Summary: Information about and local practices for the various controlled vocabularies available to catalogers for describing the subject, form, or genre of a work.

NOTE: Responsibility for ethical practice

As acknowledged in MSUL's statement about harmful language in our local resource descriptions, our cataloging standards have always included problematic terms and practices. Catalogers are encouraged to keep a critical eye on controlled vocabularies and to be aware of personal biases when assigning terms.

Consult the Cataloging Code of Ethics and this presentation at the 9.19.23 CMS meeting for guidance when dealing with sensitive subject material, and bring questions to unit heads as they arise.

General guidance

In most cases, terms from the LCSH and LCGFT vocabs should be applied to all resources where appropriate, in accordance with LC instructions for their use. See the LCSH and LCGFT sections below for details.

The other controlled vocabularies in use at MSUL are listed below. These are not universally required, but all except MeSH are recommended for appropriate situations.

Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
Homosaurus
LC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (LCTGM)
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Combined Vocabularies (RBMSCV)

When applying these vocabularies, catalogers should consult all relevant documentation about correct application, and rely on their own judgment when terms outside of LCSH are appropriate. Some of these situations include:

When LCSH lacks terms for more specialized materials like maps, medical materials, rare books, graphic images, etc.
When inadequacies in LCSH prevent ethical or respectful description

LCSH (standard)

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary: https://classweb.org

Subject Heading Manual

LC training slides

650 _0 Topical

651 _0 Geographic

600 10 Personal name

610 20 Corporate name

611 20 Meeting name

630 00 Title of work

SUBFIELDS

$x Topical

$z Geographic

$y Chronological

$v Form

Guidelines

Assign at least 1 and no more than 10 terms to a resource
Assign terms for concepts that comprise 20% or more of a resource's content
The first subject heading should reflect the predominant topic of the work, and is used to determine the resource's classification
For works without one predominant topic, assign subject headings in the order mentioned by the resource
- Example title: Classicism in Art, Music, and Literature
- Assign subject headings in this order = Classicism in art, Classicism in music, etc.
- Resource will be classed in the Ns
For biographies:
- Assign name heading or AAP as first subject heading
- Next, assign a topical subject heading for the biographee's field of activity; this forms the basis of classification
- Assign other terms for a biographee's associated country, organization, etc., as appropriate
When creating subject strings, chronological subdivisions always come after topical and geographic subdivisions; form subdivisions are always last, if present. There are three usual patterns to subject strings:
- TOPIC – TOPIC – PLACE – TIME – FORM
- TOPIC – PLACE – TOPIC – TIME – FORM
  - Use when the topical subdivision cannot be subdivided geographically
- PLACE – TOPIC – TIME – FORM
  - Use when a geographic term is the main heading

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LCGFT (standard)

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary: https://classweb.org

Genre/Form Term Manual

655 _7 [Term] $2 lcgft

*

*But folded into the subject index; no separate GFT index.

Guidelines

Assign any applicable terms even if similar terms are present in LCSH subject strings
Special efforts should be made to assign GFTs for:
- Non-book formats such as music, maps, AV materials, kits, etc.
- Fictional works, comics, graphic novels, poetry, drama, etc.
- Physical attributes like bindings, inscriptions, forms of presentation, etc.

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AAT (use in specific cases)

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary

About the AAT

650 _7 [Subject] $2 aat

655 _7 [Genre/form] $2 aat

Guidelines

Scope of the AAT: "...art, architecture, and other visual cultural heritage, including related disciplines dealing with visual works, such as archaeology and conservation, where the works are of the type collected by art museums and repositories for visual cultural heritage, or that are architecture."
Many of the terms in the AAT can be found in other more standard vocabularies; when this is the case, there is no need to assign AAT terms that are redundant to LCSH, LCGFT, or RBMSCV terms.
Best used for artistic or visual materials, when specific terminology is not available in the LC or RBMS vocabularies.

