Each Item Record may be followed by one or more Item Qualifier Records which may be any of the following:
For each of these records the first field is the Record Type which is in the format EnnnnZm where nnnn is the page number that was specified on the associated item record; 'Z' is one of 'B', 'C' or 'D' as appropriate; and 'm' is a sequence number associated with the record concerned. These sequence numbers primarily maintain the sequence in which multiple instances appear (e.g. if an item has two associated item notes then it is usually important in which order they appear) but there is also a restriction in the current index programs which will only match different printings of an item if any associated item notes not only match but also have the same sequence numbers.
Thus, if there are multiple note records for a single item record, the rules to be followed (implemented for UK files by the conversion programs) are that:
There are also a number of UK-specific Special Story Records which were originally created to address deficiencies in the data format. Although they have now been superseded in most cases by other mechanisms (as discussed below) some still exist in older (UK) data files.
These records contain two fields, the Record Type as discussed above and the Note Text. This generally relates to information that is specific to this instance of an item such as:
It may also be used where the indexer has chosen to list the "blurb" associated with a story in the book or magazine being indexed, although such extraneous information is often just deleted.
By convention, item appearance notes start with a lower-case letter and are terminated by a period (or equivalent) although this is by no means a hard-and-fast rule. Note also that item notes can contain embedded hyperlinks using the same format as on Book Note Records.
Examples:
E 58A1~Abbot, Anthony~About the Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry~nv1940CMPOct~~~Colt| Thatcher~ E 58B1~given as by Anthony Abbott in the Table of Contents.~
E 88A1~Anderson, Frederick Irving~Unknown Man~ss1911ADVAug~The ~~White| Mr.~ E 88B1~in EQMM's "League of Forgotten Men".~
E 98A1~Queen, Ellery~Leaves from the Editors' Notebook| Queen's Quorum: Part 1^\\Queen's Quorum: Part One~ar1948*20CDtSt~ E 98B1~revised.~
These records contain from three to five fields, the Record Type as discussed above, followed by:
Note that, in some complex cases, the only/best way to combine multiple instances requires standardising on a later title, either because that is far and away the most common, or because it produces a better formatting of the data, but these are exceptions.
Examples:
E 107A1~Hammett, Dashiell~Tenth Clue~nv1924+BlMskJan 1~The ~~Continental Op| The~ E 107C1~~Tenth Clew~The ~
E 69A1~Kingston, Charles~Notorious Criminals||0001 I.^--|Amazing Career of the Girl-Wife Poisoner~ar1920DSMJul27~~The ~ E 69C1~~Notorious Criminals| Amazing Career of the Girl-Wife Poisoner~~The ~
E A1~Davis, Richard Harding~In the Fog [Chapter 1]~na1901RUS~ E C1~~In the Fog||0001 Part 1, |Story of the Naval Attach^e'~~The ~
These records contain two fields, the Record Type as discussed above and the Note Text. This must relate to information that is common to all instances of an item such as:
By convention, item notes start with a lower-case letter and are terminated by a period (or equivalent) although this is by no means a hard-and-fast rule. Note also that item notes can contain embedded hyperlinks using the same format as on Book Note Records.
Examples:
E 17A1~Simenon, Georges ,(tr:Boucher, Anthony)~Affaire Ziliouk~ss|EQM|1944|May|(v5)|(#16)|~~~Froget| Monsieur~ E 17D1~translated from the French (<Les 13 Coupables>, 1932).~
E 116A1~Carr, John Dickson~Cabin B-13~pl|EQM|1944|May|(v5)|(#16)|~
E 116D1~first broadcast on <{Suspense}>, CBS radio, March 16, 1943.~
E 37A1~Thomas, Albert~What the Dog Overheard~ex~ E 37D1~from <Wait and See>, Michael Joseph, 1944.~
E 44A1~Wallace, Edgar~Forest of Happy Dreams~ss1911*SndrRiv~The ~~Sanders| Commissioner| (Sanders of the River)~
E 44D1~revised from a non-Sanders story ("The Forest of Happy Thoughts", {Pall Mall Magazine}, November 1909).~
E 331A1~Daly, Carroll John~Behind the Curtain %%1~ss|FLY|1924|Dec20|(v3:2)|~ E 331D1~not the same as the story of the same title in the August 10, 1935 issue.~
These records contain two fields, the Record Type as discussed above and:
These records are typically when a prior appearance of an item is known but it is known (or suspected) that this was not the first appearance of the item, although no or only partial details of the first appearance are known. It is particularly useful when a story, whose origin is unknown, is reprinted in a genre magazine such as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and then subsequently re-reprinted in a reprint edition (or even later issue) of that magazine. It may also be used to record the reprint of a story where we do not have a formal contents record for the reprint (e.g. for stories published on a website).
Note that a previous version of this record type supported a third field containing "any additional notes that are required, including alternate story title (e.g. as "Another Story")" but this was withdrawn in 2024 rather than try to support it in IDXGEN given that there were no occurrences in the database that needed the third field. If such a need arises in future the best approach to handling it can be decided then.
