Dear Colleagues, Please find below Lenore's letter to Yael Mandelstam of the Fordham Law Library and Sara Spiegel of the JTS Library regarding the evolving discussion on the development of Jewish law genre/form headings and the document itself attached. As Lenore states, we plan on examining this issue at the cataloging committee meeting at this year's AJL convention and developing a process for providing feedback.
See you in Seattle! Best wishes, Aaron Taub =================================================================== Dear Yael and Sara, LC staff familiar with Jewish law met with Janis Young and Jolande Goldberg, of the Policy and Standards Division (PSD), to consider further the draft list of genre/form terms proposed by the group at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The meetings were very productive, and the cataloging staff participating, who had limited exposure to genre/form terms until this point, learned a great deal from our PSD colleagues about the philosophy and evolving practices related to developing and assigning genre/form terms. The attached document includes all of the terms proposed by JTS, as well as some additional terms noted by the LC discussants. The document is chiefly in a table format designed to facilitate future discussion and to encourage "filling in" additional information required regarding reference hierarchy, scope notes, application, etc. Alongside the original JTS proposals are LC's recommendations, as well as various explanatory notes and questions to be answered. There are a number of key issues that emerged from the discussions: *Proposed g/f terms that were coextensive with uniform titles were not recommended for inclusion (e.g., "Mishnayot") *Proposed g/f terms that do not represent specifically Jewish law genres/forms, but rather were translations of "generic" terms, were not recommended for inclusion, but could be covered by generic English terms (e.g., "Harsha'ot" could be covered by "Permits," if proposed and approved) *Proposed g/f terms that do not represent exclusively legal genres/forms should be given further consideration as to whether they belong in the law g/f list, in the religion g/f list (under development), or in both lists (e.g., "Tannaitic literature"). A comprehensive evaluation should be undertaken of the existing LCSH terminology in the hierarchy under "Rabbinical literature," to determine if/how to incorporate the proposed terms. A rough proposal is presented for consideration. *Proposed g/f terms that have corresponding LCSH terms: Consideration should be given as to whether the terminology must be normalized, or if there is a rationale for using different terminology for the g/f and the topical heading (e.g., "Takkanot" and "Legislation (Jewish law)") *Proposed g/f terms that were thought to be too specific were not recommended for inclusion (e.g., "Peturim"). Note: A number of specific genres are under consideration as proposed "upward UF's" to broader "bucket terms" in the law genre/form list. Legal materials NT Legal instruments Legal Instruments UF Legal documents NT Contracts NT Deeds NT Wills etc. *Three terms have already been incorporated into the draft law genre/form list: Codes (Jewish law) Responsa (Jewish law) Takkanot There are still some unresolved issues related to these three terms, and there is clearly much more work to be done before other proposed Jewish law terms may be added to the broader law genre/form list. At Sara's recommendation, we will be forwarding this document to AJL's Cataloging Committee, and posting it on associated listservs to generate further discussion and feedback. At the Cataloging Committee meeting to be held at the upcoming AJL convention, we hope to develop a framework/mechanism for gathering the feedback and working toward consensus on a finalized list of terms to be included. Sara, I thank you and your colleagues at JTS for your initiative in proposing the initial list, and Yael, I thank you and your group for your patience as efforts continue to develop the specialized Jewish law terminology. Please let me know if you have any questions at this point. Best regards, Lenore Lenore Bell Israel & Judaica Section, Asian & Middle Eastern Division Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave., SE Washington, DC 20540-4222 (202) 707-7313 l...@loc.gov
Genre_Form_Jewish_Law_Table10jun19.docx
Description: Genre_Form_Jewish_Law_Table10jun19.docx