LC Cataloging Newsline

Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate

Library of Congress Volume 9, no. 6 ISSN 1066-8829 May 2001

CONTENTS

New Team Leaders in SSCD
Paul Maher Named JACKPHY AOC
Tillett Attends April JSC Meetings
Program for Cooperative Cataloging in Mexico
LCSH in Italy
CIP Celebrates Thirtieth Anniversary at ALA
Cataloging Directorate Issues Tactical Plan for 2001/2002
Forum on Digital Reference and Bibliographic Control at ALA

New Team Leaders in SSCD

The Social Sciences Cataloging Division (SSCD) has gained two new team leaders. Sime Letina became leader of the Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology Team on November 6, 2000. Robert C. (Bob) Morgan was named leader of the Central and Eastern European Languages Team (CEEL) on April 8, 2001.

Letina came to LC in 1974. He worked in the Law Library for four years and then joined the former Catalog Publication Division. He became a cataloger in the Slavic Languages Section of the former Shared Cataloging Division in 1983. When the Whole Book Cataloging Project began in 1989, he volunteered to join its Religion, Philosophy, and Psychology Team (RPP), and stayed on that team when it became part of the new SSCD in the directorate's 1992 reorganization. He was acting team leader of RPP in 1996 and 2000. Letina studied theology in his native Croatia and political science and sociology at the State University College at Fredonia, N.Y., and earned a master's degree in library science from the University of the District of Columbia in 1982. He has published articles in various Croatian periodicals and edited the monthly Croatian magazine Hrvatska Borba.

Morgan joined the Library staff in 1985 as a cataloger in the Slavic Languages Section of the former Shared Cataloging Division, where he stayed until joining CEEL when that team was formed as part of the 1992 reorganization. Since 1992 he had several temporary promotions to the positions of automated operations coordinator and CEEL team leader. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and the American Library Association. After studying at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and Kuban State University, Russia, he earned a B.A. in Russian and East European studies and an M.L.S. from the University of Michigan.


Paul Maher named JACKPHY AOC

Paul Maher, a senior cataloger on the Hebraica Team, Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division (RCCD), has been promoted to the position of automated operations coordinator for JACKPHY language cataloging, effective April 8. In this newly established position in RCCD, he will provide program automation support for cataloging staff who use RLIN to process Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Hebrew, and Yiddish materials. He will also continue his current role in developing specifications for loading JACKPHY data into the Library's integrated library system (LC ILS) and for testing bulk data loads.

After work experience in the Near East Division library at the University of Michigan and as a supervisor at the former University Microfilms International, he came to LC in 1982 as a Hebrew language cataloger in English Language Section III of the former Descriptive Cataloging Division. He was named assistant head of the section in 1989, where he had primary responsibility for oversight of the Hebraica cataloging program, wrote the Hebraica Cataloging Manual, and played a lead role in the Library's implementation of online Hebraic cataloging in RLIN. Upon the Cataloging Directorate reorganization in 1992, he served as Hebraica Team leader through 1994. During the initial implementation of the LC ILS, he served on the Bibliographic Control Data Definition Team's JACKPHY Subteam, drafting conversion requirements, data edit documents, and bulk import processing specifications. He holds master's degrees in religion, Near East studies, and library science.


Tillett attends April JSC Meetings

Barbara Tillett, LC representative to the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC), attended the JSC meetings held April 2-4 in Alexandria, Va. Robert Ewald and Judith Kuhagen, senior cataloging policy specialists in the Cataloging Policy and Support Office, also attended. Kuhagen prepared complete minutes of the meetings.

Among the agenda items was a discussion of the recommendations that came from LC's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, which took place last November. Insofar as the recommendations affected JSC, JSC had already acted on them.

In calendar order, LC's responsibilities for JSC's current activities include the preparation by the end of April of a revision of the draft of Chapter 12 and related rules. Now named Serials, the chapter will be renamed Continuing Resources. Discussion of the draft at LC has begun, so that the Library's official response can be submitted to JSC before the Sept. 30 deadline. LC's official responses to JSC documents are prepared in consultation with LC cataloging staff and managers.

By the end of May, Tillett will draft a public version of the JSC discussion paper on the basic principles of AACR. These principles will eventually be incorporated into the "Introduction." She will also issue a JSC document on the general material designation (GMD) that will suggest alternatives for including this information in bibliographic records. The document, based on her earlier JSC discussion paper, includes ideas from meetings with interested groups at LC.

