Hi all,
I said at the SAC meeting I would try and be better about commenting on genre lists and giving examples of how I review lists. So, here's some comments for the LCGFT list for August. Note I have not yet reviewed every proposal (I have a tendency to jump around), but hopefully it helps to demystify the process.
Commenting helps LC and, if there's a proposal that you think needs additional evidence, I highly recommend submitting a comment with that citation. And now, here's some of my comments for the newest genre list:
Kwela
Dictionary of South African English: https://dsae.co.za/entry/kwela/e04172 lists a few alternative spellings: khwela, quela, qwela, only the first is in the record.
Lovecraftian horror comics & Lovecraftian horror fiction.
Latter should also have Lovecraftian fiction as a UF. Both should be changed to Cosmic horror fiction. Evidence for changing: Ngram lists cosmic horror as the highest: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Lovecraftian+fiction%2CLovecraftian+horror%2Ccosmic+horror%2Celdritch+horror&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 as does a simple Google search.
Additional sources: Spratford, B. S. The readers' advisory guide to horror, 2021: $p. 106 ("In the late twentieth century, many writers worked to distance themselves from Lovecraft because of his hateful views, and yes, as authors began to include an honest reckoning with his xenophobia into their stories, Cosmic Horror was revived, like a zombie brought back from the dead, except in this case, humanity is excited about the onslaught" ; "Cosmic horror in general: in cosmic horror, there is a sense that the antagonistic force, whether evil or just utterly indifferent, is so pervasive and powerful, and of such a size and scope, that its very existence dwarfs the significant of humanity. Main themes of the subgenre: nihilism, insanity, the existence of other dimensions, worlds, and spaces between dimensions, worlds, and spaces, misanthropy, transformation and transcendence." Also, the preferred term in Writing sci-fi, fantasy, and horror for dummies, 2022.
Formatting changes: Fiction proposal, the first 670 needs to be fixed with capitalization. $a Work cat.: Joshi, S. T. Black wings of Cthulhu : tales of Lovecraftian horror, 2012 $b (publisher blurb: The ultimate Lovecraftian horror anthology: From the depths of R'lyeh come 21 'exceptional' and utterly terrifying horror short stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft) $w (OCoLC)842880160
I also feel like many of the sources repeat their points. I would remove the blogpost source and possibly Goodreads along with the Lovecraft Wiki. I would add in the Spratford source I include above.
Protest poetry
I am fine with this being accepted, but I believe it's missing some important sources. The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 via Credo Reference, viewed Aug. 3, 2026: Protest poetry ("Like the protest song, protest poetry goes by many names: social, revolutionary, or topical poetry, or occasionally poetry of commitment, or a subgenre of political poetry. However, two things distinguish protest poetry from other poems with political content: a connection to a social movement and a direct and obvious pertinence to events in the immediate present")
Also, Queeney, M. May Day poetry of protest via Poetry foundation website, viewed Aug. 3, 2026 $b (Protest poetry is a poetry of dissent. It exists to reveal what those in power seek to hide, to criticize and challenge, and to protest and resist established values and ideas)
I can't speak to the work cat, but there are multiple collections of protest poetry in WorldCat. This includes Poems of protest, old and new : a selection of poetry, 1968 $w(OCoLC)441169, Morris, W. Poems of protest, 2013 $w (OCoLC)822960141. Finally, BISAC has protest with political for poetry: POE023060 POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Political & Protest
Concept album
I am fine with accepting this proposal. It has plenty of warrant, including these additional sources: St. James encyclopedia of popular culture online, 2013 $b (The concept album, initially defined as an LP (long-playing record) recording wherein the songs were unified by a dramatic idea instead of being disparate entities with no common theme, became a form of expression in popular music in the mid-1960s, thanks to the Beatles. Their 1967 release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is generally recognized as the first concept album, although ex-Beatle Paul McCartney has cited Freak Out!--an album released in 1966 by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention--as a major influence on the conceptual nature of Sgt. Pepper) ; Brewer's dictionary of modern phrase and fable "An oft-ridiculed development in the history of the pop music album, in which the tracks on the album, rather than being a series of discrete songs, together form a supposedly coherent series of songs on a related theme) Concise Oxford English dictionary, 2008: $b concept album (a rock album featuring songs expressing a particular theme)
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Allison Bailund
Principal Cataloging Librarian
San Diego State University
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