LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE

Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate
Library of Congress

Volume 11, no. 5    ISSN 1066-8829    May 2003


CONTENTS
Seymour Lubetzky, 1898-2003
NACO-Mexico Funnel Project Formed
Newfoundland and Labrador
Iraq War Subject Heading
New Catalogers in RCCD
New Distance Learning Course for Cataloger's Desktop
Change in Practice for Counting Non-Filing Characters in MARC 21
Hirons, CONSER Coordinator, to Retire
CONSER and the "Aggregator-Neutral" Record
SCCTP Integrating Resources Workshop
MARC Distribution Service Now FTP Only

Seymour Lubetzky, 1898-2003

Seymour Lubetzky, a former Library of Congress employee and the best-known cataloging theorist of the twentieth century, died in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 5, 2003. Born Shmaryahu Lubetzky in Zelva, near Minsk in what is now Belarus, in 1898 or earlier, Lubetzky came to the United States in 1925. He earned master's degrees in German and in library science from the University of California, Berkeley. His first professional library job, in the depths of the Great Depression, was at Sequoia National Park. From 1936 to 1942 he was a cataloger at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he began publishing professional articles that questioned the value of then-current cataloging practice. The Library of Congress hired him in 1942 on a six-month consultant contract to look into LC's practices in bibliographic description. On the last day of his contract, he was rehired on a permanent basis as chief of the former Catalog Maintenance Division.

Lubetzky's work resulted in the 1949 publication of the Library's Rules for Descriptive Cataloging and the 1953 publication of Cataloging Rules and Principles, which was the foundation of the Statement of Principles adopted at the 1961 International Conference on Cataloguing Principles held in Paris. The "Paris Principles" underpin the 1967 first edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, and, with only a few exceptions, the rules for entry in the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2), which LC and most libraries in the English-speaking world apply today. In 1955, while at LC, Lubetzky received the Margaret Mann Citation for outstanding professional achievement from the American Library Association's Division of Cataloging and Classification, forerunner of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. The citation commended him for "scholarly analyses and critiques which stimulated and influenced profoundly the revision of cataloging rules and led the library profession to a clear statement of principles as the basis for future cataloging policy."

In 1960 Lubetzky became a professor at the UCLA School of Library Service. He retired from UCLA in 1969 but remained active in the field of cataloging theory the rest of his life. In 1977 the American Library Association awarded him the Melvil Dewey Medal "for recent creative leadership of high order," and in 2002 it gave him an honorary membership, the highest honor ALA bestows. In 2001 a compilation of his major writings, edited by Dorothy McGarry and Elaine Svenonius, was issued by Libraries Unlimited under the title Seymour Lubetzky: Writings on the Classical Art of Cataloging.


NACO-Mexico Funnel Project Formed

In March 2003, the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi (UASLP) became both a new NACO member and the coordinator of the newly-formed NACO-MEXICO Funnel Project. Lic. Juan Rene Garcia Lagunas, UASLP's director of libraries, headed the negotiating team that enabled the library consortium, Red de Sistemas de Bibliotecas de las Universidades del Centro (RESBIUC), to join OCLC, a first and necessary step toward NACO membership.

The creation of the funnel project resulted from discussions in May 2002 between Julia Margarita Martinez Saldana (Jefe del Depto. de la Seccion de Analisis Bibliografica) and Ana Cristan (LC). These discussions resulted in a training workshop held at the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi in March 2003. Participating Mexican libraries were the Colegio de San Luis, Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes, Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, Universidad de Guanajuato, Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango, and the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo. Representatives from the Universidad de Costa Rica, the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango (Bogota, Colombia), and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (Caracas, Venezuela) also attended. Cristan, the workshop coordinator, invited Ageo Garcia (Tulane University), a native of Mexico, to assist her with the training.

