Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of warrant in daily classification design in general and in negotiating disparate classification goals in particular.




Design/methodology/approach




This paper synthesizes classification research on forms of warrant and uses examples of classification decisions from ethnographic engagement with designers to illustrate how forms of warrant interact in daily classification decisions.




Findings




Different forms of warrant, though associated with incompatible theories of classification design, coexist in daily classification decisions. A secondary warrant might be employed to augment the primary warrant of a system, such as to decide among equally valid terms, or to overturn a decision based on the primary warrant, such as when ethical impacts are prioritized above user preference.




Research limitations/implications




This paper calls for empirical research using the application of warrant as an object of analysis.




Originality/value




The paper connects a ubiquitous and observable element of classification design – the application of warrant – to longstanding divisions in classification theory. This paper demonstrates how the analysis of daily classification design can illuminate the interaction between disparate philosophies of classification.

Warrant as a means to study classification system design

Publishers attract readers to books and inform them about the books’ contents by adding information to the books’ covers. In many academic libraries, the dust jackets of cloth-bound books are discarded. This study was a physical inventory of 1,319 recently published books in an academic library, and comparison of circulation statistics between different cover types. By every measure, books with publisher-supplied information on the cover circulated at a higher rate than books with plain covers. The implications of our findings for collection management are discussed.

/pdf/value-added-book-covers-provide-additional-impetus-for-2u13cdez3v.pdf

Value Added: Book Covers Provide Additional Impetus for Academic Library Patrons to Check Out Books

Collections of three-dimensional materials may not be discoverable to library users if they lack adequate metadata. Discovery of these collections may be enhanced through the application of relevant cataloging standards and controlled vocabularies. This paper outlines how librarians at the University of North Texas Libraries used these strategies to increase access to a large collection of tabletop games.

/pdf/enhancing-the-discovery-of-tabletop-games-3jntk8aaef.pdf

Enhancing the Discovery of Tabletop Games

The handout consists of an example of a catalog record for a tabletop game (including genre terms), an authority record for a genre term, a reference to a list of genre terms for tabletop games, and a bibliography of works on genre terms.

/pdf/enhancing-discovery-of-unique-collections-get-ahead-of-the-2ai9xf8a6h.pdf

Enhancing Discovery of Unique Collections: Get Ahead of the Game

Film genre is used in the “everyday” description of films, as well as by professional intermediaries, such as critics, curators, and librarians. This article examines seven film genre vocabularies used to describe and organize motion picture collections from across the spectrum of environmental and functional contexts: genre lists from two streaming services, the list used for the International Movie Database, those genres included on the “film genres” page of Wikipedia, the “professional” vocabularies of three film institutes (in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, respectively), as well as that developed by the Library of Congress, that is, its Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT), which covers films as well as other materials. The six nonlibrary genre vocabularies were mapped to the LCGFT, with degrees of alignment determined using a seven-point matching scale for each term. The most commonly mapped genres, as well as those that did not map to LCGFT at all, are identified and analyzed. Considerable nonalignment between most of the nonlibrary vocabularies and LCGFT was found; a range of likely factors involved is discussed, with the “professional” library and curatorial vocabularies not necessarily being more aligned. Various genres that did not map to LCGFT were suggested for possible inclusion.

Film genres through different lenses: Mapping commonly used film vocabularies onto the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms

The Library of Congress (LC) is in the process of developing a separate thesaurus of genre/form terms, which describe what a work or expression is, rather than what it is about. From the beginning, LC policy specialists realized that to accomplish this undertaking, it would be both necessary and desirable to collaborate with the library community. This article examines and evaluates the various methods of collaboration used by LC in the creation of the genre/form thesaurus.

/pdf/it-takes-a-village-developing-library-of-congress-genre-form-1l4tudm875.pdf

Yael Mandelstam

Papers

It Takes a Village: Developing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms