Metadata Input Guidelines: Language

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Language

The language(s) of the intellectual content of the resource.

Language is determined by examining the item:

Item Types	Information Sources
For text	title page words of the text
For images	caption visible words within the image (e.g., a sign in a photograph) text written on the front or back of a photo or image
For maps	caption or legend place/physical feature labels
For music scores	title lyrics
For videos	title screen(s) label on disc container cover
For sound files	spoken/sung words information on disc/cassette container information
For computer files	title page/screen text

Parts:: 1. Language – drop-down menu
Repeatable?: Yes - to include multiple languages, click ‘Add’ to repeat the field
Required?: Yes - also see more information about required fields

Guidelines	Examples
Choose the appropriate language(s) from the controlled vocabulary	eng - English
Include all relevant languages (do not include languages that are merely referenced or only appear as single words in text of another language)	eng - English ger - German
For visual images that do not have a textual caption or text shown in the image, choose "no language"	nol - No Language
If there are special circumstances or additional information about the language uses of the item, include it in the Note field	Language: eng - English Language: spa - Spanish Note: book is printed in two sections, the first in Spanish and the second in the English translation
If the language of the item is not on the controlled vocabulary list (or cannot be determined from available resources), choose "other" and include a note in the record. Notify the metadata administrators if the language is not on the list	Language: oth - Other Note: Language is unknown. Note: Text is in the Kutenai Indian language.
If the only text on the item consists of persons' names, "no language" should be chosen and the text can be described in the content description or a display note	Language: nol - No Language Note: The name "Bartimaeus" is carved into the top of the box.

French map: Language: fre - French
Laws of the Republic of Texas: Language: eng - English
Photograph of Berlin showing marquees and shop windows: Language: ger - German
Adding machine with a label saying, “Made in America”: Language: eng - English
Landscape photograph: Language: nol - No Language
Audio recording of testimony in Czech and German: Language: cze - Czech; Language: ger - German
Video in Hebrew with English subtitles: Language: heb - Hebrew; Language: eng - English; Note: Performed in Hebrew with English subtitles.
Article in Amharic with English translations: Language: oth - Other; Language: eng - English; Note: In Amharic with English translations in parallel columns.
Proceedings and abstracts in English and Spanish: Language: eng - English; Language: spa - Spanish; Note: Papers presented in Spanish or English with abstracts in English.
Recording of a music recital sung in Italian and French: Language: fre - French; Language: ita - Italian

Preferred usage is to utilize a standard schema for language names as defined by ISO639-2:
- Three letter language codes, followed optionally by a two-letter country code (taken from the ISO 3166 standard).
- To simplify data entry, the system does not currently support the addition of a country code to the language code.
For less common languages that are not documented in the ISO standard, codes will come from Glottolog; undocumented languages may be added to Glottolog according to their requirements.

More Guidelines: