Fw: [SACOLIST] CPSO's genre/form report available

[Heidi G. Lerner]

fyi - Heidi
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Janis Young" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 8:17 PM
Subject: [SACOLIST] CPSO's genre/form report available


[Message cross-posted to various lists.  Please excuse the
duplication.]


In early 2007 the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) of the
Library of Congress initiated a project to create authority records for
genre/form headings (MARC tag 155), which indicate what a work is, as
opposed to what it is about.  The first discipline undertaken was that
of moving images (films, television programs, and video recordings), and
was accomplished in cooperation with the Moving Image, Broadcasting, and
Recorded Sound Division (MBRS).  The first 70 or so moving image
genre/form authority records (MARC tag 155) were approved in September
2007, and there are currently almost 400 headings available for use.

The second project undertaken, also in cooperation with MBRS, was to
create radio program genre/form headings.  The first of these authority
records was approved in May 2008.

This past Tuesday members of CPSO presented a report on the moving
image genre/form project to LC managers.  The report

— explains the function of genre/form headings, including the impact
that they have on both cataloging operations and end-user searching;
— reviews the history of genre/form headings in MARC format and at LC
over the last decade;
— explains the logic of choosing moving image headings as the
experimental group and the principles and policies that CPSO developed
as the project progressed; and,
— recommends the expansion of genre/form headings beyond moving
images and radio programs into such disciplines as law, music,
literature, cartography, and religion.

The report was approved by LC management and has been posted on CPSO's
web site at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/movimgenre.html.

Specific information on development and implementation strategies will
be released as they are developed.

Questions about the genre/form projects may be addressed to CPSO in
care of Janis Young at [EMAIL PROTECTED]