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Assign Form/Genre terms according to cataloger judgment and/or project guidelines. The policy attempts to establish uniformity in the description of similar materials, while also accommodating description of the broad range of rare materials held in PUL’s collection. Catalogers’ application of form/genre terms should take into consideration the research needs/interests of PUL Special Collections users: curatorial and public services staff, faculty, students and other researchers.
CaMS professional catalogers should apply MARC 655 form/genre terms from the thesauri indicated, in order of preference, in the table below.
Controlled Vocabularies for Form or Genre Terms
| Order of Preference | Organization | Name of Thesaurus | Number of Terms (as of Aug 2024) | Source Code | Chronological Subdivision | Geographic Subdivision | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RBMS | RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging | 1466 | rbmscv | Do not subdivide | Do not subdivide | ||
| 2 | LC | LC Genre/Form Terms | 2571 | lcgft | Do not subdivide | Do not subdivide | ||
| 3 | Getty AAT | Art & Architecture Thesaurus | (Terms in the categories of "object facets" or "genres in literature and performing arts") | aat | Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known | Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known | ||
| 4 | LC | Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II) | 1287 | gmgpc | Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known | Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known | ||
Indicators and Source Codes
When applying thesauri terms from the list above, catalogers should add the source code of the specific thesaurus, using MARC format 655 _7 ‡2 [source code]. For example,
- 655_7 ‡a Cumulative tales. ‡2 lcgft
Item-Specific Terms
Form terms used to describe aspects of materials that are specific to the item (copy) at hand, such as inscriptions, presentation autographs, or bespoke bindings, should be coded ‡5 NjP at the end of the 655 field. For example:
- 655_7 ‡a Presentation inscriptions ‡2 rbmscv ‡5 NjP
Form terms that refer to aspects of the broader manifestation (issue or edition, in bibliographic terms), such as printed paper wrappers in an edition or a publisher's edition binding, should not be coded as ‡5, since these are not unique to the item at hand.
Subdivisions for Item-Specific Terms
RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging and LC Genre/Form Terms should not be subdivided chronologically, geographically, or topically.
Chronological and geographic subdivisions may be applied to item-specific form terms only from the following vocabularies:
- Getty AAT [See FAQ]
- Thesaurus for Geographic Materials II (GMGPC) [See Subdivisions]
The subdivisions should reflect the date/place of the aspect described by the form/genre term, rather than the printing/publication date/place of the manifestation as a whole (which may or may not differ from the date of the item-specific aspect described).
Chronological subdivisions: should be applied by century, not specific year;
Geographical subdivisions: should be applied by country, not by city or smaller geographical entity. For example:
- 655 _7 ‡a ... ‡z United States ‡y 20th century. ‡2 aat ‡5 NjP
Retired Vocabulary Sets (Do Not Use)
1) RBMS thesauri
RBMS Controlled Vocabularies, previously comprising six distinct thesauri, have been integrated into the RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging. Do not add any new terms with the following source codes: $rbgenr, $rbprov, $rbpub, $rbbin, $rbpri, $rbtyp
2) PUL Local Terms
Previously, a select number of Local Form/Genre terms were developed by Special Collections curators and catalogers, for application to specific subsets of material. As their application and MARC encoding has been sporadic, the use of local terms by PUL cataloging staff has been discontinued.
- Please do not add local genre/form terms when creating or updating catalog records.
You may encounter legacy local terms in our catalog such as "655 _7 $a Photographs, Original. $2 local" If so:
- Replace the local term with an equivalent term from a preferred controlled vocabulary. For instance, "Photographs, Original" is equivalent to "655 _7 $a Photographs. $2 lcgft"
- Leave the term as-is if no alternative can be found.