LC Cataloging Newsline

Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate

Library of Congress Volume 8, no. 10, ISSN 1066-8829, October 2000

Contents

Pinyin Conversion
Machine-Derived Authority Records
OCLC Claimed Music Records
NACO Expands to South Africa
Touring Great Britain with a Serials Perspective
Authority Training at PALINET
ISSN Directors' Meeting


Pinyin Conversion

The following information has recently been posted on the LC pinyin home page:

  1. The joint press release (from LC, RLG and OCLC) announcing Day 1 for pinyin romanization of Chinese, October 1, 2000;
  2. Announcements on the status of the conversion of name authority records and unconverted subject headings;
  3. A link to Guidelines for BIBCO Libraries Contributing Bibliographic Records for Chinese Language Materials;
  4. An outline describing pinyin conversion of name authorities (including a description of the highest priority cleanup tasks), as well as instructions on application of the pinyin marker in the 987 field on bibliographic records after October 1;
  5. The following classification schedules: Chinese literary authors (1949-2000), Chinese literary authors (2001- ), and revision of the DS Schedule for Local History and Description of China;

The LC pinyin home page can be found at URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/pinyin.html.


Machine-Driven Authority Records

The joint LC-OCLC project to correct name and name-title headings for music records and to generate needed authority records automatically for those headings has been completed. In early August, LC finished loading the final set of approximately 7,000 machine-derived authority records (MDARs) generated by OCLC from headings in LC bibliographic records for music. The first load of 64,000 MDARs occurred in December 1997.

Before implementation of the ILS, LC maintained a separate file for music records. LC music catalogers relied on the headings in the music file, as well as the name authority file, for authority control of music uniform titles. In 1995, LC contracted with OCLC to purchase up to sixty-five thousand bibliographic records for music titles that could be loaded into the music file without any review by LC catalogers. (See OCLC Claimed Music Records below.) It was thought that when those records were loaded, music catalogers could no longer rely on the music file as a source of authoritative headings. The need for authority records for all name and uniform title headings in the music file became obvious, and LC contracted with OCLC to fill that need with MDARs.

To create the MDARs, OCLC sent LC's music records through its automated authority control processing. When a heading (personal name, corporate name, or uniform title) did not match an authority record, OCLC staff manually reviewed the heading for typographical or other errors that might prevent a correct match. OCLC sent LC lists of corrections to make to headings in its records, so that they would not generate erroneous authority records. Then LC created a new file that included the corrections, and OCLC used the headings in those records to generate authority records.

All MDARs include a 040 field, a 1XX field, a 670 field, and a 667 field with the legend "Machine-derived authority record." The 040 field reads either "040 $a DLC-SM $c DLC-SM" or "040 $a DLC-SM $b eng $c DLC-SM." The 670 field contains the LCCN of the bibliographic record containing the heading; a shortened form of the 1XX field (if there is one); a title citation that includes data from the 245 $a field; the date from the 260 $c field; and a usage citation if found in the 245 $c field. The 1XX field is included because a high number of music records contain a non- distinctive title proper. Cross references may be generated, e.g., for compound surnames.

The encoding level (008/33) is "d" for "Preliminary." The cataloging source (008/39) is "c" because these records are actually being generated at OCLC which is a NACO participant. The source code "c" indicates that the creator of the authority data is a participant (other than the National Agricultural Library and the National Library of Medicine) in a cooperative cataloging program with the Library of Congress. These records should be used, modified, and upgraded according to normal Library of Congress and NACO authority procedures. If appropriate, the "Preliminary" coding "d" in the 008/33 should be replaced. The 667, "Machine-derived authority record," should be retained regardless of additional changes that are made to the record. LC catalogers are instructed to upgrade to "fully established" any MDAR heading being used in current bibliographic production.

As with previous MDAR loads, there are duplicate and other problem authorities. Library Technologies, Inc., an authorities vendor, has sent LC a list of 215 conflicts between newly loaded MDARs and existing authorities. David Bucknum, a member of the Music and Sound Recordings II team, wrote a program that identified 450 newly loaded MDAR headings that no longer match the associated headings in the bibliographic records. The Music and Sound Recordings teams will begin a project to clean up these problems in late October. However, other libraries are encouraged to report any MDAR problems by email to Joe Bartl, Special Materials Cataloging Division, at [email protected]. The word "MDAR" should appear in the subject line.

A detailed description of the MDAR/Uniform Title Correction project is available on the Web at URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/mdar.html.


OCLC Claimed Music Records

In June 2000 LC loaded into its database over twenty-eight thousand of approximately forty thousand bibliographic records purchased from OCLC for sound recordings; almost five thousand more should be loaded by the end of the year. The remaining records will be loaded as time permits. The remainder of the forty thousand records present special problems that may have to be resolved individually. None of these records will be distributed initially.

These loads are the result of a contract first signed in 1995, whereby LC could "claim" from OCLC up to 65,000 bibliographic records for sound recordings that the library did not yet have under bibliographic control. This project was originally referred to as "OCLC Matching Records," but came to be known as "OCLC Claimed Music Records." Staff from the Special Materials Cataloging Division and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division claimed approximately 40,000 records between 1995 and the advent of LC's integrated library system (ILS) in August 1999. The implementation of the ILS made the claimed records workflow obsolete.

These records received extensive preprocessing before being loaded into the LC database. OCLC added 040 $d DLC and 042 $a lcderive fields to every record; when possible, OCLC also constructed a 050 field from the label name and number. LC converted 262 fields to 260 fields and 305 fields to 300 fields and created a 028 field when possible. Many other data conversions and corrections were performed to bring the records into closer conformity with LC and MARC 21 practice. Several manual cleanup projects are also planned, the largest of which is correcting punctuation and subfield coding in the 260 and 300 fields.

