LC Cataloging Newsline

Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate, Library of Congress

Volume 7, no. 10, ISSN 1066-8829, August 1999
Contents

BIBCO-at-Large Meeting
Cooperative Cataloging Goes Public
National Conference of African American Librarians and PCC
New on the PCC Home Page
Revisions in the Subject Cataloging of Art Materials
PreMARC Integration Plan for the LC ILS
MARBI Report
Field 856 Guidelines

BIBCO-at-Large Meeting

The second BIBCO-at-Large meeting was held on Sunday, June 27, 1999 at the Sheraton, New Orleans and opened with Ana Cristan (LC) reporting on the status of the BIBCO program.

Cristan announced that the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) at the Library of Congress will suspend publication of the Subject Headings Weekly List of new and changed subject proposals beginning with what would have been list number 9928 as part of the preparations for the conversion to the Library of Congress integrated library system (LC ILS). The weekly lists will resume with list 9936 dated September 1, 1999. Libraries participating in the SACO program should continue to submit proposals through the normal channels with all proposals submitted during the "no-list" period appearing beginning with list 9936. Cristan reported that requests for literary author numbers would continue under the new LC ILS and that for the foreseeable future the procedure of reporting bibliographic file maintenance (BFM) would also continue. An announcement from CPSO on both of these matters is forthcoming.

The results of the recent PCC Policy Committee (PoCo) elections were announced with Larry Alford (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) becoming the new BIBCO representative to the PoCo.

On behalf of the PCC and the BIBCO Program Cristan thanked and acknowledged the work of the five current members of the BIBCO Operations Committee who will be rotating off in September: Bill Garrison (University of Colorado, Boulder), Margaret Shen (Cleveland Public Library), Joan Swanekamp (Yale University), Pat Williams (University of Chicago), and Pete Wilson (Vanderbilt University).

As a follow-up on action items stemming from the April 1999 BIBCO Operations Committee (OpCo) meeting, Cristan reported that a request for volunteers has been posted for those PCC members interested in serving on a series working group to study the impact of eliminating the 490/830 series field combination when the only difference is the series numbering. She reported that the PCC Steering Committee wants this group to focus on this issue and that a series report is be drafted by November 1999 in time for the annual PoCo meeting. An announcement was made regarding the upcoming "Training the BIBCO Trainer" for the fall of 1999 also as a follow-up to the OpCo action items. Expressions of interest should be sent directly to Cristan ([email protected]) and should include evidence of full institutional support.

The second item on the agenda focused on the report from the Working Group on Statistics (Pete Wilson, Jain Fletcher (University of California, Los Angeles), and Kate Harcourt, Chair (Columbia University)). This group was formed as a result of discussions at the BIBCO OpCo meeting in April 1999 and was charged with recommending how BIBCO libraries report their PCC statistics as either original contributions or upgrades to existing records. The working group circulated a draft proposal that categorized records based on the work performed. Reporting was especially problematic if vendor records were used as the basis for PCC records. Other areas of the proposed draft were discussed; many audience members felt that national library bibliographic records used as copy should be considered as upgrades rather than original, regardless of the language of the subject headings and the availability of a call number, arguing that often English language full-level cataloging needs to have just as much work performed to achieve PCC standards. A counter point was made that it would be best to allow catalogers to use their own judgment to determine which records are to be counted as original and which should be counted as copy, regardless of origin, but based on the amount of work performed. This discussion will be factored into the working group's final report which will be available in August.

