Genre headings for videos changing

The Policy and Standards Division (PSD) of the Library of Congress  has determined that topical headings denoting a genre or form of video recording should be cancelled in favor of the existing correlated film headings.

See link:   http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/videorecheadings2.pdf

For example:

Instructional videos          would be changed to Instructional films

Educational videos             would be changed to Educational films

etc., etc.

Non-fiction films

I apologize up front that this is a RANT.

I catalogue the non-fiction DVDs for my library.  As a result I come across a lot of copy.

What I see all too often is the use of the following two genre headings in the same record !

655  7 $aNon-fiction films.$2lcsh

655  7 $aFeature films.$2lcsh

These are direct opposites!  The non-fiction film is NOT a feature film, rather it is a non-feature.

The LC scope note for Nonfiction films reads:

term stands in opposition to fiction or fiction film and serves to group together all films which are meant to be educational or informational; used for films of a documentary nature and for films which have scientific, industrial, or pratical use; another term is factual film, which in its most restrictive sense only deals with the presentation of facts)

Our library has chosen to use other genre terms for these nonfiction films.  Some of the terms we use are:

655  7 $aDocumentary films.$2lcsh

655  7 $aInstructional videos.$2lcsh

655  7 $aEducational videos.$2lcsh

655  7  $aExercise videos.$2local

We have chosen not to use the Non-fiction films heading.

The Wikipedia definition of a feature film is as follows: a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the “main attraction” of the screening. I think the use of feature films for non-fiction films is confusing for the patrons. That is like saying a non-fiction book is a novel if it is over 500 pages. Just wrong!

Guide to DVD and Blu-ray cataloguing

There is a final draft of the Guide to Cataloging DVD and Blu-ray discs using AACR2R and Marc 21 available in .pdf format for free download.

http://www.olacinc.org/drupal/capc_files/DVD_guide_final.pdf

I understand that each library probably has its own procedures for cataloguing these media, but it is always helpful to see how others handle things.  And as a wise cataloguing teacher once told me “You have to know the rules, before you can break them”.  Not that we would break them exactly… sometimes just bend them to fit our catalogue and to meet the needs of our patrons.

My library does not yet catalogue Blu-ray discs.  That is not to say it will never happen, just that due to the nature of the disc, because it requires specifically designed equipment to play, it is not a common enough feature in most homes in our catchment area.

An explanation of Blu-ray from the guide states:       Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser that has a shorter wavelength than the standard DVD’s red laser. This shorter wavelength allows data to be stored in a smaller space, fitting more data on the disc itself. The dual layer Blu-ray disc can contain over 9 hours of high-definition video or about 23 hours of standard-definition video on a 50GB disc.