LC Cataloging Newsline

Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate, Library of Congress

Volume 4, No. 8, ISSN 1066-8829, June 1996


Contents

CIP Claims Books

AC Subject Headings

Pinyin Romanization Reconsidered

JSCAACR to Meet at LC

The Future of Cataloging as a Profession

Organizing the Global Digital Library II

BEAT Agenda 1996


CIP Claims Books

The Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Program requires that participating publishers provide a complimentary copy of each published book for which the Library of Congress supplied CIP data.

These books enable LC staff to review the accuracy of the CIP data and to update the records with additional data elements such as the pagination, illustration statement, and the size of the books.

While the Cataloging in Publication Division routinely claims outstanding books four months and six months after the date of publication, LC still does not receive a significant number of books. Recently the CIP Division initiated a special project to obtain these overdue books. This project focused on publishers with particularly large numbers of delinquent titles.

The CIP Division sent a claim notice for each outstanding book to the publisher with a form letter. The letter asked the publisher to submit a copy of the book. The letter also asked the publisher to return each claim with one of the following responses: book being sent; title canceled; book out of print; or projected publication date changed.

Of the 15,995 claims sent, the CIP Division has received 7,248 responses. Of these responses, 5,076 were books, 324 were titles declared canceled (i.e., the book was never published), 1,639 were titles declared out of print, and 209 were titles declared not yet published and the proposed publication date changed.

The value of the books obtained is conservatively estimated at over $180,000. More importantly, the 5,076 books received represent 5,076 CIP records verified and redistributed to the nation's libraries.

The CIP Division is planning a second retrospective claiming project.


AC Subject Headings

In May the complete retrospective file of approximately 900 Annotated Card Program Subject Headings (AC headings) was converted to machine readable form and distributed on tape to MARC Distribution Service subscribers. The AC records reside in the subject authorities file and can be identified by the "sj" prefix to the LCCN for each approved AC heading and "spj" for proposed new or changed AC headings


Pinyin Romanization Reconsidered

In 1990 the Library of Congress decided that it would like to convert from Wade-Giles to pinyin romanization for Chinese bibliographic data. Although several different approaches were studied, it was thought that conversion would not be feasible, economically or technically, in the foreseeable future. The bibliographic utilities would also need a plan acceptable to their members to convert large existing databases from one system to the other. Recent events have made it possible for LC to resume tentative investigations. For one, a front-end conversion program has been developed and proved effective. For another, the National Library of Australia (NLA) is not only converting from Wade-Giles to pinyin, but is also providing a structure of separate files that individual libraries in Australia can utilize to convert their own files.

LC is currently evaluating samples of converted records that NLA has provided. At the same time, LC has begun to investigate word-division/aggregation problems and to continue to explore the inclusion of vernacular data in authority records.

Comments regarding any aspect of this topic are welcome. For further information, contact Philip Melzer at [email protected] or view the text of the article on pinyin romanization at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin.html.


JSCAACR to Meet at LC

The Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR will meet in Washington, D.C., on June 20-21 at the Library of Congress. Its agenda is to review current rule revision proposals, to receive an update on the electronic version of AACR2 (AACR2-e) and to discuss plans for an international conference on Anglo-American cataloging principles. There will be a report of the meeting at CC:DA session during the New York ALA conference in July.

The members of JSCAACR are Ralph W. Manning, Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, chair; Sally Strutt, British Library, secretary; Sue Brown, Library Association (UK); Brian Schottlaender, American Library Association; Ann Huthwaite, Australian Committee on Cataloguing; and Barbara Tillett, Library of Congress.


The Future of Cataloging as a Profession

On May 29 a presentation was given to LC staff by three library professionals: Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America, Elaine Svenonius, University of California at Los Angeles, and Barbara Tillett, Library of Congress. The presentation was entitled "The Future of Cataloging as a Profession" and was sponsored by LC's Cataloging Forum.

Dr. Hsieh-Yee spoke of the technological advances in the library world and discussed the cataloging of Internet resources. She also said that cataloging "has a bright future as long as we take part in shaping that future" and that "quality cataloging is more important than ever."

Dr. Svenonius spoke of the lessening of importance and availability of cataloging courses in library schools today. She stated that the lack of training for new catalogers is creating a crisis in the profession, and suggested that a conference be convened, involving LC, ALA, library schools, and cataloging professionals to address this concern.

Dr. Tillett shared her view that LC will continue to be a major provider of bibliographic and authority records to the international library community. She stressed the need for LC to reduce the cost of its cataloging operation. She noted significant progress in the areas of international cooperation and standardization, and said that continued progress, particularly in Germany and Russia, will greatly benefit cooperative cataloging.


