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

TL;DR: The various methods of collaboration used by the Library of Congress in the creation of the genre/form thesaurus are examined and evaluated.

Abstract: 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.

Summary

INTRODUCTION

• In 2007, the Cataloging Policy and Support Office of the Library of Congress, now the Policy and Standards Division (PSD), undertook an experiment to develop a thesaurus of genre/form terms in the discipline of moving images (films, television programs, and video recordings).
• They examined existing controlled vocabularies such as Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and the Art and Architecture Thesaurus to find pertinent terms to use as the basis of the new thesaurus.
• The staff of NILL then used the local subject headings list as the seed for developing specialized Indian law terminology that is not present in LCSH.5.
• The common denominator in all of these projects is collaboration with the constituencies for whom the vocabularies were developed.
• It will address informal outreach efforts such as public calls for comment and examine formal collaboration through a case study of the partnership between the American Association of Law Libraries and PSD to develop genre/form terms for law materials.

COLLABORATION WITHIN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

• The moving image project was the first and was treated as an experiment through which PSD would determine whether it was feasible to develop a new terminology and policies governing the syntax and application of the terms.
• During the earliest stages of the project, moving image catalogers and PSD staff developed an initial list of moving image genre/form terms by examining LCSH to find existing headings that denote forms and genres of moving images.
• The decision to exclude nationality and language from the genre/form thesaurus was relatively easy once the definitions of genre and form were examined.
• In its view, genres “contain conventions of narrational strategy and organizational structure, using similar themes, motifs, settings, situations, and characterizations.
• The broader definition was adopted after much debate, reflecting PSD’s desire for the thesaurus to be useful to as many constituencies as possible.

INFORMAL COLLABORATION WITH LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS OUTSIDE OF LC

• One of the problems inherent in the development of a thesaurus intended for use by a broad spectrum of institutions, from public libraries to archives, lies in formulating policies and terminology that will serve all user groups.
• In April 2009 PSD announced that genre/form terms for cartography would be added in May, and that the necessary cancellations to LCSH’s form subdivisions would occur no earlier than July, at which point LC would implement the new genre/form terms.
• PSD considers this step to be particularly important since libraries are actively applying terms from the thesaurus.
• 24 More recently, PSD posted a discussion paper entitled, “Cancellation of LCGFT Characterand Franchise-Based Terms for Moving Images.”25 This paper was the outcome of several years of debate over the utility and appropriateness of LCGFT terms such as Batman films and Pink Page 6 Panther television programs.
• Discussion papers in particular, and informal public collaboration in general, are not without their challenges.

FORMAL COLLABORATION WITH LIBRARY ORGANIZATIONS

• Library organizations and associations, including the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), the Music Library Association (MLA), and the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), are formally collaborating with PSD to develop LCGFT.
• The AALL law genre/form project, led by Yael Mandelstam from Fordham University School of Law, was undertaken in three distinct phases: evaluation of terms in William Benemann’s Genre Terms for Law Materials: A Thesaurus;29 expansion of Benemann’s list; and preparation of the terms for LCGFT.
• The first two phases of the project involved only occasional communication with PSD, and it was not until the final phase that the two groups started working very closely together to resolve various LCGFT policy issues and fine-tune the law terms to ensure a good fit with the larger thesaurus.
• During this phase the group used e-mail sporadically, but most of the work was done via a wiki.
• The alphabetical list of terms was divided among group members and the “buckets” soon filled up with the appropriate terms.

TERMS SHOULD NOT BE OVERLY GRANULAR

• Catalogers usually strive for a high level of specificity when assigning subject headings and classification numbers, but slicing and dicing the collection too finely with a high level of genre/form granularity would work against efficient collocation of related materials.
• The Editorial Group struggled, for example, with many types of congressional/legislative materials like hearings, reports, digests, documents, journals, proceedings, resolutions, and so on.
• The final decision was to list all of them as “Used For” (UF) references under the single term Legislative materials.
• One of the most important discussions between the Editorial Group and PSD regarded the question of whether to “legalize” general terms like Periodicals, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias.
• To avoid having to wait for these terms until other projects were completed, the group approached members of the Subject Analysis Committee, Subcommittee on Genre/Form Implementation, discussed below, and asked them to review a list of general terms for inclusion in LCGFT.