Next on the agenda, Iris Wolley (Cornell University) described the use of the core-level record at Cornell University and how other BIBCO libraries should consider increased use of the core- level record in their individual workflow. Wolley indicated that Cornell joined BIBCO in the Fall of 1996 and immediately decided to adopt the core-level record as the standard by which their collections would be cataloged. Use of the core-level record has become quite successful, and Wolley shared the processes by which Cornell switched to core-level. More information on Cornell University Library's core record implementation can be found at URL http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/42pcc.htm

The last segment of the meeting was devoted to a three-pronged presentation on the Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC) given by Celine Noel (University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill), Jeffery Sowder (Columbia University), and Sally Sinn (National Agricultural Library). CORC, an OCLC development, offers the first flexible Web-based cataloging toolkit that allows for MARC catalog record input while incorporating other resource description frameworks such as Dublin Core Metadata (DC). CORC offers the potential to create and store resource descriptions for electronic resources in non-MARC, and CORC is able to integrate MARC and DC records in a single system. Libraries can thus describe a single resource and create a MARC record for their OPACs and a DC metadata record for other purposes. There are features in CORC that are "BIBCO-friendly"; namely, CORC offers the availability of a linked authorities component for headings and authorized classification schemes. CORC also allows a contributor to mark an incomplete new record as "private," which signifies the contributor's intent to catalog the resource; the resource's title and URL are indexed and displayed in searches, thereby alerting other users that a record is already in process. This is especially significant for cooperative projects like BIBCO because it could cut into one of the remaining areas of duplication of effort. For more information on the CORC Research Project visit the CORC home page at URL http://www.oclc.org/oclc/research/projects/corc/.


Cooperative Cataloging Goes Public

The Public Library Association Cataloging Needs of Public Libraries Committee sponsored a program "Cooperative Cataloging Goes Public" at the 1999 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Sally Sinn (National Agricultural Library), Chair of the PCC, outlined its organizational structure, and Antony Franks (LC) and Carolyn Sturtevant (LC) explained the component programs of the PCC. Joan Swanekamp (Yale University) demonstrated how to recognize PCC records in the national utilities. Kate Harcourt (Cornell University) promoted the value of using PCC records even among libraries that do not participate in PCC programs. Ruth Bogan (Cooperative Computer Services) told of her colleagues' appreciation for the training experience and the satisfaction they felt in contributing authoritative records to the national files. Louisa Kreider (Cleveland Public Library) described her library's implementation of BIBCO and mentioned the benefits of improved quality in cataloging, reduction in books backlog, and the appearance in national databases of records for holdings unique to public libraries.

National Conference of African American Librarians and PCC

Two staff members from the Cooperative Cataloging Team (Coop), Gracie Gilliam and Cornelia Goode, participated in the fourth National Conference of African American Librarians sponsored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) held in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 19-22, 1999. The Coop representatives provided information about the Library of Congress and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), promoted the theme of the conference "Culture Keepers IV: Challenges and Opportunities in the New Millennium," and continued the PCC outreach efforts to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

Gilliam presented a two-session workshop entitled "Cataloging to Preserve Our Heritage" attended by thirty-five participants from numerous libraries and institutions. The workshop began with an introduction to the PCC highlighting benefits for HBCUs that join the program. A multicolor, pictorial display of some African American authors, including brief biographies, was given to the participants. Personal name authority records for the authors were discussed relative to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) and Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRI). The workshop attendees were also given the opportunity to create brief personal name authority records from surrogates for African American authors, using examples that had been presented earlier. Subject access to African American materials, including the use and development of appropriate subject headings, was also discussed. Sentiment was strong among attendees that workshops designed for cataloging of African American collections should be held, and several librarians lobbied for the development of an additional cataloging manual. The consensus expressed was that librarians must ensure that African American history and life are preserved and reflected in cataloging.

Goode served as an LC exhibitor, disseminating PCC information to conference attendees and soliciting interest in the program, particularly from HBCU librarians and library educators. She answered questions about LC's operations and learned of librarians' cataloging concerns and issues. Many institutional representatives voiced concerns about the numerous specialized African American materials, particularly archival collections for which bibliographic access is lacking.

Visitors to the conference exhibits represented a cross-section from state, private, and public institutions as well as international guests. Two institutions (Jackson State University and Kentucky State University) expressed interest in receiving further information.

