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To better understand how the information about each item was collected, a description of the fields and their contents is available. Two fields of the database, Genre and Subject, are populated with descriptors selected from a list of controlled vocabulary. A controlled vocabulary is a finite set of terms, usually in a specific subject area, used to describe objects. In this case, we have used a specific set of terms to describe ephemeral items. Using a controlled vocabulary provides consistency in the way the items are described and aims to eliminate confusion from differing meanings of the same word, or various terms used for one concept. All terms that are currently used in the database are available to browse. (see below)

The terms were selected from the controlled vocabularies of the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms (TGM I) and the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II), both produced by the Library of Congress. These works are available for consultation in print at the Arts of the Book Collection or online at:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm2/

For Genre terms, we have also used the "Page Order and Folding Diagrams" definitions employed by the Library of Congress on the American Memory project "An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera."

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/pescan.html

Because controlled vocabularies have a limited set of choices, occasionally the most preferred is not available. Or the makers of the vocabulary have chosen to employ a more technical term that is not commonly used. There are a few quirky usages in the database that we will elucidate here.

• Prospectus is not available in the TGM. Announcements of soon to be published works are included under "Advertising mail." If the item is a list of works with prices, it will be under the term "Price lists."
• Trade Fairs are included under the term "Exhibitions." Thus this term encompasses not only art exhibitions in museums and galleries, but also book fairs.
• Postcards or other materials that inform about exhibitions are included in the genre heading "Announcements."
• "Offset photomechanical prints" is the genre heading used for postcards where the method of creation is a commercial printing process, but is not readily identifiable to a non-expert.
  

Headings Currently in Database