Scope: These are terms that CMS rare materials catalogers commonly apply as tracings (when appropriate) for rare books. Terms are from the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies on the website of the Bibliographic Standards Committee, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library AssociationVocabulary on a website hosted by the Library of Congress. Other terms from the RBMS thesauri CV may also be used when called for.
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Unit: Cataloging & Metadata Services
Date last updated: 03/31/14
Date of next review: March 2015
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2025
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Hosted by the Library of Congress Linked Data Service, the RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging lists terms approved for use on catalog records for rare materials. RBMS CVRMC content is maintained by the Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Group (CVEG), a committee of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), which is a division of the American Library Association (ALA). New terms are added at the request of community members and vetted for inclusion by CVEG. The RBMS Controlled Vocabulary includes genre terms, and terms relating to bindings, type evidence, paper, printing and publishing evidence, and provenance evidence. The genre terms include terms for prejudicial works. (To see a list of those terms, do a search on "prejudicial works" and then click on that phrase.) All terms are coded 655 _7, with
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$2 rbmscv at
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We typically subdivide genre terms the end. Subdivisions (such as by country and century. For 20th-century novels, we subdivide the terms by country and decade. Each decade runs from 19x1 to 19x0.Examples:
Plays$zFrance$y18th century. $2 rbgenr
Novels$zEngland$y1901-1910. $2 rbgenr ) are no longer used. Do not go back and delete the subdivisions from catalog records created previously.
Note: Like other thesauri, the Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging is a living entity, subject to change over time. It pays to check periodically, before using a given term, to see whether its authorized form has changed.
Genre terms we commonly use, subdividing them by country and century: :
- Addresses [i.e. speeches]
- Auction catalogs
- Broadsides
- Dialogues
- Diaries
- Essays
- Exhibition catalogs
- Fables
- Fast day sermons
- Juvenile literature
- Fiction [used for short stories]Lectures
- Legislative addresses
- Novellas
- Novels
- Plays
- Poems
- Prospectuses
- Publishers' catalogs
- Satires
- Screenplays
- Sermons
- Short stories
- Songs
- Theater programs
- Three deckers
- Volvelles (this one need not be subdivided)
Terms For terms that apply exclusively to the United States (such as “Fourth of July sermons”), we subdivide by state and century. Terms we commonly use subdivided by state and centuryto American works:
- Fourth of July sermons
- Fourth of July addresses
- Thanksgiving sermons
Note: For all of the RBMs thesauri other than Genre Terms, each term used is followed by a word in parentheses which identifies the thesaurus it comes from. Check the "Application" section of the Introduction to the thesaurus to see what term is appropriate to use. In the Printing and Publishing Evidence thesaurus, each term has a subject catagory note to specify whether its a printing term or a publishing term.
Provenance Terms
(Coded 655 _7, with $2rbprov at end)
Example:
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Provenance terms we commonly use, subdividing them by country and century
- Authors' presentation copies (Provenance)
- Extra-illustrated copies (Provenance)
- Presentation copies (Provenance)
- Prize books (Provenance)
- Publishers' copies (Provenance)
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Binding terms we commonly use (these don't come up often enough to need subdivision)
- Blind tooled bindings (Binding)
- Bosses (Binding)
- Clasps (Binding)
- Fore-edge paintings (Binding)
- Tree calf bindings (Binding)
- Wrappers (Binding)
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- Vellum bindings
Printing or publishing terms we commonly use (these also don't need subdivision)
- Galley proofs (Printing)
- Printers' devices (Printing)
- Proofs (Printing)
- Review copies (Publishing)
- Subscription lists (Publishing)
Prejudicial works terms we may find useful (but see the Vocabulary for more)
- Anti-Asian works
- Anti-Black works
- Anti-Catholic works
- Anti-clerical works
- Anti-communist works
- Anti-Jewish works
- Anti-LGBTQ+ works
- Anti-Masonic works
- Fascist works
- Misogynistic works
- Racist works
- Xenophobic works