Developing a Book Art Genre Headings Index.

At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries, staff from Collection Management, Cataloging, and Special Collections and Archives developed a local genre headings index to be used in the online catalog to provide enhanced access to the libraries' collection of artists' books. The book art genre index was designed to help students and users of the collection locate items by their structure, format, or features when they were unfamiliar with individual artists or titles. The index includes entries to describe book art formats, binding methods, structures, and special techniques or mediums. Library staff also collaborated in developing a workflow to more easily add book art genres to materials as they are being cataloged and to add genres retrospectively to previously cataloged materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]