Later this spring, LC will send to ALA comments on the rule revision proposals from ALA's task force on a new appendix devoted to major changes. The purpose of this appendix is to embody guidelines for determining when a new bibliographic record must be made for single-part monographs, multipart items, integrating resources, and serials.

Over the summer, LC will be developing its official response to the proposals from the Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC) regarding the "Rule of 3," which the ACOC was asked to address. The response is due at the end of September. The focus of this rule revision is on presenting options to allow the present limit of three access points to be exceeded. Another LC task to be done by the end of September is preparation of a discussion paper on the feasibility of including in AACR rules for the creation of name authority records.

JSC's current chair is Ann Huthwaite of ACOC. The next round of meetings is tentatively scheduled for October or November in Ottawa. Most of JSC's Web site is now publicly accessible at URL http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/ [May 2001].


Program for Cooperative Cataloging in Mexico

In March 2001, Ana Cristan traveled to Mexico City to present a four-day NACO workshop at El Colegio de Mexico. The workshop's main objective was to provide NACO training to the staff of El Colegio and to recruit new PCC participants. The workshop was attended by five members of the cataloging staff of El Colegio. Observers attended from the Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterey (Mexico City campus), the Universidad Iberoamericana, the Universidad de las Americas, the Biblioteca Nacional, the Centro de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo Economico, and the Ciudad Juarez campus of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM).

El Colegio invited observers to the workshop to raise local consciousness of authority control, as well as to introduce the PCC. The workshop attracted an overwhelming response. As a result, the library director, Alvaro Quijano, scheduled a national symposium on authority control to follow the NACO workshop.

At the ensuing 1er Reunion Nacional sobre Control de Autoridades, Cristan was the keynote speaker. Representatives from institutions such as UNAM, the National Library of Venezuela, and the RENIB bibliographic network in Chile, as well as regional Mexican institutions, participated in presentations and discussions about authority control. Additionally, El Colegio sought cooperative support for its effort to build a subject authority file based on Library of Congress Subject Headings. This file, currently being developed at El Colegio, would be a joint effort of Mexican libraries with eventual expansion to other Latin American countries.

Time was also set aside for meetings with Robert Endean Gamboa, director of technical services at the Hemeroteca Nacional (National Newspaper Archive) to discuss possible participation by this agency in NACO and CONSER. A final meeting with Esperanza Molina, director of technical services, UNAM, discussed the potential for a Web-based cooperative project for the development of LC classification literary author numbers for Mexican authors.

Throughout these activities, there was widespread interest in learning more about the creation of subject and name authority records and cooperative projects under the aegis of the PCC as a leader in international librarianship and cooperative programs. The two most pressing obstacles continue to be 1) finding an automated means of participation for those institutions not members of the U.S. bibliographic utilities and 2) the need for Spanish-language translations of LC/PCC documentation. The PCC is expected to give increased attention to such concerns as program membership expands to Central and South America.


LCSH in Italy

Lynn El-Hoshy, senior cataloging policy specialist, Cataloging Policy and Support Office, attended a two-day invitational seminar at the Biblioteca nazionale centrale de Firenze (BNCF) in Florence, Italy, on April 5-6. The seminar was organized to discuss a feasibility study commissioned by the BNCF on issues related to updating the Soggettario per i cataloghi della biblioteche italiane (Italian Subject Headings), which is the subject indexing tool for the Bibliografia nazionale italiana . The feasibility study incorporated an overview of the theoretical and methodological framework of subject headings, an analysis of the most significant practical experiences with using various national and international subject heading tools, and a study of the current Italian list's rules of syntax and coherence in terminology. Attendees included the members of the feasibility study group, BNCF staff, and Italian librarians participating in the Servizio bibliotecario nazionale (Library National Service Network). They represented library schools in Italy and Canada and libraries from Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, and the United States. El-Hoshy gave a talk on the characteristics of Library of Congress Subject Headings as a controlled vocabulary, its evolution from a tool for use in card catalogs to online public access catalogs, and its use in indexing electronic resources.