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Homosaurus (regular use encouraged)

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary: https://homosaurus.org/search/v3

Homosaurus Documentation & Implementation

650 _7 [Subject] $2 homoit

655 _7 [Genre/form] $2 homoit

In progress

Additional resources

CMS presentation with overview and application instructions (by Ruth Ann Jones)
More detailed training webinars: https://www.orbiscascade.org/programs/scts/technical-services/documentation/homosaurus-training-resources-and-faq/

Guidelines

Assign for any resource about people or topics relevant to the LGBTQ+ community
Use in combination with LCSH terms
- Where LCSH terms may be considered harmful, choose a more general term from the LCSH hierarchy and use Homosaurus terms to express more specificity
Assign even if somewhat repetitive with chosen LCSH

Pay very close attention to the descriptions (scope notes) of each term; be sure to understand a term's current usage and historical context before assigning. For example, you may encounter records with the LCSH term Transsexuals and think to add an equivalent Homosaurus term. While the term Transsexual people is available in Homosaurus, its description puts significant limits on its usage: "Some but not all people regard this term as outdated and offensive. Only use to describe people who self-identify as transsexual."

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LCTGM (use in specific cases)

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary

Subject Guidelines

Genre/Format Guidelines

650 _7 [Subject] $2 lctgm

655 _7 [Genre/form] $2 gmgpc

Guidelines

Scope of the TGM: "...a tool for indexing visual materials by subject and by genre/format... includes more than 7,000 subject terms and 650 genre/format terms to index types of photographs, prints, design drawings, ephemera, and other pictures."
Best used for visual materials, when specific terminology for the resource is not available in the LC or RBMS vocabularies.

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MeSH (infrequently used)

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary

Use of MeSH in Cataloging

650 12 [Primary subject]

650 22 [Secondary subjects]

651 _2 [Geographic]

655 _2 [Genre/form]

SUBFIELDS

$x [Qualifier]

Guidelines

In general, MSUL catalogers do not assign MeSH headings; this is a highly specialized vocabulary and requires additional training.
MeSH terms come into our catalog via copy, often from records created by the National Library of Medicine and other medical libraries.

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RBMSCV

Documentation

MARC encoding

Indexed in VuFind?

Authority records in Folio?

Searchable vocabulary

Mapping between old and new terms

650 _7 [subject] $2 rbmscv

655 _7 [Genre/form] $2 rbmscv

655 _7 [Genre/form] $z Geographical subd $y Chronological subd $2 local

Soon

Guidelines

The official RBMS controlled vocabulary (RBMSCV) does not permit geographical and chronological subdivisions.
- As of November 2024, CMS is implementing a custom practice to allow continued assignment of these subdivisions.
When geographical and chronological subdivisions are warranted for a resource, the cataloger will assign two different versions of the same RBMSCV term like so:
- 655 _7 [Term] $2 rbmscv
- 655 _7 [Term] $z [Subdivision] $y [Subdivision] $2 local
Geographical subdivisions should follow LC authorized forms.
Chronological subdivisions should generally specify a century (i.e., $y 17th century).
When the chosen term pertains to anything specific to MSUL's copy, also add $5 MiEM
Do not add $2 local fields to OCLC master records

Examples:

Previous practice
- 655 _7 Inscriptions (Provenance) $z France $y 19th century. $2 rbprov $5 MiEM
- 655 _7 Gospel books $z France $z 19th century. $2 rbgenr
New practice
- 655 _7 Inscriptions $z France $y 19th century. $2 local $5 MiEM
- 655 _7 Inscriptions. $2 rbmscv $5 MiEM
- 655 _7 Gospel books $z France $z 19th century. $2 local
- 655 _7 Gospel books $2 rbmscv

NOTE: Terms for prejudicial materials

The newly combined RBMS vocabularies offers catalogers a set of genre terms under the umbrella topic of Prejudicial works; i.e., works that express "a negative sentiment toward a particular group of society." See this link for a list of narrower terms available for use:

https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/rbmscv/cv00108.html

These terms are available to use for any types of material and should be considered for resources where negative sentiments toward a group are clear or can be easily inferred; as usual, rely on your judgment and remain aware of your own biases while doing this work!

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Policies

All records except those for literary works (fiction, drama, poetry) should have at least one LC subject heading with the second indicator "0" (zero). This can be a MARC 600, 610, 611, 650 or 651 heading, as appropriate (but not 653).

The CMS team adheres to the Cataloging Code of Ethics when performing any subject analysis work, with particular regard to the following principles:

"We acknowledge that we bring our biases to the workplace; therefore, we strive to overcome personal, institutional, and societal prejudices in our work."
"We recognise that interoperability and consistent application of standards help our users find and access materials. However, all standards are biased; we will approach them critically and advocate to make cataloguing more inclusive."

Contact	Autumn Faulkner
Team	CMS
Updated	October 2023
Created	November 2024