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 Association. Other terms from the RBMS thesauri may also be used when called for.
Contact: Margaret Nichols
Unit: Cataloging & Metadata Services
Date last updated: 05/05/2017
Date of next review: March 2018
Genre Terms
(Coded 655 _7 , with $2 rbgenr at end)
We typically subdivide genre terms 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 $z France $y 18th century. $2 rbgenr
Novels $z United States $y 1901-1910. $2 rbgenr
Genre terms we commonly use, subdividing them by country and century:
- Broadsides
- Dialogues
- Diaries
- Fables
- Fast day sermons
- Fiction [used for short stories]
- Legislative addresses
- Novels
- Plays
- Poems
- Prospectuses
- Publishers' catalogs
- Satires
- Sermons
- Songs
- Three deckers
- Volvelles (this one need not be subdivided)
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 century:
- 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 category note to specify whether it's a printing term or a publishing term.
Provenance Terms
(Coded 655 _7, with $2 rbprov at end)
Example:
655 _7 Prize books (Provenance) $z United States $y 19th century. $2 rbprov
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)
Binding Terms
(Coded 655 _7, with $2 rbbin at end)
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)
Printing and Publishing Evidence
(Coded 655 _7, with $2 rbpri or $2 rbpub at end)
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)