# Presentation: 912288

## Genre/Form Projects at the Library of Congress

- Janis L. Young
- Cataloging Policy and Support Office
- Library of Congress
- May 2008

## Objective 1

- To assist in retrieval by providing access points for the forms and genres of expressions, in addition to headings describing subject content

## Objective 2

- To create a system of authority records that:
- Permits future development and maintenance by LC and eventually by other libraries, patterned after the routines established for LCSH as a whole
- Supports automatic validation of headings assigned to bibliographic records

## Objective 3

- To determine the issues that will arise in the creation and use of such thesauri, in order to determine whether to expand the project beyond moving images, recorded sound, and musical compositions

## Active projects

- Moving images
- Approximately 250 moving image records have been approved and released
- SCM H 1913, Moving Image Genre/Form Headings, has been drafted, revised, and published

## Active projects

- Radio programs
- Radio program headings being prepared to appear on the May 28th Tentative Weekly List (WL 22)
- SCM H 1969.5, Radio Program Genre/Form Headings, has been posted on CPSO’s website for public comment (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genre2.html)

## Form of headings

- Intend to catalog the expression, not the manifestation, of the work (i.e., catalog the intellectual or artistic expression of a work, not its physical embodiment (VHS, DVD, CD, audio cassette, electronic, etc.))

## Form of headings

- Intend to keep the genre/form headings as closely in synch with topical headings as possible
- To aid collocation
- To assist users

## Cooperative efforts

- CPSO has requested input from other libraries at multiple steps in the policy development process
- Postings on CPSO’s web site
- Postings to discussion lists
- Live database
- Catalogers at LC and elsewhere are welcome to comment on headings when they appear on Tentative Weekly Lists

## Cooperative efforts

- The Subject Analysis Committee of ALCTS has formed a subcommittee on genre/form headings, which will be advising and assisting CPSO
- The American Association of Law Libraries is working on a list of legal genre/form headings with the goal of including them in LCSH
- The Music Library Association is working with CPSO on policies and workflows regarding music genre/form headings

## Cooperative efforts

- After a test period, SACO libraries will be invited to submit genre/form proposals, _but _SACO proposals are _not_ being accepted yet
- Need a genre/form heading?
- Active projects: SACO libraries may continue to submit topical headings (MARC tag 150) and CPSO will create additional genre/form authority records (tag 155) as appropriate
- Okay to use topical authorized headings in 655s, coded as LCSH headings

## Impact on BIBCO libraries

- Those who use LC-authorized genre/form headings on records will be able to code the records “pcc”
- SACO libraries with moving image and radio program collections will be able to propose national-level genre/form headings

## Delivery of genre/form headings

- Printed LCSH:  thesaurus included as a separate section in the front of volume 1
- Classification Web: thesaurus has its own entry point on the main menu
- OCLC:  tag appears on the authority file browse display and searches can be limited to genre/form headings
- MARC Distribution Service:  records delivered through regular channels in weekly updates

## Future directions

- CPSO has sent a report on the moving image project to LC management
- Recommends that further projects be investigated (e.g., law, music, literature, cartography)