What is a title entry?
A catalogue record made under the title of a work rather than under its author - one of the fundamental building blocks of any library catalogue.
In library cataloguing, a title entry is a record in the library catalogue made under the title of a work rather than under the name of its author. It gives readers a way to find a book by its title when the author is unknown, when the work has no single personal author, or when the title is the most recognisable and useful point of access.
Title entries are one of the fundamental building blocks of any library catalogue. Every book in a catalogued collection has one.
Last updated: 5 September 2026
The role of a title entry in library cataloguing
A library catalogue is essentially a collection of entries - each one a structured record describing a specific work. Those entries can be approached from different angles depending on what the user already knows:
- Author entry - accessed by the name of the person or organisation who created the work
- Subject entry - accessed by the topic or subject the work covers
- Title entry - accessed by the title of the work itself
In traditional cataloguing practice, based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR and AACR2), every catalogued item received a main entry - the primary record, usually made under the personal author - and could receive additional added entries to provide alternative access points. A title added entry ensured that a work could be found by its title even when the main entry was filed under the author.
Modern cataloguing standards, particularly RDA (Resource Description and Access), have moved away from the strict main-entry and added-entry distinction. But the practical need for title entries remains. In any OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue), the ability to search by title depends on the title entry being present and accurate in the catalogue record.
When a title entry is used as the primary entry
Certain types of work have always been catalogued under their title rather than an author, because no single personal author can be identified or because the title is the most meaningful access point:
- Anonymous works - where the author is unknown or has not been identified
- Corporate publications - reports, manuals and documents published by an organisation rather than a named individual
- Sacred texts - the Bible, the Quran and other religious scriptures are traditionally entered under title
- Laws and legal documents - legislation and official government documents, typically entered under the issuing jurisdiction and title
- Serials and periodicals - journals, magazines and newspapers that continue over time with no single personal author
- Edited collections - anthologies and collected works where no single author is dominant
In each of these cases the title entry is not a secondary record but the primary one.
What a title entry contains
A full title entry in a library catalogue typically includes:
- Title - the complete title of the work, including any subtitle
- Author or responsible party - the person, organisation or body responsible for the content
- Edition - which version or edition of the work this record describes
- Publication details - publisher, place of publication and year
- Physical description - number of pages, illustrations, dimensions
- Subject headings - controlled vocabulary terms describing the content
- ISBN or other identifier - the International Standard Book Number or equivalent
- Classification number - the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress call number used to locate the item on the shelf
In MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloguing) format, which underlies most modern library cataloguing systems, title information is recorded in field 245 for the main title and field 246 for varying forms of the title - alternative titles, subtitles and other variants that users might search for.
Title entries in modern library practice
The concept predates digital cataloguing by centuries - library catalogues existed as card catalogues long before computers, and every card was, in effect, a manually created entry filed under a specific access point.
In the digital era the entry still exists, but takes the form of a structured database record. When a librarian catalogues a new acquisition they create a record containing all the fields above, and that record becomes the title entry in the catalogue. When a patron searches the OPAC by title, the system retrieves the matching record.
Good cataloguing practice requires that title entries be accurate, consistent and complete. A title entry with a misspelled title, a missing ISBN or an incorrect publication year creates problems downstream - books that cannot be found, records that do not match the physical items on the shelf, and catalogues that gradually drift out of sync with their collections.
TitleEntry - software built around this concept
TitleEntry is a book cataloguing tool named directly after this library science term. The idea behind the name is straightforward: every book that passes through TitleEntry gets a complete digital title entry - a structured record with its title, author, ISBN, publisher, year, genre and cover image - created automatically rather than by hand.
Instead of a cataloguer typing each record individually, TitleEntry builds those records from the physical books two ways. ISBN barcode scanning: point a phone camera at a book's barcode and the full record is retrieved automatically - the cover loads, every field fills in. AI shelf scanning: photograph an entire shelf and TitleEntry reads every visible spine to identify each book, including books with no barcode at all.
The result is a complete catalogue exported to Excel - a collection of title entries for every book in a physical collection, built in a fraction of the time manual cataloguing would take. It is used by bookstores cataloguing incoming stock, school libraries building digital records of their collections, and homeschooling families cataloguing home libraries. See our guides to library inventory and book cataloguing software for more detail.
Frequently asked questions
An author entry is a catalogue record filed under the name of the person or organisation responsible for creating the work. A title entry is filed under the title of the work itself. Most catalogued items have both - the author entry as the primary record and a title entry as an additional access point. Works without a clear personal author, such as anonymous publications, corporate documents and serials, are typically catalogued under title as the primary entry.
The main entry is the primary catalogue record for a work - traditionally filed under the personal author in most cataloguing traditions. A title entry can be either the main entry, when no author is identified, or an added entry providing secondary access by title. In modern cataloguing practice based on RDA, the distinction between main and added entries is less rigid than it was under AACR2.
A title added entry is a secondary catalogue record for a work filed under its title, in addition to the primary entry filed under the author. It ensures that a work can be found by title even when the main catalogue record is filed elsewhere. In MARC format, a title added entry typically appears in field 246.
A catalogue record and a title entry are related but not identical. A catalogue record is the complete structured record describing a work. A title entry is specifically the access point - the heading under which that record is filed or retrieved when searching by title. In practice the terms are often used interchangeably, particularly when the title is the primary access point for the work.
In MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloguing) format, title information is recorded in several fields. Field 245 holds the main title statement, including the title proper, remainder of title and statement of responsibility. Field 246 records varying forms of the title - alternative titles, subtitles and other variants. Together these fields create the title entry within a MARC record, enabling title-based searching in any OPAC built on MARC data.
Building a catalogue of your own?
Get in touch and we will show you how quickly a collection becomes a spreadsheet.
Get in touch