RBMS Controlled Vocabularies

GENRE TERMS : A Thesaurus for Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloguing

Introduction
Copyright Page

Note: This text was electronically created from the introduction to the print version, to accompany and provide historical context to the database of thesaurus terms. Although not conforming to the format of the print text, it should reflect all content of the original. It has only been edited to correct errors in the OCR process, and to update MARC field numbers where changes have been made to the MARC format. Please bring other errors to the attention of the thesaurus editor, using the information found on the main thesaurus page. [12/2005, Beth M. Russell]

Introduction to the Second Edition

I. History

The Independent Research Libraries Association (IRLA)'s Proposals for Establishing Standards for the Cataloguing of Rare Books and Specialized Research Materials in Machine-readable Form (Worcester, Mass., 1979) called for a new field for genre headings to be added to machine-readable cataloguing (MARC) formats (Proposal One) and presented a draft thesaurus of such headings (Proposal Eleven). The Library of Congress submitted Proposal One to the ALA committee for Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information (MARBI) at its March 1980 meeting, and it was approved. Proposal Eleven was directed to the Standards Committee (now the Bibliographic Standards Committee) of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL. The Committee was asked to study the prototype thesaurus, develop its own list, and publish it, which it did in 1983.

Genre Terms was the first of a series of thesauri for rare book and special collections cataloguing to be compiled by the Committee and published by ACRL, and thus has been the first to undergo the obligatory periodic review. This second edition includes the additions and changes published by the Committee in 1987 ("Additions and Changes to Genre Terms: A Thesaurus," C&RL News, October 1987), as well as many which have since been proposed by Committee members or requested by our colleagues in the field. Some alterations have been made to the format and structure of the thesaurus, which, it is hoped, will result in a document which is more self-explanatory and easier to use than the first edition. Many of these changes are described in detail below.

II. Purpose and Scope

Many rare book libraries maintain files of certain categories, or genres, of works found in their collections. These files include both terms for intellectual or literary genres (e.g., Courtesy books) and terms for physical manifestations of such genres (e.g., Three deckers). The files are especially useful when an item is sought not through conventional author, title, or subject approaches, but rather through a term descriptive of the category in which it falls. Indeed, many items in rare book libraries are chiefly of interest to researchers as representatives (of these categories).

The following list is an attempt to standardize terms used to designate (genres of) textual materials in general rare book libraries. As befits the traditional nature of such collections, it has a literary and historical bias. Terms for works in some specialized rare book collections, especially subject collections, may have to be sought in other thesauri, or specialist thesauri may need to be developed. For example, there has been no comprehensive development of terms' for maps, music, and legal materials, although the list does include some terms for such works which have literary or textual aspects, or are commonly found in the general collections of a rare book library.' (1) Broad gathering terms such as "Legal works” and “Musical works" have also been authorized, and will probably be used for collections which contain only a small number of such materials and thus have no need for a more detailed analysis of these categories. It is this Committee's hope that as specialist thesauri are developed, attention is paid to issues of coverage and compatibility among the various lists. Standardized and compatible vocabularies are of particular importance in the environment of shared, machine-readable cataloguing for which this thesaurus was created, although they are also suitable for use in the building and maintenance of local and manual files.

III. Form

This thesaurus consists of both an alphabetical list of terms and a hierarchical arrangement. Following ANSI standards (American National Standards Institute, American National Standard Guidelines for Thesaurus Structure, Construction, and Use, New York, 1980) (2,) the terms are in plural natural language noun form whenever possible and appropriate, as well as in direct order.

The alphabetical list contains authorized terms (printed in boldface) and cross-references. Authorized terms may be followed by scope notes whenever a term is thought to be obscure or ambiguous, or when it is to be used in a technical sense that may not be readily apparent. History notes have also been added wherever necessary to explain a specific change of terminology from the first edition of this thesaurus. Each term, with its notes, is followed by the references, if any, made to and from other terms in the thesaurus. Symbols used in these references are those which ANSI prescribes:

· USE leads from unused synonyms and inverted forms of the terms to the term used;

· UF (used for) is the reciprocal of the USE reference and accompanies the term to which the USE reference refers;

· BT (broader term) refers from a term for a member of a class to a term for the class;

· NT (narrower term) refers from a term for a class to the term for one of its members;

· RT (related term) is used between related terms when it seems helpful to bring associated types of evidence to the user's attention.