During the NACO training it was determined that UASLP should indeed undertake the coordinator role in the formation of a funnel project to be called NACO-MEXICO and named Martinez Saldana as the NACO-MEXICO funnel coordinator. The universities of Aguascalientes, Coahuila, and Zacatecas will take the lead in the first phase of the funnel and will be joined in the second phase (Summer 2003) by the remaining consortium members. It is expected that the Universidad de Costa Rica, the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion will be phased in to the NACO-MEXICO Funnel Project on an ad-hoc basis.

The success of the workshop was due in part to the OCLC CatME authority module in Spanish that facilitates and encourages the participation in the PCC of more Latin American libraries. In its first month the funnel contributed over forty name authority records.


Newfoundland and Labrador

Following the lead of the National Library of Canada, whose Canadian corporate and geographic headings the Library of Congress adopts, LC will implement the abbreviation for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (N.L.) on June 1. This new abbreviation will be a part of the 2003 amendments to AACR2.


Iraq War Subject Heading

The Cataloging Policy and Support Office has established the following new subject heading:

     Iraq War, 2003 (sh2003003059)
          UF Iraqi Freedom, Operation, 2003
          UF Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003
          BT Iraq--History--1991-

Additional references and other information may be added to the authority record as the need arises.

The heading appears on approved weekly list 03/12.


New Catalogers

The Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division (RCCD) and its Middle East and North Africa Team (MENA) announces the appointment of two new Arabic catalogers: Anchi Hoh Dianu and Michael L. Chyet.

Dianu comes to MENA from the Near East Section, African and Middle East Division. She holds a B.A. in Arabic language and literature (National Chengchi University, Taiwan), a certificate in Arab studies (Kuwait University), an M.A. in Middle Eastern studies (University of Manchester, U.K.), an M.A. in Jewish studies (Gratz College), and is currently both an MLS candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park and a doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Manchester (Ph. D. expected December 2003).

Chyet has been providing minimal-level cataloging in a variety of languages in MENA for the last year and a half. He received his Ph. D. from the University of California, Berkeley in languages and cultures of the Middle East. He served as senior editor at Voice of America's Kurdish Service from 1995 to 2000 and subsequently taught Kurdish at INALCO (University of Paris) and the Kurdish Institute of Paris. His teaching repertoire includes Kurdish (both Kurmanji and Sorani), Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Aramaic and folklore. His dictionary, Kurdish dictionary: Kurmanji-English is slated for publication by Yale University Press this year.

The Korean/Chinese Team, RCCD, announces the appointment of Elaine Hyojong Kim. She received her B.S. in library science from Ewha Women's University in Korea, and M.L.S. degree from the Southern Connecticut State University. Kim worked as a part-time contract cataloger at the INS Human Rights Resource Center in Washington, D.C., before she joined the Library of Congress in 2000 as an acquisition technician in the Japanese, Korean, South & Southeast Asian Acquisitions Section of the African/Asian Acquisition and Overseas Operations Division.

The Chinese Team, RCCD, announces the appointment of Ruoyi Gail Gao. She was educated at Kunming Teachers' College, Yunnan Normal University with a B.A. in fine arts and in English. She earned an M.A. from Shang Dong University and an M.L.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her career started as a lecturer of English at the Foreign Languages Department, Yunnan Normal University. She was selected as a UNESCO Fellow to be trained in TESL (Teaching English as Secondary Language) at the Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland. She gained her Chinese cataloging experience while working as a cataloging assistant at the East Asian Collection, University of Maryland, College Park. Her professional experience also included an appointment as a manager of the Advanced Technology Systems, Inc., and as an information specialist of the BHP Minerals International Corporation. Her LC experience started as a library technician in the Information Research Division, Congressional Research Service, and a copyright cataloger in the Art Section, Copyright Cataloging Division. Gao is an accomplished poet and received the Editor's Choice Award, 2001.