TERMS SHOULD REFLECT CURRENT USAGE

• Members of the Editorial Group consulted reference librarians, reviewed legal literature, and explored Google and Wikipedia to ensure use of current terminology, meaning, and scope.
• The group’s starting point was often LCSH, although a decision to depart from these headings was made Page 10 when another term was deemed to be more current.
• Thus, rather than using LCSH’s heading Delegated legislation, for example, the group opted for the more commonly used term Administrative regulations.

TERMS SHOULD WORK ACROSS LEGAL SYSTEMS

• The Editorial Group tried to avoid U.S.-centric terms where possible.
• Various options were discussed at length, including Codes and Compiled statutes; Codes (Civil law) and Codes (Common law); Codes (Civil law) and Codes and compiled statutes (Common law); or Codes and compiled statutes for both systems.
• It was decided that the law list should include archival terms and that these terms should be coordinated with LC’s Rare Books Division.
• The recommendations were then communicated to the Editorial Group and a few more rounds of discussions ensued to fine-tune the terms and ensure a good fit with LCGFT.
• One of the discussions that came out of the 185/155 review process at SAC-SGFI was how to handle various aspects of the work and expression that are often closely related to the genre/form aspect, such as intended audience and categories of creators.

SUMMARY

• The Library of Congress’s genre/form project is an enormous multi-year undertaking.
• The partnerships formed by the Library of Congress and expert communities have thus become integral to the success of the project.
• Being open to new ideas and willing to adjust one’s own thinking are hallmarks of open communication.
• Do not lose sight of the overall goals and trajectory of the project.
• It may be painful at times to change course, as PSD did with the character- and franchise-based terms, but approving the terms helped PSD understand how catalogers and users were approaching genre/form terminology.

24 “Decision Regarding the Proposed Revision to the Hierarchies of Moving Image Genre/Form

• //www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/movingimagehierarchiesdecision.pdf (accessed February 4, 2012), also known as Headings,” http.
• 25 “Cancellation of LCGFT Character- and Franchise-Based Terms for Moving Images,” http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/character_franchise_disposition.pdf (accessed February 4, 2012.
• 26 “Library of Congress to Cancel LCGFT Character- and Franchise-Based Terms for Moving Images,” http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/character_franchise_disposition_112211.pdf (accessed February 4, 2012).
• 27 “Proposed Treatment of Globes in the LCGFT Environment,” http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genre_form_globes.pdf (accessed May 31, 2012).

32 “Library of Congress to Approve Genre/Form Terms for Law Materials,”

• //www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genrelaw.html (accessed February 6, 2012), also known as http.
• 33 ALAConnect is the collaborative online workspace for members of the American Library Association.
• The site is powered by Drupal, an open source management platform.

Full text

Fordham Law School
FLASH: e Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History
Sta Publications Law Library
10-28-2013
It Takes a Village: Developing Library of Congress
Genre/Form Terms
Janis L. Young
Library of Congress
Yael Mandelstam
Fordham University School of Law
Follow this and additional works at: hp://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/sta_publications
Part of the Library and Information Science Commons
is Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Library at FLASH: e Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been
accepted for inclusion in Sta Publications by an authorized administrator of FLASH: e Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more
information, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu.
Recommended Citation
Young, Janis L. and Mandelstam, Yael, "It Takes a Village: Developing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms" (2013). Sta
Publications. Paper 2.
hp://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/sta_publications/2

