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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
| GENRE: | |
| Accordion
Advertising mail Announcements Broadsides Business card Christmas cards Collages Double vertical fold Folded scroll Folder Greeting cards Handbills Illustrations Inkjet prints Intaglio prints Invitations Keepsakes |
Leaflets
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SUBJECTS: |
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| Art
education Art objects Artists' signatures Book covers Bookbinding Books Broadsides Calendars Calligraphy Collages Collagraphs Computer graphics Computers Constructions Correspondence Drypoints Ephemera Etchings Exhibitions Farewells Golf Greeting cards |
Holidays
Illuminations Illustrations Intaglio prints Letterpress works Limited editions Linocuts Lithography Maps Meetings Military life Miniature works Mixed media Monotype prints Offset photomechanical prints Opera houses Paintings Paper Paper industry Photographers Photography |
Poetry
Portfolios Posters Price lists Printers Printing industry Prints Public speaking Quilts Relief prints Reproductive prints Satires Sculpture Silkscreen prints Slavery Terrorism War Women Wood carving Wood engravings Woodcuts |