Organizing the Global Digital Library II

On May 22 Sarah Thomas, acting director for Public Service Collections, chaired the second conference on Organizing the Global Digital Library (see LCCN, v. 4, no. 1, Jan. 1996, for the report of the first conference on Dec. 11, 1995). The conference was held at LC and sponsored by the National Digital Library Federation, LC's National Digital Library Program, and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives. Invited speakers were Deanna Marcum, president, Commission on Preservation and Access, and president, Council on Library Resources; Stuart Weibel and Erik Jul of OCLC; and Jennifer Younger, assistant librarian for technical services, Ohio State University Libraries. Speakers from LC included Dr. Thomas; Rebecca Guenther, Network Development and MARC Standards Office; Barbara Tillett, chief, Cataloging Policy and Support Office; and Helena Zinkham, head, Processing Section, Prints and Photographs Division.

The conference concluded by identifying 14 "next steps" for the library and information science communities in the shared effort to organize digital materials: 1) work with document creators to generate metadata; 2) develop metadata guidelines for creators; 3) "move libraries upstream," i.e., encourage libraries to create and publish digital content; 4) reallocate library resources to the pursuit of digital access; 5) promote a resolution of the PURL (Persistent Uniform Resource Locator)/Handle dilemma; 6) consider the Text Encoding Initiative and other possible standards; 7) examine the proliferation of document type definitions for encoded material; 8) call for an increased number of RLG workshops on the Encoded Archival Definition; 9) refine categories of bibliographic relationships for digitized materials; 10) develop or acquire a search engine for testing against diverse types of data; 11) review the SGML editors available; 12) establish a clearinghouse of digital projects planned or in progress; 13) communicate selection policies for digital collections; and 14) promote development of a testbed for preservation of digital information.

Full proceedings of Organizing the Global Digital Library II will be published online in D-Lib Magazine (URL: http://www.dlib.org).


BEAT 1996 Agenda

The Library of Congress Bibliographic Enrichments Advisory Team (BEAT) has recently completed a review of work in progress (for the 1995 report, see URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/beat 95.html) and established its agenda for the remainder of calendar year 1996. The work of this group is funded by the Library's Business Research Fund, and its activities are, therefore, focused on business and economics, although the resulting research and development is intended to have potential for broader application.

The items to be pursued this year are

  1. A project to develop a pilot in which LC catalog users would gain access to selected Internet resources that are remotely available. This access would be through bibliographic records within the LC online catalog or as entries posted to a home page within the LC Web site.
  2. A project to identify and list 200 of the potentially most useful new titles received by the Library in the fields of business, particularly entrepreneurship. Each title identified would receive a very brief annotation, and the resulting publication would be available through the LC Web site.
  3. A project to revise the H schedule (except for HJ); the candidate classes include statistics, economic theory and history, management, labor and personnel management, finance, and the other core business subjects.
  4. A project for the conversion of Class JZ (to be assigned by Cataloging Policy and Support Office staff) as the last section of the Political Science Classes J-JZ, converted to the USMARC Format for Classification Data under BEAT initiative.
  5. A project to provide table-of-contents information in the bibliographic records of titles recently cataloged in the areas of business and economics. This project is tentative and pursuing it will depend upon securing the data from a vendor and obtaining rights for redistribution of the information.
  6. A project to update local information on records for 365 serials treating business topics, largely of interest to local LC catalog users.
  7. A project to develop further the Text Capture/Electronic Conversion (TCEC) software and applications to expand and extend automation of cataloging activities to facilitate the processing of materials of interest to the business/economics community and to the full range of the Library's constituency.

For further information on any of these projects, please contact John Byrum, chief, Regional and Cooperative Cataloging, at [email protected]

LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE (ISSN 1066-8829) is published irregularly by the Cataloging Directorate, Library Services, Library of Congress, and contains news of cataloging activities throughout the Library of Congress. Editorial Office: Cataloging Policy and Support Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540-4305. Editor, Robert M. Hiatt; Editorial Advisory Group: John Byrum, Roselyne Chang, Eugene Kinnaly, Angela Kinney, Albert Kohlmeier, John Mitchell, Susan Morris, Geraldine Ostrove, Regina Reynolds, David Smith, Richard Thaxter, and David Williamson. Address editorial inquiries to the editor at the above address or [email protected] (eMail), (202) 707-5831 (voice), or (202) 707-6629 (fax). Listowner: David Williamson. Address subscription inquiries to the listowner at [email protected]

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