CYAC (pronounced kahy-ak) is the Children’s and Young Adults’ Cataloging Program at the Library of Congress. The program provides cataloging for material published in the United States for children and young adults, and tailors the cataloging to meet the specific needs of our primary users, school and public libraries.
The Literature Section, under the United States Programs, Law, and Literature Division, is responsible for administering the CYAC Program, which catalogs the wide range of fiction material published for children and young adults. The records created, which include an objective and succinct summary of the book, are used by researchers, publishers, school libraries, public libraries, and their patrons. The CYAC Program also develops new children’s subject headings, proposes changes to existing subject headings, monitors the policies and practices of children’s cataloging, and keeps abreast of trends in children’s publishing. The CYAC Program has expert staff in the field of children’s literature and responds to a variety of queries related to providing access for children’s and young adults’ materials.
Scope
The CYAC Program provides access to fiction materials for young readers through high school. The program targets English language material published anywhere in the world and foreign language materials published in the United States. Children’s materials in foreign languages published outside of the United States are not in scope. However, if you wish to prepare original CYAC cataloging for foreign language items in your library, you can catalog your materials using the policies and practices of standard CYAC cataloging.
CYAC is able to provide access to a high percentage of new children’s and young adults' literature available in the United States due to its participation in the Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication (CIP) Program. Many children’s and young adults' publishers are members of the CIP Program and submit applications for their fiction titles, allowing CYAC catalogers to create metadata for these new works before they are published.
Specifically, the program catalogs belles lettres, i.e. fiction works, for children and young adults acquired through the Cataloging-In-Publication Program or the Copyright Office, regardless of language. This includes material for the very young up through high school. For Library of Congress purposes, juvenile or children’s literature is defined as material for an audience of up to and including ninth grade or age fifteen. Young Adult literature is generally defined as ages twelve through high school.
The types of material or genres in scope for the CYAC Program are:
collections and single works of fiction for children and young adults
juvenile graphic novels
juvenile novels in verse
juvenile poetry
original and traditional fairy tales
folklore
fables
classical nursery rhymes, i.e., Mother Goose
stories in rhyme
song lyrics presented in a picture book format
fiction about realistic animals
bilingual and polyglot fiction for children and young adults
juvenile fiction presented in, or featuring, Braille or sign language
The following material is NOT in scope for the CYAC Program:
topical (nonfiction, factual) material for children and young adults
folklore of the native peoples of the Americas
plays for children and young adults
Collaboration with outside organizations in the field of children’s literature plays a part in CYAC Program cataloging. Advice and feedback on cataloging needs is sought from groups such as the American Library Association’s Association division Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures and the Rare Books and Special Collections Section at the Library of Congress.
History
The CYAC Program is one of the oldest programs at the Library of Congress and continues the original Annotated Card (AC) Program, which was established in the fall of 1965 to meet a recognized need to address how children, young adults, and those who assist them in libraries search for books and the information they contain, which can be very different from the approach taken by most adults. The AC Program, as it was popularly called, began by providing cataloging on printed cards and included a summary or annotation of the book, which was a new idea at the time, as well as subject headings more accessible to youths. At that time, both non-fiction and fiction books received AC cataloging. Over the years, the program has changed to better serve its audience. In 2010 the Annotated Card Program was officially renamed the Children's and Young Adults' Cataloging (CYAC) Program. Currently, CYAC focuses on providing access for children’s and young adults' fiction.
Availability of Metadata
The metadata produced by the CYAC Program is readily available from numerous sources.
- Individual records may be downloaded free of charge through the Library of Congress’ Z39.50 Gateway.
- The records are also sent to bibliographic utilities on a daily basis and are available for purchase directly from LC. Those interested in purchasing records should contact the Cataloging Distribution Service for subscription information.
For more information about the CYAC Program, you can reach the program staff through our Contact page.
