Salute : C. Oran Little, Dean and Director UK College of Agriculture, 1988-2000 / produced by Dr. Little’s friends and family ; crafted through the efforts of Ag Communications Services. (OCLC #894704261)
RDA 3.5.1.4.3 on recording the dimensions of resources with cassettes as carriers says to record the gauge (i.e., width) of the film or tape in millimetres and use the metric symbol mm. As an example, it gives the gauge of VHS tape as “13mm”. This differs from our practice in AACR2, where we recorded the dimensions in inches: ½ in.
There is an alternative to RDA 3.5.1.3 which gives the option to record dimensions in the system of measurement preferred by the agency preparing the description. The national libraries have different recommendations for applying the alternative:
- Library of Congress: Use inches for discs and audio carriers
- National Library of Australia: Do not apply.
- British Library: Use inches for discs.
We felt that our catalog would be more consistent (and our patrons best served, should they choose to look at that field) if we continued to use inches for videotape, so we made it our local policy to do so:
300 __ ǂa 1 videocassette (95 min.) : ǂb sound, color ; ǂc 1/2 in.