Library of Congress genre terms (off-topic)

[library hat on!]
I almost never get to post here about things from work. But this is cool enough that I thought people might be interested.

I'm sure you know that library catalogs apply subject headings to titles, so that people can find a list of, for instance, all the books about publishing. But historically, some of these subject headings have been used to describe genres, the form or type of book or story rather than the subject (i.e. what the book is rather than what it is about). For instance, Star Wars is science fiction, it is about Luke Skywalker and coming of age.

A few years ago the Library of Congress finally decided to split the genre terms from the subject terms. They started with movies and music. They are finally getting to literary works. They have a preliminary list and hope to approve it in March. But I thought people here might be interested in seeing some of the terms included in the preliminary list. I'm only going to list the ones related to the broad realm of science fiction, and I'll skip the ones for comics, poetry, and plays:

Alternative histories (Fiction)
Apocalyptic fiction
Cyberpunk fiction
Dystopian fiction
Fan fiction
Fantasy fiction
Horror fiction
Paranormal fiction
Science fiction
Space operas (Fiction)
Steampunk fiction
Time-travel fiction
Utopian fiction

So that is how the Library of Congress is thinking of classifying the different types of stories that are commonly included in the umbrella of science fiction!

SWM wrote:[library hat on!]
I almost never get to post here about things from work. But this is cool enough that I thought people might be interested.

I'm sure you know that library catalogs apply subject headings to titles, so that people can find a list of, for instance, all the books about publishing. But historically, some of these subject headings have been used to describe genres, the form or type of book or story rather than the subject (i.e. what the book is rather than what it is about). For instance, Star Wars is science fiction, it is about Luke Skywalker and coming of age.

A few years ago the Library of Congress finally decided to split the genre terms from the subject terms. They started with movies and music. They are finally getting to literary works. They have a preliminary list and hope to approve it in March. But I thought people here might be interested in seeing some of the terms included in the preliminary list. I'm only going to list the ones related to the broad realm of science fiction, and I'll skip the ones for comics, poetry, and plays:

Alternative histories (Fiction)
Apocalyptic fiction
Cyberpunk fiction
Dystopian fiction
Fan fiction
Fantasy fiction
Horror fiction
Paranormal fiction
Science fiction
Space operas (Fiction)
Steampunk fiction
Time-travel fiction
Utopian fiction

So that is how the Library of Congress is thinking of classifying the different types of stories that are commonly included in the umbrella of science fiction!

And where would the Safehold stories fall? Science Fiction, apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction?

SWM wrote:[library hat on!]
I almost never get to post here about things from work. But this is cool enough that I thought people might be interested.

I'm sure you know that library catalogs apply subject headings to titles, so that people can find a list of, for instance, all the books about publishing. But historically, some of these subject headings have been used to describe genres, the form or type of book or story rather than the subject (i.e. what the book is rather than what it is about). For instance, Star Wars is science fiction, it is about Luke Skywalker and coming of age.

A few years ago the Library of Congress finally decided to split the genre terms from the subject terms. They started with movies and music. They are finally getting to literary works. They have a preliminary list and hope to approve it in March. But I thought people here might be interested in seeing some of the terms included in the preliminary list. I'm only going to list the ones related to the broad realm of science fiction, and I'll skip the ones for comics, poetry, and plays:

Alternative histories (Fiction)
Apocalyptic fiction
Cyberpunk fiction
Dystopian fiction
Fan fiction
Fantasy fiction
Horror fiction
Paranormal fiction
Science fiction
Space operas (Fiction)
Steampunk fiction
Time-travel fiction
Utopian fiction

So that is how the Library of Congress is thinking of classifying the different types of stories that are commonly included in the umbrella of science fiction!

Is that all on their own? Or is OCLC the driver?

Rob

fallsfromtrees wrote:

SWM wrote:[library hat on!]
I almost never get to post here about things from work. But this is cool enough that I thought people might be interested.