Members of a class related to each other as narrower terms (NTs) under a common class (BT) are not brought together as related terms (RTs). However, whenever a term for which there are narrower terms in the thesaurus appears under another term as either a narrower term (NT) or a related term (RT), it is followed by the symbol ">" to indicate that it is not the narrowest concept of its class. Users should consult the entry in the alphabetical list for terms so marked to identify narrower terms.

In keeping with ANSI standards, a hierarchical section has been added to this edition of Genre Terms. It presents the relationships between broader and narrower terms in graphic form. Many parts of the hierarchy display a genus-species relationship (e.g., "Sermons" and "Anniversary sermons," "Artillery election sermons," etc.); others represent a looser association of meanings (e.g., "Plays" and its narrower term "Promptbooks"). Broad gathering terms have been introduced: those which appear within square brackets are not themselves authorized for use, rather, they are intended to define categories of authorized genre terms. Broad gathering terms which appear without square brackets serve the purpose of defining categories and may also be used as indexing terms when appropriate.

IV. Application

In a MARC record, these terms are to be entered in $a of field 655 (“Genre/Form”). Terms which do not appear in this or another approved list should not be used in field 655. The code that has been assigned to this list by the Library of Congress is “rbgenr”. This code must be entered in subfield $2 (“source of term”) of field 655 when terms from this list are used in the field. For example:

655 b7 Chapbooks $y 18th century. $2 rbgenr

Both $a and $2 are mandatory whenever field 655 is used.

Use of the list is voluntary: some libraries may only want to use some of the terms; other libraries may prefer to use none. In the case of those linked by a genus-species relationship (e.g., “Sermons” and “Anniversary sermons”), some libraries may wish to use only the general term; other libraries may prefer to assign only the narrower terms, when appropriate, saving the general term for those works which fall into no narrower category.

Any term in this thesaurus may be subdivided by place ($z), period ($y), or other subdivision ($x), or by any combination of these subdivisions. Each library must determine its own scheme for chronological subdivision. Indirect subdivision, as outlined in LC's Cataloging Service Bulletin 120 (1977), pp. 9-11, is to be used when subdividing by place. Libraries using other subdivisions ($x) should construct these subdivisions to conform as far as possible to LC practice as defined in publications such as Subject Cataloging Manual:

Subject Headings (4th ed. , Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1990) or in notes or general references in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (14th ed., Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1991). Subdivision guidelines have been given for a few terms. The form subdivision “Facsimiles” has been designated a free-floating subdivision for types of materials and is therefore particularly appropriate for use with many of the terms in this thesaurus:

655 b7 Emblem books $z Germany $y 17th century $x Facsimiles. $2 rbgenr

Field 655 is repeatable; assign as many terms as necessary to falling into two or more genres, such as an abridgement of a ballad opera, or a sermon in verse. Most terms apply only to
the whole work (e.g., Emblem books); some must be understood to apply to either the whole work or a part (e.g., Advertisements).

Many terms on this list will repeat information given elsewhere in the catalogue record, especially in the fixed fields (e.g., fiction, Festschrift, and biography indicators) and in subject headings (e.g., Almanacs, Pharmacopoeias). The terms on this list are to be used without regard to whether the same or similar information appears elsewhere in the record, so that libraries can retrieve genre information through a single MARC record.

V. Additions and Changes to the Second Edition

One hundred and nine new authorized terms have been added to this second edition of Genre Terms, for a total of four hundred and forty-one authorized terms. Terms authorized for use in the MARC field 655 are now printed in boldface type in the alphabetical list. Numerous cross-references and scope notes have also been added or edited.

While the recognizes that changes to a standardized vocabulary should be made sparingly and cautiously, a few terms that were authorized in the first edition of this thesaurus have been changed or their usage redefined. In each case, the editors have been careful to add explanatory history notes, as well as appropriate cross-references from the old form of the term to the new one.

