BCC2002/C/1

Bibliographic Control Committee
Report from the 2002 Las Vegas Conference

The annual open meeting of the Bibliographic Control Committee was held on Wednesday morning, February 20th. The Chair began by introducing the current and incoming Committee members, thanking those members who would be rotating off after the Vegas meeting, announcing several vacancies on the subcommittees (with instructions for applying for those positions), and briefly explaining the new compressed format of all of the BCC open meetings. Mention was made of the former Dublin Core “Relations” Element “Type” Qualifier Working Group, which was dissolved in October following the approval of the NISO Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (Z39.85). The standard is available for free downloading or hardcopy purchase at http://www.niso.org.

The centerpiece presentation of the meeting was given by Brad Eden (University of Nevada at Las Vegas), Chair of the International Music Metadata Projects Working Group. He outlined the three recommendations contained in the Working Group's final report to the BCC, namely to 1) form a standing MLA committee on metadata, 2) appoint MLA liaisons to the major metadata standards organizations, and 3) increase efforts toward informing and educating the MLA membership about metadata. A very lively discussion followed -- and continued even through a brief Nevada “brownout” -- about the need for and the practicality of such activities. The BCC Chair asked whether such work could be done informally by those already involved with these organizations (i.e. without official MLA appointments and funding). Although many in the audience expressed an interest in participating, they also felt that their institutions would not be willing to fund such efforts without official appointments and titles. Also, a need was voiced for a sort of “Metadata Element Requirements for Music Materials” document. Based upon these responses, the BCC will propose the creation of a fifth subcommittee for metadata.

The Music Thesaurus Project Form/Genre Terminology Working Group, chaired by Harriette Hemmasi (Indiana University), completed their charge and were thanked. The next phase of the project, to categorize the “leftover” headings and to incorporate additional headings from the RILM, Music Index, and IIMP databases, will be taken up by the MTP Advisory Task Force, chaired by Mark McKnight (University of North Texas). The Task Force will mostly likely provide a progress report during the BCC open meeting in Austin.

The four BCC liaisons attended ALA meetings in San Francisco and New Orleans, providing the music cataloging community's perspective on various issues to a broader audience. Written reports of these meetings, including those of ACIG, MRC, CC:DA, MARBI, and SAC, are available on the BCC website at http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/BCC/bcc.html, along with annual reports from the Library of Congress and OCLC representatives.

Finally, BCC personnel changes include Kathy Glennan (University of Southern California at Ellicott City) and Michael Colby (University of California-Davis), who finish their terms as the respective chairs of the Subcommittees on MARC Formats and Subject Access, to be replaced by Paul Cauthen (University of Cincinnati) and Mark McKnight (University of North Texas). Beth Tice (Baylor University) is moving on to bigger and better things as she finishes a year-long term as Recording Secretary/Webmaster. Stepping into her quite capable shoes will be Kerri Scannell (University of Kentucky).

Submitted by Matthew Wise
Chair, Bibliographic Control Committee

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Last updated July 30, 2002