It Takes a Village: Developing Library
of Congress Genre/Form Terms
JANIS L. YOUNG
Policy and Standards Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA
YAEL MANDELSTAM
Leo T. Kissam Memorial Library, Fordham University School of Law, New York, New York, USA
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.
KEYWORDS: authority control, controlled vocabularies, genre/form terms,
indexing vocabularies, LCGFT, Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for
Library and Archival Materials, audiovisual materials, law materials
INTRODUCTION
In 2007, the Cataloging Policy and Support Office of the Library of Congress, now the Policy and
Standards Division (PSD), undertook an experiment to develop a thesaurus of genre/form terms in
the discipline of moving images (films, television programs, and video recordings). The experiment
was successful, and six more projects were added: non-musical sound recordings, chiefly radio
programs; cartography; law; literature; music; and religion. Active development of the sound
recording, cartography, and law projects is complete and the others are ongoing.
Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT), as the
thesaurus is now known, is intended to fulfill the need for a unified, cohesive, multidisciplinary list
of genre/form terms that provide for enhanced resource discovery. PSD envisions its use in a wide
range of institutions, from research and academic to public and school libraries, as well as in
archives.
A review of the literature revealed that other organizations that have developed new
controlled vocabularies have experienced many of the same challenges that PSD and its partners are
encountering. For instance, in their article on the Kaunokki Finnish Fiction Thesaurus, Jarmo Saarti and
Kaisa Hypén discussed specificity versus depth of terminology. They noted that the context in
which the thesaurus was to be used was important, because scholars and public library users have
different needs. The thesaurus developers have tried to accommodate those differences.
1
After the
first edition of the thesaurus was published, feedback from libraries indicated that the scope should
be broadened to include not just “traditional text,” but also “movies, comics, and so on,”
2
which was
accomplished for the second edition.

Developing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
Page 2
When Barbara Brenny, Richard Duncan, and Hugh Kelsey set out to develop a thesaurus for
the cataloging of Universal Design images, “they realized the biggest challenge would be keeping
their creation simple, straightforward, and easy to understand.”
3
This was particularly important
because the thesaurus was intended to be applied by Universal Design practitioners, not by
librarians. They examined existing controlled vocabularies such as Library of Congress Subject Headings
(LCSH) and the Art and Architecture Thesaurus to find pertinent terms to use as the basis of the new
thesaurus. As the Universal Design expert on the team, Duncan reviewed the terms and added
terminology and scope notes.
4
The impetus for the National Indian Law guiding principles of LCGFT development
Library’s development of a subject heading list to supplement LCSH was the submission of NILL’s
bibliographic records to a union catalog, which made it necessary to learn to apply LCSH. NILL had
a local subject heading list, which was independent of LCSH; an initial review found that many local
headings duplicated LC subject headings and could be removed. The staff of NILL then used the
local subject headings list as the seed for developing specialized Indian law terminology that is not
present in LCSH.
5
Throughout the process, the NILL project managers consulted with other librarians and also
with attorneys. Monica Martens states, “Volunteer Indian law attorneys participated in a
brainstorming session about terminology, and library subject specialists gave feedback on the
Thesaurus at various stages of its development. NILL librarians needed elaboration on terms related
to … esoteric topics. Missing and preferred terms were also identified by consultants. Input from
practicing attorneys at this stage was particularly valuable.” Martens acknowledged that conflicting
advice was sometimes received, at which time the NILL librarians chose the subject heading
“perceived to best serve library users.”
6
The common denominator in all of these projects is collaboration with the constituencies
for whom the vocabularies were developed. This is also one of the guiding principles of LCGFT
development. PSD is actively working with the general library community in order to understand the
needs of different constituencies, and has formally partnered with other organizations to develop
terminologies and policies to fill those needs. This article focuses on methods of communication
and collaboration employed for LC’s completed projects. It will address informal outreach efforts
such as public calls for comment and examine formal collaboration through a case study of the
partnership between the American Association of Law Libraries and PSD to develop genre/form
terms for law materials. The article will also address other formal collaborations, including those
with other national organizations as well as with various units within the Library of Congress.
COLLABORATION WITHIN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The moving image project was the first and was treated as an experiment through which
PSD would determine whether it was feasible to develop a new terminology and policies governing
the syntax and application of the terms. This project would also experiment with the methodology
for creating the thesaurus, including collaboration.
Initial thesaurus development efforts occurred chiefly within the Library of Congress, and
the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) was closely
involved in both the moving image and radio program projects. In the 1990s, MBRS had developed
the successful Moving Image Genre-Form Guide (MIGFG)
7
and the Radio Form-Genre Guide (RADFG)
8
but the thesauri were not updated because there was no mechanism or staff time to do so. MBRS
therefore asked whether the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (now PSD) could absorb the
thesauri into LCSH, which is updated regularly through a time-tested process.