CIP Celebrates Thirtieth Anniversary at ALA

Quality Books, a Dawson Company, which distributes small press non-fiction books to the library market, will host a reception on Friday June 15 at the 2001 American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Cataloging in Publication Program. Other events include an ALA ALCTS program on Monday June 18 at 2:00. John Celli (chief, Cataloging in Publication Division), Craig Van Dyck (vice president, Manufacturing, Scientific, Technical, Medical Publishing, John Wiley & Sons), and Pat Thomas (formerly of the Stockton Public Library and Margaret Mann Citation recipient), will trace milestones of the program and introduce the New Books Program. This program will build on the CIP program and provide publishers with opportunities to contribute a wide array of bibliographic information about forthcoming books for the Library of Congress Web site. Readers may request these books from their local libraries if their library is a partner with the Library of Congress.

A bulletin board has also been set up (URL http://bulletinboards.com/cips30th [May 2001]) to enable libraries to post thank you notes to publishers and Library of Congress staff for making the CIP program possible for the past thirty years. The thank you notes for publishers will be collected and shared with publishers at the reception at the San Francisco Marriott from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The thank you notes for Library of Congress staff will be shared with them at a reception celebrating the anniversary to be held t the Library of Congress.

Models of the four principal parts of the New Books Program will be demonstrated at the ALA ALCTS program on Monday June 18 at 2:00.

  1. The publishers' front end. This is the part publishers will use to submit a New Books Program application.

  2. The New Books Program Public Access Module. This will be a database of New Books Program records readily available and visible on LC's Web site so anyone with Internet access can search it easily.

  3. The Library of Congress Partnership Program. This part of the project will enable any library to link to the Library of Congress so a reader can readily request forthcoming books from his/her local library.

  4. The New Books Alert Service. This part will support collection development and book acquisition at the Library of Congress by providing select New Books Program records for forthcoming titles that fit the profile of individual recommending officers.

Cataloging Directorate Issues Tactical Plan for 2001/2002

The Cataloging Directorate has adopted a tactical plan covering fiscal years 2001 and 2002. The Cataloging Management Team met on January 29 to draft a broad outline of the plan. After further work to add objectives and tasks under each goal, the plan was circulated for comment from first-line cataloging supervisors and released to staff on March 15.

Like previous tactical plans, the fiscal 2001/2002 Tactical Plan includes four major goals, which are subdivided into objectives and tasks. Each goal has one or more division chiefs as goal leader(s) to monitor progress in completing the various tasks and objectives. The four goals and their leaders are:

I. Provide quality bibliographic and inventory control appropriate to the information resource; meet goals for processing current receipts and revised arrearage reduction goals; and ensure physical security of Library in-process materials. (Leaders: Judy Mansfield, Arts and Sciences Cataloging Division, and Ichiko Morita, Social Sciences Cataloging Division)

II. Develop staff resources and provide effective personnel management. (Leader: Susan H. Vita, Special Materials Cataloging Division)

III. Increase the efficiency and cost effectiveness of cataloging operations through automation. (Leaders: Jeffrey Heynen, History and Literature Cataloging Division, and John Celli, Cataloging in Publication Division)

IV. Provide national and international leadership in the development and promotion of cataloging policy, practice, and standards and in cooperative cataloging. (Leaders: John Byrum, Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, and Thompson A. Yee, acting chief, Cataloging Policy and Support Office)

All four goals include objectives and tasks that are part of the Library's digital initiatives and are so marked in the plan. It will be updated regularly as tasks are completed, resource requirements change, or new projects are identified.


Forum on Digital Reference and Bibliographic Control at ALA

The Library of Congress and RUSA, the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association, will sponsor the LC/RUSA Forum on Digital Reference and Bibliographic Control: Options for Collaboration during the upcoming ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. The forum will take place on Sunday, June 17, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dolores Room. The program will address needs for bibliographic control of World Wide Web resources in library collections. Topics will include the uses made of CORC (OCLC's Cooperative Online Resource Catalog) by reference and cataloging librarians and a model for digital reference service, anytime, anywhere, to be provided by the Collaborative Digital Reference Service that is currently under development by LC and partner libraries.

Director for Cataloging Beacher Wiggins and Director for Public Service Collections Diane Kresh planned the forum in response to a recommendation made at the Library of Congress Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, held Nov. 13-15, 2000, sponsored by the Cataloging Directorate.



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: Victoria Behrens, John Byrum, Roselyne Chang, Jurij Dobczansky, Anthony Franks, Les Hawkins, Albert Kohlmeier, Susan Morris, Geraldine Ostrove, David Smith, David Williamson, and Roman Worobec. 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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Comments : [email protected] 05/14/01