Below is the abstract and background/justification for this proposal. Please see the attached for the full proposal and comment no later than Monday, December, 22, 2025.
Abstract
As a subelement of Manifestation: extent of manifestation the proposed element Manifestation: sequence of units of extent is used to record identified sequences of any kind of unit of extent within a manifestation through designations of numbering and appropriate terms for a unit of extent. The designation is often taken from the last numbered unit of a sequence as found in a manifestation. Many of the current instructions refer to sequences recorded using a last numbered unit, and only minor editing is required to make this explicit in the remaining relevant instructions.
Background and justification
This element supports the practice of recording a quantity of units of extent through designations of the last numbered and sometimes the first numbered unit of a sequence of extent units. While the resulting value may sometimes mirror an exact quantity as would be found in Manifestation: extent of unit and Manifestation: extent of embodied content, this element is more freeform. The freeform nature of this element means that terms from any applicable vocabulary can be used, as the focus is on recording the designations associated with sequences of those units. This means, for example, that the element can be used to record numbering for pages (a term for Extent of Embodied Content) and for leaves (a term for Extent of Unit). This element can be used to contribute values to the superelement Manifestation: extent of manifestation to construct more complex values through a string encoding scheme. This proposed element updates the element Manifestation: manifestation numbering of extent statement as presented in the Discussion Paper RSC/ExtentWG/2024/1/rev2 (https://www.rdatoolkit.org/sites/default/files/uploads/RSC_ExtentWG_2024_1-rev2updated2.pdf) in that it is no longer a manifestation statement element dependent on a new transcription guideline. Rather, only community-driven string encoding schemes are needed, with most of the current instructions under Extent of Manifestations of Text (https://access.rdatoolkit.org/en-US_ala-8754c7a9-c38c-3735-9cf9865df717f81b/p_vrj_ydz_xdb) requiring only light editing. The feedback from RSC members, particularly as found in RSC/ExtentWG/2024/1/rev2/ORDAC response (https://www.rdatoolkit.org/sites/default/files/uploads/RSC-ExtentWG-2024-1-rev2ORDAC%20response.pdf), was helpful in raising concerns with using a manifestation statement. The approach in this proposal for Manifestation: sequences of units of extent addresses those concerns.
------------------------------
Karl Pettitt
Coordinator of Cataloging and Metadata Services
University of Denver Libraries
------------------------------