Developing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
Page 3
Although Janis L. Young, the coordinator of the genre/form projects, had extensive
experience in cataloging works of criticism about moving image works and radio programs, she had
limited knowledge of the cataloging practices for the non-book materials themselves. Therefore,
collaboration with others having specialized knowledge was a key element in the process from the
beginning.
During the earliest stages of the project, moving image catalogers and PSD staff developed
an initial list of moving image genre/form terms by examining LCSH to find existing headings that
denote forms and genres of moving images. To that they added selected terms from MIGFG and
Moving Image Materials: Genre Terms (MIM).
9
Significant decisions about the scope of the new
thesaurus had to be made as headings were selected for inclusion. The existing LC subject headings
originally had been proposed to describe works about films and television programs. Should all of
those headings be included in the genre/form thesaurus, even if purists and scholars do not consider
a particular phrase to be a genre or a form? Are language and nationality part of the genre and form?
How granular should the terms be? And most fundamentally, what is a film?
Expert catalogers and policy specialists met to discuss these issues many times over the
course of several months, and communicated over e-mail between meetings. Some of the questions
were answered more readily than others. For instance, the decision to exclude nationality and
language from the genre/form thesaurus was relatively easy once the definitions of genre and form
were examined.
MIM defines genre as encompassing “any recognized category of fictional works which is
characterized by recognizable conventions, i.e., a group of works all of which tend to explore the
same themes and use the same plot formulae, character-types, and icons.”
10
MIGFG agrees with this
definition and expands on it. In its view, genres “contain conventions of narrational strategy and
organizational structure, using similar themes, motifs, settings, situations, and characterizations. In
this way, the makers of moving image works use recognizable patterns of storytelling that are readily
understood by audiences. Typical formulas range from the varieties of Hollywood feature films to
modes of nonfictional discourse.”
11
The two thesauri also agree in substance on the definition of form. MIM defines it as “any
recognized category of works characterized by a particular format or purpose.”
12
MIGFG says
further, “Forms are defined as the basic categories indicating a moving image work’s original
exhibition and release parameters (such as length and medium), and which are separate from its
actual content, not necessarily implying a particular narrative construction. Form terms include
Feature, Short, Serial, Animation, and Television, and can be associated as needed with any
genre….”
13
The catalogers and policy specialists were able to agree that while works of a particular genre
might differ slightly in mood or emphasis from country to country or language to language, the
themes, motifs, settings, and so on, generally remain consistent. For example, two unrelated films,
one produced in the United States and the other in Italy, could both fulfill MIGFG’s definition of
espionage film, which is, “Fictional work depicting spies and secret agents seeking to uncover or
maintain secrets from each other and for one country or for the benefit of another. Living a
masquerade, spies are usually cynical, amoral, deceitful, alienated, and ready to betray another person
or cause, although these are often seen as merely the means to achieve a patriotic goal. Although the
secrets often have a military application, the setting can be either during wartime or in the Cold
War.”
14
Some of the other policy decisions were more contentious and often reflected the
differences between the terminology of film scholarship and the terminology of the layperson. The
definition of the word film was the first issue to be resolved. Traditionally and in scholarship, films
are those works that are recorded on reel-to-reel film. The layperson’s definition is often much