The editors of this second edition have also adopted a policy of checking other lists intended for use in MARC field 655 whenever a term is introduced or changed. They have attempted to match the terminology and usage of these lists where it has been feasible, and in other cases have used cross-references to relate the terminology of those lists to the authorized genre terms of this thesaurus. While it has not been possible to make a comprehensive survey of other thesauri in all cases, the Committee feels that this is an important step toward the standardization that is so important in an environment of shared cataloguing and national bibliographic databases.

As noted above, a hierarchical list has been added to this thesaurus in order to display the categories and relationships of the authorized terms. In many cases the same term appears in more than one place in the hierarchy according to the various aspects of its meaning. Broad gathering terms have been introduced: where they appear in boldface and without square brackets they are authorized for use in field 655. The gathering terms which appear within square brackets are for the purpose of organizing the thesaurus terms into logical categories, and are not authorized genre terms.

Notes

1 The Working Group on Genre Terms of the Music Library Association's Bibliographic Control Committee recognized and endorsed this policy with regard to music terms in its final report (Music Library Association. Newsletter, no. 83, (Nov.-Dec. 1990), p. 8). Recommendations from the MLA for appropriate new terms and scope notes for musical works will be considered for future editions of this thesaurus. In its report, the Working Group also recommended that Library of Congress Subject Headings be the primary source of form and genre terms for music materials.

2 A second edition of the Guidelines is currently being prepared.

VI. Bibliography

The following reference sources were used by the editors of this edition as aids in determining standard terminology and preparing scope notes.

ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science. Heartsill Young, ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1983.

Beckson, Karl and Arthur Literary Terms: A Dictionary. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975. Rev. and enl. ed.

Benet’s Readers' Encyclopedia. New York: Harper & Row,, c1987. 3rd ed.

Drabble, Margaret. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. 5th ed.

Frye, Northrop, Baker and George The Harper Handbook to Literature. New York: Harper & Row, c1985.

Glaister, Geoffrey A. Glaister’s Glossary of the Book. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. 2d. ed., completely rev.

Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. New York: Macmillan, 5th ed.

Scott, Arthur F. Current Literary Terms: A Concise Dictionary of Their Origin and Use. New York: St. Press, 1979,

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.

Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language. W.A. Neilson, ed. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1957. 2d. ed., unabridged.

VII. Revision

The RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee is responsible for the maintenance and revision of this thesaurus. It solicits suggestions for new as well as corrections and alterations to terms, scope notes, and references. Any new term proposed should be accompanied by a scope note and references, if appropriate. Any correspondence regarding this thesaurus should be addressed to:

Chair, Bibliographic Standards Rare Books and Manuscript Section

Chicago, IL 60611

Attention: Genre Terms

RBMS STANDARDS COMMITTEE MEMBERS, 1983

Anna Lou Ashby

Helen S. Butz

Stephen Paul Davis

Peter Graham

John Lancaster

Alexandra Mason

Patrick J. Russell

John B. Thomas, III

RBMS BIBLIOGRAPHIC STANDARDS COMMITTEE MEMBERS, 1989-1991

Virginia L. Bartow

Sidney E. Berger

Scott G. Carlisle

Michele V. Cloonan

Jackie M. Dooley

Elizabeth Herman

Elizabeth Johnson

Sara Shatford Layne

Hope Mayo

Eve R. Pasternak

Deborah A. Ryszka

Cynthia Shelton

Joe Springer

Laura Stalker

Suzy Taraba

John B. Thomas, III

Copyright Page

Genre Terms : A Thesaurus for Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloguing

Second Edition

Prepared by the Bibliographic Standards Committee of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (ACRL/ALA)

Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1991

The Library of Congress has assigned the following code to this thesaurus: rbgenr

This code must be entered in $2 of USMARC bibliographic record 655 when terms from this thesaurus are used in that field.

Published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences--Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI z39.48-1984.

ISBN 0-8389-7516-X

Printed in the United States of America.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The cover illustration of "Der Form Schneider," by Jost Amman, taken from Hartmann Schopper's Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentiarium artium genera (Francofurti ad Moenum, 1568), is from the copy in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress (Rosenwald Collection 705). We are grateful to the Library for permission to reproduce it.