Examples:
E 5A1~Freeman, R. Austin~Percival Bland's Proxy~nv PRS~~~Thorndyke| Dr. John~ E 5D1~**GtPtMys1918~
E A1~McCloy, Helen~Murder Is Everybody's Business~nv1951~ E D1~*EQMFeb 1953~
E 95A1~Skelley, Verna~Frightful Imagination~pm~ E 95D1~*+SSDUKSep 1945~
E 165A1~Shaw, Bob~Dark Icarus~ss1974SFMv 1 4~~~Hasson| Rob~ E 165D1~*IFSAug 1974~as "A Little Night Flying"~ E 73A1~Gilman, Charlotte Perkins~Yellow Wallpaper~ss1892NEMJan~The ~
E 73D1~*+CicadMar 2002/Apr~
E A1~Tompkins, Pat~Dr. Talbot's Cider~vi +CpfRv~
E D1~*+WhsSdWin 2003%/'04~
These records contain two fields, the Record Type as discussed above and the Note Text. This contains information that might be useful but should not be displayed in the index such as:
No checks are performed on the text in these notes as they are never displayed.
Examples:
E 703A1~Verne, Jules ,(tr:Kingston,
Agnes Kinloch)~Mysterious Island. The Secret of the Island [Part 1 of 2]~n.1875SLW~The
~~~Ferat, J.~
E 703B1~condensed, and with the hero's name changed back to Cyrus Smith.~
E 703D1~translated from the French ("L'^I^le myst^e'rieuse. Le Secret de
l'^i^le", {Le Magasin d'^e'ducation et de r^e'cr^e'ation}, 1874/5).~
E 703N1~in the Sampson, Low edition the translator is explicitly given as W.H.
Kingston, but later research has shown the translation was actually done by
his wife.
E 317A1~Ayscough, John~Old Wine and
New Bottles~ss1916+CthWoNov~
E 317N1~might be a two part story continued into December.~
E A1~Conover, Captain~Siege of the
Flying Dragon~ss1930+SkyHLFeb~The ~
E N1~"Modern air pirates steal a dirigible in mid-air. The Sky-High Boys
are roped into an intrigue that takes on the proportions of international trouble."~
These records are used with Book Review Records to specify the publication details of the books being reviewed and may contain up to six fields:
Examples:
E _50A0~Miller, P. Schuyler~Modern
Science Fiction~br1953ASFJun~~~~~Bretnor, Reginald~
E _50Q1~Coward-McCann~1953~52-11714~$3.75~274~
E _55A0~Miller, P. Schuyler~Best
Science Fiction Stories: 1952~br1953ASFJun~The ~~~~Bleiler, Everett F./Dikty,
T. E.~
E _55Q1~Frederick Fell~1952~~$2.95~288~
This format was adopted in the UK files in the 1990s. Unfortunately when Bill C. started adding publication details to book reviews in the US files he ignored this approach and, instead, embedded the data in the title field in a relatively unformatted manner (being concerned only with how it was displayed). Some attempts were made to reconcile the two approaches but without success. These records are currently ignored by the indexing programs.
These records contain two or three fields, the Record Type as discussed above and:
These records are typically used when we want to list details of a later appearance but do not want to list the associated book or magazine issue (e.g. when listing information from an author's bibliography).
Examples (see examples for Prior Printing (ED*) records for more complex types):
E A1~Butterworth, Michael #2~Builders of the Transpennine Motorway: Part 1~pm2012*Emnatn2~The ~
E X1~*+SpFcO# 1 2014~
E A1~Butterworth, Michael #2~Terminal~vi1970NWSMar~The ~
E X1~**BrkFict1973~
These records were created for use in the UK files at a time prior to the support for the Artists or Series information in normal Item Records. While most of the functionality is now supported in the standard data format, some is still not directly available so the fields are still supported though rarely used. Only one of each can be used with an item record so there is no sequence number and, instead, the Record Type is in the format EnnnnDQX where 'X' defines the type of special story record. Current five such record types are defined:
For the first four of these, there is a second field that specifies the artist name(s) in the standard internal format for author names. Note that the only one of these which can be directly supported with the current format is DQI as, while it is now possible to specify (for example) the cover artist for a book or magazine, there is no way of tying that illustration specifically to a given story (e.g. identifying the "cover story" for a magazine) which is implicit in the use of the DQC format.
For DQS records the second field contains the series name in the old UK format. These are gradually being converted to the new format as time allows.
Examples:
E0002A0~Harrison, Harry~Man From
P.I.G.~ss1967ASFJul~The ~
E0002DQC~Schoenherr, John~
E0002DQI~Schoenherr, John~
E0004A0~Moorcock, Michael~Alchemist's
Question: Being the Final Episode in the Career of The English Assassin~ss~The
~
E0004DQS~Jerry Cornelius~