Developing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
Page 4
broader, particularly in today’s digital world. Major motion pictures are now recorded on video tape
and on digital media such as DVDs or, in the case of animated films such as Toy Story, are created by
using computer software on a hard drive. Should LCGFT be strict in its definition, or should it be
more encompassing? If the latter, not only LCGFT would be affected, but LCSH would have to be
adjusted as well. The broader definition was adopted after much debate, reflecting PSD’s desire for
the thesaurus to be useful to as many constituencies as possible.
Another controversial decision that reflected the scholarly/lay divide was that of the validity
of LCSH headings that film scholars do not consider to be genres or forms (e.g., Batman films;
Christmas films; Hockey films).
15
Discussions centered around whether the genre/form thesaurus
should represent scholarly views of what constitutes a genre or form, or whether it should be
broader in scope and include terms that do not exhibit academic purity, but reflect the terminology
that most library users are likely to employ. The decision was made to err on the side of
inclusiveness. If an LC subject heading had the syntax of a genre/form term, then it would be
included in LCGFT. That policy has since undergone refinement, as will be discussed below.
The project to develop radio program genre/form terms was a logical extension of the
moving image project, since radio program genres and forms are similar to those for moving images.
The radio program project followed the same trajectory as the one for moving images and was
chiefly an effort to create authority records for the vocabulary already defined in the Radio Form-
Genre Guide. In addition, LC’s sound recordings catalogers and PSD collaborated to review
terminology that already existed in LCSH. This project involved fewer contentious decisions,
perhaps because LCSH includes far fewer headings describing types of radio programs than it does
films and television programs; there is therefore less established policy. Using the moving image
terms as a model, the sound recording catalogers and policy specialists were able to rather quickly
determine what genres and forms should be represented in LCGFT.
In early 2009, PSD began a third project, to develop terminology for cartographic materials.
As with the earlier projects, PSD relied heavily on expert catalogers to provide guidance. Catalogers
from LC’s Geography and Map Division suggested lists of terms, which policy specialists and
catalogers researched. They then prepared proposals for inclusion of the terms in LCGFT. PSD also
consulted with the catalogers on policies for assigning the terms.
INFORMAL COLLABORATION WITH LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS OUTSIDE OF LC
One of the problems inherent in the development of a thesaurus intended for use by a broad
spectrum of institutions, from public libraries to archives, lies in formulating policies and
terminology that will serve all user groups. In order to make the vocabulary useful to a broad range
of institutions, PSD would have to expand its collaboration efforts outside the Library of Congress.
For the project to be successful, its goals and objectives, and, eventually, the rules and policies
governing LCGFT’s development and application, would have to be clearly stated and publicized.
As noted by Jill Ellern in an article on successful project management, confusion can be kept to a
minimum by keeping everyone informed, by asking lots of questions, and by communicating the
answers as they are determined.
16
To enhance communication, PSD developed a genre/form Web page
17
to serve as an archive
of all of the documents that have been publicly released since the project’s inception in 2007. It
includes an FAQ, announcements, reports, and presentations, as well as discussion papers and links
to other documents. According to Ellern, timely notice about changes brought by the project must
be provided to stakeholders because, “depending on the project, patrons, vendors, and other
libraries might need to have timely notice about the changes a project will mandate.”
18
This has

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "It takes a village: developing library of congress genre/form terms" ?

The Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials ( LCGFT ) this paper is a thesaurus of genre/form terms in the discipline of moving images ( films, television programs, and video recordings ). 

Q2. What was the first organization to offer assistance to PSD?

The AALL Classification and Subject Cataloging Policy Advisory Working Group was one of the first organizations to offer assistance to PSD. 

Q3. How many respondents were in favor of canceling the terms?

Over 70% of respondents, who represented both public and academic libraries and also archives, indicated that they were in favor of canceling the terms. 

Q4. What is the problem with the genre/form thesaurus?

One of the problems inherent in the development of a thesaurus intended for use by a broad spectrum of institutions, from public libraries to archives, lies in formulating policies and terminology that will serve all user groups. 

Q5. What did the group do to ensure that the terms were organized properly?

The group moved its communication to e-mail, and since past experience showed how unwieldy e-mail discussions can become if not properly organized and regulated, the group adhered to the strict rule of maintaining a separate thread for each term, with the term clearly indicated in the subject line. 

Q6. What did the Editorial Group do to ensure use of current terminology, meaning, and scope?

Members of the Editorial Group consulted reference librarians, reviewed legal literature, and explored Google and Wikipedia to ensure use of current terminology, meaning, and scope. 

Q7. What was the project to develop radio program genre/form terms?

The project to develop radio program genre/form terms was a logical extension of the moving image project, since radio program genres and forms are similar to those for moving images. 

Q8. What was the process of forming the principles of LCGFT?

As the project progressed, the Editorial Group began to formulate principles through trial and error, and through internal discussions and ongoing communication with PSD and the leaders of the other genre/form projects: LCGFT IS A TRUE THESAURUSUnlike LCSH, which was built from the bottom up with cross-references added at a later date, LCGFT is being constructed from the top down. 

Q9. What was the first project that was treated as an experiment?

The moving image project was the first and was treated as an experiment through which PSD would determine whether it was feasible to develop a new terminology and policies governing the syntax and application of the terms. 

Q10. What is the role of the coordinator in the discussion paper?

The coordinator must also be aware that some of the reactions to discussion papers, and even to announcements, may be emotional and not intellectual in nature.