An interesting development in the realm of cataloging: the Library of Congress will expand its use of genre and form terms as separate subject headings instead of appending them as form subdivisions at the end of subject strings.
As a reader who enjoys short-story anthologies, I like the idea of a separate “Short stories” subject heading. I don’t always know the names of new short-story anthologies and, depending on how a book was cataloged, it might not show up with a keyword search (if, for example, the cataloger omitted “Short stories” as a $v subdivision and the book’s official description also failed to include words like “short stories” or “anthology.”
Knowing that “Short stories” should be added to new records as the official genre/form term, I feel a greater assurance that I can browse a catalog and find new short-story collections that I’ll enjoy. And having found one, I’ll also be able to use that “Short stories” heading to co-locate all other books that have that same genre heading.
One caveat, however, to the LOC’s announcement: existing records were not automatically converted, meaning that catalogers will need to manually update existing records in their catalogs. I want to advocate that library catalogers be willing to do that work.
Librarianship Studies & Information Technology:
Library of Congress to Expand Use of LC Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT) and Implement Subject Heading (LCSH and CYAC—Children & Young Adult) Cataloging Simplification
https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2026/01/library-of-congress-to-expand-use-of-lc.html
Library of Congress:
Official genre/form terms and manual
https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCGFT/freelcgft.html
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