.1 The bibliographic format[//]

A bibliographic format contains the definition of which fields are part of a bibliographic record, which subfields each of the fields can have, what the characteristics are of fields and subfields, etc.

151.2 General characteristics of a format[//]

Go to AFO 151 and choose Formats, this will result in a list of bibliographic formats defined on your system:

Each format has its own properties. You can view these by selecting a format and then clicking on the icon View properties of format.

You can then change these properties by clicking on the icon Change all properties.

In the screen below you can change the general properties of a format. Normally it is not necessary to do this. Only when you design your own format will you need to do this.

A description of the properties shown on this screen:

Property	Description
Default authority list view	The way in which authority lists can be presented. You can choose between code only or code plus wording. For more information see the chapter on Authorities.
Identification	The name of the format. You can not change this after the format has been defined.
In use / active	You can tick a box to denote the format can be used. You cannot create a database with an inactive format.
Label	The name of the format as presented in lists etc. The label can be changed.
Default language	The language in which cataloguing will be done in special cases where a specific language cannot be defined.
Languages in format	Vubis Smart supports multilingual fields, e.g. subject headings in multiple languages. Here you define which languages can be used.
Wording	Free text description of the format.
Identification format (Field)	Here you define how fields are named. The notation ‘3N’ in the example means 3 numeric characters.
Order of fields	This property is not in use.
Technical maximum for repeating fields	Repeatable fields are “infinitely” repeatable in theory; but for technical purposes there is a maximum, which is defined here.
Identification format (Record)	Records in a database have an identification. Usually this is a number. Here you define how identification is done. The “1.N” in the example means an infinite number of numeric characters. If you were to put “1.4N” here it would mean that the number identifying a record can consist of a maximum of 4 numeric characters, i.e. a maximum of 9999. Which means you cannot enter more than 9999 records on the database.
Identification format (Subfield)	The definition for this is similar to the identification of records. The “1AN” in the example means one alpha numeric or numeric character.