Uniform title

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A uniform title in library cataloging is a title assigned to a work which either has no title or has appeared under more than one title. It is part of authority control. The phrases conventional title and standard title are sometimes used^[1]; the forthcoming Resource Description and Access uses preferred title.

Anonymous works such as sacred texts and folk tales may lack an obvious title: for instance, the Bible, Gilgamesh, Beowulf or the Chanson de Roland. Works of art and music may contain no text that can be used for reference. A uniform title allows reference to be made to such works and their different versions to be filed together in a catalog.

The Library of Congress provides an example of how books of the New Testament are referred to in the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules:

- Bible. N.T. Acts

- Bible. N.T. Colossians

- Bible. N.T. Corinthians, 1st

- Bible. N.T. Corinthians, 2nd

- Bible. N.T. Ephesians ...^[2]

The complementary situation occurs with a single work that exists with more than one title, especially when translated into another language, excerpted or collected with other works. In this case, the name of the language or a phrase such as 'Selections' is added to distinguish works with the same uniform title.