OCLC has also compared the claimed records to the national authority file and will inform LC which of them are under authority control. When the other corrections mentioned above have been performed on these records, they will be distributed. Other records will be distributed when, as a result of normal heading maintenance, a cataloger determines that all headings in a record are authorized.


NACO Expands to South Africa

During the July and August winter in South Africa, the University of South Africa (UNISA) hosted a week of training conducted by Carolyn Sturtevant, Cooperative Cataloging Team, for ten libraries of the Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium (GAELIC), a library from the Free State Library Consortium (FRELICO), and the National Library of South Africa, Pretoria Division. These libraries will contribute to NACO as a funnel, the GAELIC South Africa Project, with UNISA as coordinator. GAELIC project members are the Medical University of South Africa, Rand Afrikaans University, Technikon Free State, Technikon South Africa, Technikon Witwatersrand, University of South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Vaal Triangle Technikon, and Vista University, Pretoria Campus.

Five libraries of the Cape Town Library Consortium (CALICO) joined NACO as the CALICO South Africa Project after their training at the University of Cape Town, which will also coordinate the funnel. CALICO project members are Cape Technikon, Peninsula Technikon, University of Cape Town, University of Stellenbosch, and the University of the Western Cape.

Cataloging of South African materials will require the creation of name authorities in several official languages, among which are Afrikaans, Arabic, English, French, German, Portuguese, Sepedi, Tswana, Xhosa, and Zulu. The current South African member libraries plan to expand NACO participation by training colleagues in-house and in other institutions.


Touring Great Britain with a Serials Perspective

Jean Hirons, CONSER Coordinator, Serial Record Division, recently returned from a month in Great Britain where she visited the National Library of Scotland, the British Library in Boston Spa, the National Library of Wales, and Cambridge University Library. She also attended the meeting of the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR to promote the changes to chapter 12 that she has been working on with others in CONSER.

Topics discussed included the revision of AACR2, CONSER's policies for electronic resources, the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP), LC's integrated library system implementation, and activities in the creation of union lists of serials. Hirons gave an abbreviated version of the SCCTP Basic Serials Cataloging Workshop at the National Library of Wales (NLW) and Cambridge University Library. She also provided CONSER training for NLW, which has applied for CONSER membership.

Traditionally the British Library has cataloged most of the serials but this may be changing. Some libraries use UK MARC, others also use MARC 21. Cataloging practices vary, particularly in the area of representing holdings data. It is hoped that the upcoming changes to AACR2 chapter 12 will help to align practices more closely.

At Cambridge, Hirons gave a presentation entitled "Revolution or Evolution: Bibliographic Control of Serials in the 21st Century" which was attended also by staff from the University of Oxford. She highlighted the evolution of serials in the age of the Internet and the resulting evolution of AACR, then examined the many ways in which the CONSER Program has evolved since its inception in the early 1970s.


Authority Training at PALINET

Cooperative Cataloging Team members Ruta Penkiunas, team leader, and Gracie Gilliam, cooperative cataloger, conducted a two- day workshop at PALINET headquarters in Philadelphia, October 19- 20, 2000, for regional OCLC members. Intended as an introduction to the concept and importance of authority control, the topics included the Program for Cooperative Cataloging and its role in a shared cataloging environment.

The workshop provided an overview of the documentation utilized in creating authority records: AACR2, _Library of Congress Rule Interpretations_, and the _Subject Cataloging Manual_. The workshop dealt also with the specifics of constructing name and subject authority records, the impact of changed records on authority files, the importance of references, and bibliographic file maintenance.


ISSN Directors' Meeting

ISSN directors from as far away as New Zealand and Nigeria and as close as Canada gathered at the Library of Congress, Sept. 27- 29, to participate in the twenty-fifth Meeting of Directors of ISSN Centres. The meeting, which had not been held at the Library of Congress since 1983, was hosted by LC's National Serials Data Program, the U.S. ISSN center located within the Serial Record Division. Forty persons attended, representing twenty-seven ISSN centers and various agencies that work closely with the ISSN, such as the International ISBN Agency, R.R. Bowker Company, the European Community's Cooperative Archive of Series and Articles (CASA) Project, IFLA's Office of Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC (UBCIM); and Slovenia's Institute of Information Science which sent observers. Some of the oldest centers in the network (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Denmark), as well as some of the newest (Latvia, Lithuania and Benin) sent representatives. Francoise Pelle, director of the Paris-based ISSN International Centre which coordinates the 73 centers comprising the ISSN Network, chaired the meeting.

The ISSN (international standard serial number) is a unique identifier for periodicals, journals, annuals, and other kinds of serials that facilitates searches in databases, document delivery of articles, and matching and linking among files of serials. Directors meet, usually annually, at the invitation of a host center, to discuss policy and operational issues regarding the registration of serials with ISSN.

Key discussions at this year's meeting centered on the expansion of the ISSN into identification of online resources and on ways to harmonize the rules for creating records to support ISSN registrations with two other widely used cataloging standards, AACR2 and ISBD(S). ISSN directors supported widening the scope of the ISSN to include ongoing resources such as databases and Web sites that do not share serial publication patterns. To describe these ongoing resources the directors endorsed the use of the terms "continuing resources" and "integrating resources," that emerged from proposals to revise AACR2's chapter on serials. The directors also welcomed an offer of help from the ISSN International Centre to assist the centers in registering electronic serials.


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