Guidelines on Form and Genre Thesauri

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1 Controlled Vocabularies for Form or Genre Terms
2 Indicators and Source Codes
3 Item-Specific Terms
4 Subdivisions for Item-Specific Terms
5 Retired Vocabulary Sets (Do Not Use)
- 5.1 1) RBMS thesauri
- 5.2 2) PUL Local Terms
6 Appendix

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	$2 Source Code	URL		Chronological Subdivision	Geographic Subdivision	Number of Terms (as of Aug 2024)

Order of Preference	Organization	Name of Thesaurus	$2 Source Code	URL		Chronological Subdivision	Geographic Subdivision	Number of Terms (as of Aug 2024)
1	RBMS	RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging	rbmscv	Introduction	Thesaurus	Do not subdivide	Do not subdivide	1466
2	LC	LC Genre/Form Terms	lcgft	Introduction	Thesaurus	Do not subdivide	Do not subdivide	2571
3	Getty AAT	Art & Architecture Thesaurus	aat	Introduction	Thesaurus	Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	(Terms in the categories of "object facets" or "genres in literature and performing arts")
4	LC	Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II)	gmgpc	Introduction	Thesaurus	Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	1287

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)

Organization	Name of Thesaurus	Source Code	Parenthetical Qualifier	Chronological Subdivision	Geographic Subdivision	Website
RBMS	Genre Terms	rbgenr	[none]	Do not subdivide	Do not subdivide	Introduction	Thesaurus
RBMS	Binding Terms	rbbin	(Binding)	Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	Introduction	Thesaurus
RBMS	Paper Terms	rbpap	(Paper)	Subdivide Item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	Introduction	Thesaurus
RBMS	Printing & Publishing Evidence	rbpri rbpub	(Printing) (Publishing)	Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	Introduction	Thesaurus
RBMS	Provenance Evidence	rbprov	(Provenance)	Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	Introduction	Thesaurus
RBMS	Type Evidence	rbtyp	(Type evidence)	Subdivide item-specific terms by century, if known	Subdivide item-specific terms by country, if known	Introduction	Thesaurus
PUL	Local terms	Do not use; update legacy terms if possible	Do not use	Do not use	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.