Type of Resource
Required
Repeatable
A term that specifies the characteristics and general type of content of the resource
Table of Contents
Purpose
- To support faceting of search results by general type and to help applications determine the appropriate viewing or playback system
- Categorizes the material in a general way
- More specific categorization is done in the Genre element
Guidelines
- Represents type of resource that applies to the content of the original resource, not the format of the digital surrogate
- For resources that include a combination of two or more types, this element is repeatable
- Enter each applicable type in a new Type of Resource element
- Mark one Type of Resource element as Primary
Subelements
Type of Resource
Required
A term that specifies the characteristics and general type of content of the resource
Guidelines
- Select the appropriate Type of Resource from the dropdown
- text
- Resources that are basically textual in nature
- cartographic
- Includes maps, atlases, globes, digital maps, and other cartographic items
- notated music
- Graphic, non-realized representations of musical works, both in printed and digitized manifestations that represent the four components of musical sound: pitch, duration, timbre, and loudness
- sound recording
- Used when a mixture of musical and nonmusical sound recordings occurs in a resource or when a user does not want to or cannot make a distinction between musical and nonmusical
- still image
- Includes two-dimensional images and slides and transparencies
- moving image
- Includes motion pictures and videorecordings, as well as television programs, digital video, and animated computer graphics—but not slides and transparencies
- three dimensional object
- Includes man-made objects such as models, sculptures, clothing, and toys, as well as naturally occurring objects such as specimens mounted for viewing
- software, multimedia
- Appropriate for any electronic resource without a significant aspect that indicates one of the other categories
Source: Archived version of Top-level Element: <typeOfResource> (June 11, 2020)
- Use sound recording for all audio resources
- Do not use sound recording-musical or sound recording-nonmusical
Attributes
Primary
Required if Applicable
Used for a repeated element to declare that a particular instance of the element is most important
Guidelines
- Check Primary for one Type of Resource element if more than one Type of Resource element exists for a record
Manuscript
Do Not Use
Guidelines
- This attribute is not in use at the present time, but legacy data may exist in MMS
Collection
Do Not Use
Guidelines
- This attribute is not in use at the present time, but legacy data may exist in MMS
See Also
- Top-level Element: <typeOfResource> for official MODS documentation from the Library of Congress