Report of the Joint GNCRT/SAC/OLAC Working Group on Compound Terms in the LCGFT Vocabulary
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2023
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Abstract
At the PCC Operations Committee meeting on May 6, 2022, librarians from multiple institutions questioned the ban on compound terms in the LCGFT vocabulary, favoring the inclusion of such terms as “Paranormal romance fiction.” In response to this support for compound terms in the library community, the American Library Association’s Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) and On-line Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc. (OLAC) voted in September 2022 to form a joint working group with the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table’s Metadata and Cataloging Committee (GNCRT). This working group is charged with approaching the Library of Congress to advocate for revisions to the LCGFT vocabulary to allow for the inclusion of compound terms.
Description
Given the factors outlined in the report, we believe there is no compelling reason to continue banning compound terms from the LCGFT. Instead of giving primacy to a philosophical concept of vocabulary building, the Library of Congress should focus on creating a vocabulary that is truly useful to patrons, one congruent with a contemporary patron’s understanding of genres. We recommend that those tasked with maintaining the LCGFT allow compound subgenre terms to be proposed, and accepted, into the vocabulary. In addition, we advocate that Library of Congress guidance on the application of LCGFT permit the use of both broader or more generic terms together with more targeted ones, if deemed important for facilitating genre access for our patrons.
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Keywords
metadata, cataloging, LCSH, subject headings, vocabulary, compound terms