<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">I am the sole cataloger at the Athenaeum. I haven't written up documentation, but have created constant data records in OCLC so that I can be consistent. I have CD for Bindings and binderies, Dust jackets, Genre headings, Paper, Printers, provenance notes, and many others that aren't relevant to this question. If there is a way to share them, I don't remember what it is.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 8:34 AM Lapka, Francis <<a href="mailto:francis.lapka@yale.edu">francis.lapka@yale.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(32,33,36);letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">Hi everyone.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(32,33,36);letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">I’m currently working with a Yale task force that is reviewing the use of form and genre terms in the description of manuscript and archival material.
A primary goal of this group is to make recommendations that will facilitate better consistency of form/genre application across Yale special collections units, leading (hopefully) to improved user discovery.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(32,33,36);letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">New or improved local guidance on form/genre application is one possible tool for achieving this goal. With that in mind, I’m keen to hear if
others have established (or are aware of) local form/genre documentation that you find particularly successful. Please don’t be modest if it’s your own. Context is not limited to mss/archives.
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(32,33,36);letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">Here are two examples that I’m aware of:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">(Yale) Beinecke Rare Book Cataloging Unit:
<a href="http://beinecke1.library.yale.edu/info/bookcataloging/genre.htm" target="_blank">http://beinecke1.library.yale.edu/info/bookcataloging/genre.htm</a>
<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="gmail-m_-2548427016171586312MsoListParagraph" style="color:rgb(32,33,36);margin-left:0in">
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">Folger Shakespeare Library (Folgerpedia):
<a href="https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Genre_and_form" target="_blank">https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Genre_and_form</a>
<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(32,33,36);letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">It seems part of the exercise is to identify the terms that are important to your repository while keeping the list(s) to a manageable size. I’m
especially keen to see examples of documentation that are organized (with hierarchies or categories) by format, content matter, etc. The Beinecke example does this at a broad level (genre, binding, provenance, printing/publishing).<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(32,33,36);letter-spacing:0.15pt;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">Francis<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Francis Lapka</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Senior Catalogue Librarian</span></i><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Yale Center for British Art</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">203-432-9672 · </span><a href="mailto:francis.lapka@yale.edu" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:rgb(5,99,193)">francis.lapka@yale.edu</span></a><u></u><u></u></p>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Lois Reibach<br>Resource Description and Access Librarian<br>The Athenaeum of Philadelphia<br>219 South Sixth Street<br>Philadelphia, PA 19106<br><br><a href="mailto:lrreibach@gmail.com" target="_blank">lrreibach@gmail.com</a><br></div></div>