New Distance Learning Course For Cataloger's Desktop

The Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) and the Technical Processing and Automation Instruction Office (TPAIO) have developed a new instructional course for Cataloger's Desktop called Cataloger's Desktop Web-Based Training. It covers the most important features, contents, and functions of _Cataloger's Desktop_, a cataloging tool containing virtually all the documentation consulted regularly by catalogers. The new course adapts instructor-led training in _Cataloger's Desktop_ to the World Wide Web. It is available at no charge to users.

The course has four modules: Introduction, Navigation, Searching, and Settings. Using the syllabus menu, trainees may choose any topic in any of the four modules and fulfill the objectives of that topic. Trainees may work sequentially or select a particular module or topic within a module for additional practice. The entire course takes four to six hours to complete. It is recommended that students work through the course in twenty to thirty minute increments.

Both new and experienced users of _Cataloger's Desktop_ can be expected to benefit from this training which orients new users to navigation and searching techniques while providing a review of Desktop's functionality for veteran users.

Cataloger's Desktop Web-Based Training is hosted on the CDS website at //www.loc.gov/cds/desktop-training [May 2003]. It is not necessary to have Cataloger's Desktop installed on the computer used for taking the course. The course simulates Cataloger's Desktop and provides extensive feedback if steps are not performed correctly.

The course includes an online evaluation form. Feedback will help CDS improve this course and help design other online training courses. Users with questions may contact either Linda Geisler ([email protected]) or Zbigniew Kantorosinski ([email protected]).


Change in Practice for Counting Non-Filing Characters in MARC21

On Feb. 20, 2003, the Library of Congress implemented a change in practice for counting non-filing characters. This change applies when definite or indefinite articles are present and the first filing word following the article begins with a character modified by a diacritic. Under the revised practice, this diacritic is not counted.

The LC database is currently being analyzed to identify existing bibliographic records that need to be changed as a result of the new practice. LC staff creating or updating bibliographic records in the LV ILS, RLIN, or OCLC are now following the new practice. Tables illustrating the differences in counting non- filing characters before and after Feb. 19, 2003, are found at //www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/nonfile.html [May 2003].


Jean Hirons, CONSER Coordinator, to Retire

Jean Hirons, CONSER coordinator, has announced she will retire at the end of June 2003.

Hirons has provided leadership to CONSER and the larger cooperative serials world for over twenty years. She is most renowned for her work with the creation of the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP), her leadership in the recent revisions to AACR2, and the documentation provided in the CONSER Cataloging Manual and the CONSER Editing Guide.

Hirons reached the difficult decision to retire after concluding the time was just right -- this year is CONSER's thirtieth anniversary, her twentieth year at the Library of Congress, and her tenth year in the position of CONSER coordinator. The opportunity for early retirement will give her more time for her second career of pastel painting. She is currently painting, teaching pastel, and working towards a solo show next year. Jean says she has enjoyed the challenges of being CONSER Coordinator and working with colleagues to find the best solutions for difficult problems. She's not completely ready to cut her ties and hopes to work part-time, perhaps at the Library of Congress, and pursue consulting work in the future.

Her colleagues at the Serial Record Division, Library of Congress and colleagues in the serials and cataloging community are surely going to miss her but wish her well with her future endeavors. The Library plans to fill the position as soon as possible.


CONSER and the "Aggregator-Neutral" Record

CONSER is currently developing cataloging guidelines for the creation of a single record that will represent all online versions of a serial residing in multiple aggregator databases. The effort will consolidate multiple records that exist in OCLC and find better ways to create cooperatively records for titles in these databases.