PCC outreach to HBCUs continues; as of July 1999, HBCU participants in the program are Bowie State University, Howard University Moorland Springarn Research Center, Howard University Law Library, and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. NACO training will be provided to Virginia Union University in the Fall of 1999.


New on the PCC Home Page

The summary notes of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Participants' Meeting held at the 1999 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans are now available on the PCC home page at URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc. The report includes the chair's state of the program update for BIBCO/CONSER/NACO/SACO; a summary of the INTCO report highlighting the contributions made by PCC international partners; a synopsis of the presentation provided by the Standing Committee on Automation (SCA), including an update on the findings of the Task Force on Journals in Aggregator Databases; the results of a survey conducted by the SCA on PCC awareness of the OCLC authority macro and the Research Libraries Group's authority record assistant (ARA); and, the results of a survey conducted by the PCC Secretariat on revamping the PCC Participants' meeting format.


Revisions in the Subject Cataloging of Art Materials

The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) has mounted on its home page (URL: http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso) suggested revisions to the policies for the subject cataloging of art materials. CPSO is requesting comments from the library community on the revisions by December 31, 1999. These proposals cover changes in the assignment of headings for time period and in the formulation of headings with chronological subdivisions.


PreMARC Integration Plan for the LC ILS

The Cataloging Directorate is currently forming a new database maintenance unit within the Cataloging Policy and Support Office to perform quality sampling, removal of duplicate records, and maintenance of holdings and item records in the LC ILS; to handle necessary cleanup of older bibliographic records in the LC ILS, shelflist conversion, and general bibliographic problem resolution; and to perform global updates to headings and generally maintain ILS authority records. An important task for the new database maintenance unit will be to carry out the integration of headings from MUMS PreMARC records, which were loaded into the same database as all other bibliographic records in the LC ILS.

In the Library's legacy online system MUMS, the PreMARC File contained about 4.7 million bibliographic records created prior to the adoption of AACR2. These records resided in a separate physical file and were not taken into account for daily cataloging activities such as headings maintenance. To maintain the overall quality of the LC catalog, the Cataloging Directorate plans to assess the headings on the records that originated in PreMARC and change those that do not conform to current descriptive and subject cataloging practice. The content of the records (the bibliographic description) will not be reviewed.

The directorate expects to accomplish most of the heading integration plan over the next five years. The first headings to be assessed will be those, generally subject access points, which were established in earlier decades and are considered offensive by contemporary standards. Until each heading has been assessed and brought into alignment with current practice, it will be identified by the addition of the character string "[from old catalog]" at the end of the last field in the heading. Since the integration project will use a heading-by-heading approach, a former PreMARC record in the LC ILS may include both unassessed headings with the character string "[from old catalog]" and fully reviewed headings. Access points on JACKPHY records from PreMARC will be assessed only after the Library completes its conversion to the pinyin romanization in 2000.

The heading integration plan does not include about 1.47 million records that were previously upgraded on contract. These can be identified by the code "oclcrpl" in subfield c of the 906 local processing field and are subject to regular bibliographic heading maintenance by cataloging staff. In general they are much closer to current cataloging practice and the headings generally meet AACR2 standards for accuracy and form.


MARBI Report

During the meetings of the Representation of Bibliographic Information in Machine-Readable Form Committee (MARBI) at the 1999 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, action was taken on the agenda items listed below.


Field 856 Guidelines

The Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress has revised the document Guidelines for the Use of Field 856. The document includes guidance on all changes to the field through July 1999 and includes a new section on usage of the field in bibliographic or holdings records.

The document is available at URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/856guide.html.


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: William Anderson, Victoria Behrens, John Byrum, Roselyne Chang, Janice Herd, Angela Kinney, Albert Kohlmeier, John Mitchell, Mary Louise Mitchell, Susan Morris, Geraldine Ostrove, David Smith, 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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