I'm sure you know that library catalogs apply subject headings to titles, so that people can find a list of, for instance, all the books about publishing. But historically, some of these subject headings have been used to describe genres, the form or type of book or story rather than the subject (i.e. what the book is rather than what it is about). For instance, Star Wars is science fiction, it is about Luke Skywalker and coming of age.

A few years ago the Library of Congress finally decided to split the genre terms from the subject terms. They started with movies and music. They are finally getting to literary works. They have a preliminary list and hope to approve it in March. But I thought people here might be interested in seeing some of the terms included in the preliminary list. I'm only going to list the ones related to the broad realm of science fiction, and I'll skip the ones for comics, poetry, and plays:

Alternative histories (Fiction)
Apocalyptic fiction
Cyberpunk fiction
Dystopian fiction
Fan fiction
Fantasy fiction
Horror fiction
Paranormal fiction
Science fiction
Space operas (Fiction)
Steampunk fiction
Time-travel fiction
Utopian fiction

So that is how the Library of Congress is thinking of classifying the different types of stories that are commonly included in the umbrella of science fiction!

And where would the Safehold stories fall? Science Fiction, apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction?

Space opera
Revolutionary Fiction?
Prophetic Fiction?

Armed Neo-Bob wrote:
Is that all on their own? Or is OCLC the driver?

Rob

I don't recognize the abbreviation OCLC - explain please?

fallsfromtrees wrote:And where would the Safehold stories fall? Science Fiction, apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction?

Yes, or maybe not.

I suspect that, like the information on the TP Verso for "Cataloging in Publishing" several categories/genres will be listed for each title. The same idea applies to "tagging" books at places like Amazon, where some books have a hundred tags or more.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

Armed Neo-Bob wrote:
Is that all on their own? Or is OCLC the driver?

Rob

I don't recognize the abbreviation OCLC - explain please?

OCLC is an organization which collects catalog records and provides them to members for use in their local catalogs. Along with the American Library Association and the Library of Congress, it is one of the most influential organizations on cataloging in the United States.

Armed Neo-Bob wrote:Is that all on their own? Or is OCLC the driver?

Rob

No, this is definitely a Library of Congress project. They have invited input from various other organizations on what should be included in the genre lists. For instance, they worked with the Music Librarians Association when they worked up the music genres.

fallsfromtrees wrote:And where would the Safehold stories fall? Science Fiction, apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction?

Space operas, most definitely.
[edit]Blah. I was thinking of Honor Harrington, sorry. Safehold . . . that's a curious one. Not Space operas. Dystopian fiction works to some extent, but not completely. Depending on where David takes it from here, it might start to look a little like Steampunk fiction. But it might have to fall back on the broader term Science fiction.

There might also be some appropriate genres outside of the science-fiction related terms I listed here. I can't think of any offhand, but I'll take a look.
[/edit]

Weird Harold wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:And where would the Safehold stories fall? Science Fiction, apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction?

Yes, or maybe not.

I suspect that, like the information on the TP Verso for "Cataloging in Publishing" several categories/genres will be listed for each title. The same idea applies to "tagging" books at places like Amazon, where some books have a hundred tags or more.

Yes, books can have more than one genre heading, just like they can have more than one subject heading. For instance, I can name a number of books which should get both Science fiction and Mystery and detective fiction genres, or Science fiction and Romance fiction genres.

However, some genre terms are subcategories of others, and that is defined in the genre list from the Library of Congress. Space operas (Fiction) is a subcategory of Science fiction. Anything with the genre Space operas (Fiction) would not need the genre Science fiction. Librarians would give the most specific genre term(s) appropriate. If appropriate, a book could have two sub-genres of a single broader genre, like Time-travel fiction and Steampunk fiction.

If you looked in a catalog (which was configured to display genres appropriately) for the genre Science fiction, you would get a listing of titles and also notes to See Also: Space operas (Fiction), Cyperpunk fiction, Time-travel fiction, etc. Similarly, if you searched for the genre Space operas (Fiction), you would get a note to See Also: the broader topic of Science fiction.