One of the desired outcomes is that libraries, utilities, aggregators, and serial management companies have access to complete record sets for particular aggregator packages. The focus, at least initially, is on stable e-serial packages that are less prone to dropping and adding titles, rather than larger article- based databases that continually change title coverage. The initiative resulted from surveys of CONSER members and the larger library community conducted by CONSER in 2002. The results of these surveys pointed to the need to have one record representing all online versions, ideally based on the digital version offered by the original publisher. The survey responses suggested that to be most useful in local library processing, the record should not contain any specific information about individual aggregators. Such information is usually stripped from records upon downloading, and the record is customized and/or cloned to identify various packages and access locations locally. Currently, however, URLs for the various aggregations currently residing in the OCLC records will probably be retained. The proposal for this aggregator neutral record became known as "Option B+" and further background is available from the CONSER Web site //www.loc.gov/acq/conser/optionbplusdec2002.html [May 2003].

Until record consolidation is completed in OCLC and cataloging guidelines are in place for creating or adapting records, CONSER and OCLC have announced interim guidelines for creating or adapting records for online versions of serials. Catalogers are asked to create or adapt one record for the online version, based on a version from the original publisher if possible. The resulting record will not contain information specific to any of the aggregators that carry the title, except for URLs.

Several groups in the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) have been established to carry out the tasks of the project. Robert Bremer (OCLC) is leading a group that will propose guidelines for record collapsing. Regina Reynolds (Head, NSDP, LC) is working on ISSN issues and is leading a group that will work on aggregator education. The completed recommendations from these groups will be brought to the CONSER Operations meeting in early May for approval. Following the meeting, work will begin on collapsing records in the OCLC/CONSER database and cataloging procedures will be documented.

In a related effort, the PCC/Standing Committee on Automation's 3rd Task Force on Journals in Aggregator Databases, under the leadership of Adolfo Tarango (University of California, San Diego), is investigating the generation of machine-derived records from records for the print or other formats. This work is aimed at finding a means to create a single complete set of records in the CONSER database that can be used by aggregators, serials management companies, OCLC, and libraries to create sets for in- house use.


SCCTP Integrating Resources Workshop

The Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP) will be releasing a new workshop on integrating resources this spring created by Steven Miller (University of Wisconsin-- Milwaukee). One of the first opportunities to take the workshop will be at the ALA Annual Conference where this course and the Electronic Serials Workshop are each being given as pre- conferences. Registration is now open on the ALA Web site.

The primary focus of the course is the cataloging of updating Web sites and online databases and includes numerous examples. The cataloging of updating loose-leafs is also included with an optional component covering the more complex aspects of cataloging loose-leaf services. As with all SCCTP courses, practical suggestions and problem solving are combined with instructions on how to catalog to national standards. For more information on the course, see the SCCTP Web site //www.loc.gov/acq/conser/scctp/courdesc.html [May 2003].


MARC Distribution Service Now FTP Only

After thirty years of providing MARC data tapes and tape cartridges to its MARC Distribution Service (MDS) customers, the Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) has produced its last tape and cartridge. The MDS tape service has been replaced by internet transfer through File Transfer Protocol (FTP), which is faster and more efficient. CDS initiated FTP service in 1994.

The tapes contained MARC records processed at the rate of 8,000-9,000 a day by LC's catalogers. These records were subsequently edited for conformance to MARC 21 standards and bundled into marketable products by CDS, which distributed the records under such titles as Books All, Books English, Subject Authorities, Visual Materials, Serials, and Maps. All these titles are still available, but only through FTP.

CDS inaugurated its tape service in 1972. At the time, MARC records generated by LC catalogers were sent to CDS, which used the data to generate cataloging cards (the last of which were printed by CDS in 1997). In 1972, following the purchase of a mainframe computer, CDS began transferring the MARC records to magnetic tape. Tape customers included large libraries, bibliographic utilities and networks, publishers, and more recently Web-based companies.

The final tape--the US GPO Cataloging File Serials Supplement--went to Japan's National Diet [parliament] Library, and the final cartridge (same title) went to the library at Pennsylvania State University.


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: Julianne Beall, John Byrum, Roselyne Chang, Jurij Dobczansky, Les Hawkins, Albert Kohlmeier, Susan Morris, Geraldine Ostrove, William Starck, Valerie Weinberg, 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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