MOUG / MLA 2002
1. SPECIAL MATERIALS CATALOGING DIVISION (SMCD)
SMCD Personnel News: MSR2 welcomed Stephen Yusko as it new Team Leader. David Bucknum (MSR2) and Michi Hoban (MSR1) achieved Senior Music Cataloger status. Jerry Emanuel, Senior Music Cataloger, (MSR2) retired.
Arrearage Reduction Efforts: More than 106,000 discs and tapes were processed and removed from the arrearage during FY 2001. The following are selected highlights:
78s Sets Project: Since August 2000, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) processing staff and the catalogers of SMCD Music and Sound Recordings Teams (MSR) 1-2 have collaborated on this labor-intensive arrearage project estimated to consist of 5,000 titles. The processing staff have had to re-sleeve, select best copy, and apply a numeric shelf number scheme to all of the discs. Cataloging staff has had to re-acquaint itself with the vagaries of 78s cataloging; along the way, there have been numerous emendations to the workflow in attempts to bring 78s cataloging into the AACR2 and ILS environments. If a dominant characteristic of the current music industry is the transience of digital formats, it has proven instructive, in handling 78s, to realize that similar issues existed long before the advent of the compact disc: for example, should copies of a title in variant sequencing schemes (manual vs. automatic sequencing and within automatic, two different schemes) be treated as copies or editions? How are novelty 78s best described? Currently into the Victor recordings (in an A-Z approach by label), the teams have cleared 18,797 discs from this arrearage. The completion of the project is expected by late spring of 2002.
CD-R Cataloging: SMCD has begun cataloging 5000 CD-Rs (3,000 current receipts + 2,000 arrearage). CD-Rs are writeable audio compact discs submitted as Copyright deposits. These are considered unpublished sound recordings and are given minimal bibliographic access augmented by information taken from the online Copyright file (via proprietary data transfer software). These records are distributed by CDS as well as being available through our OPAC. To date, approximately 1,075 titles have been cataloged.
CD Workflow: In development since the spring of 2000, this workflow is intended to gain bibliographic control over the annual receipt of 30,000 CDs in MBRS. Developed through the collaboration of several LC Divisions and Directorates, this unique approach to copy cataloging has resulted in the creation of approximately 30,000 initial bibliographic control records (IBCs) accounting for an estimated 40,000 discs.
In brief, the workflow may be described as follows:
LC Concert Tapes: The 1999/2000 LC concert season tapes (25 concerts) have now been cataloged, bringing bibliographic control of these concerts up to date with more than 1,700 titles. The LC Concert tapes can be searched in the LC OPAC by title: Library of Congress Music Division concert.
Encoding Level 7 Copy Cataloging: Marcadia Processing, a LC-pilot copy cataloging effort employing RLIN automated record matching services, initiated use of Encoding Level 7 copy cataloging procedures, in which name and series authority work is done according to minimal level cataloging guidelines and LC Subject Headings present in the copied record are accepted with the assurance that they were constructed according to current practice. The resulting bibliographic record is assigned an encoding level of 7 so that it will not displace the original member record in the OCLC database.
SMCD will use Encoding Level 7 copy cataloging procedures for sound recording and score bibliographic matches in OCLC in two circumstances:
Anticipated FY 2002 arrearage reduction initiatives:
AFRTS: AFRTS (known variously as the American or Armed Forces Radio and Television Service), the broadcasting service of the Department of Defense, has been providing radio broadcasts to military personnel since the 1940s. For many years, commercial and AFRTS-produced shows were provided to member stations in disc format on a weekly basis. They range from information shows to religious programming to popular shows such as the Charlie Tuna show. As archival materials, many of these recordings are unique, and few other copies are likely to exist. This project aims to catalog over 100,000 discs which are not yet represented in the ILS. Some shows will be cataloged in a modified collection level format; others will have bibliographic records for each individual show.
LP Project: The Library still has 475,000 LPs that need overall access via the LC database, Voyager. To that end the AFRTS project, described above, will give bibliographic control to approximately 100,000. The remaining 375,000 are housed either on Capitol Hill or in the Library's Landover, Md. annex. The initial step will be to process the ca. 42,000 LPs which make up the Klinger collection, one of the largest jazz collections in the world, as well as the ca. 80,000 additional discs and tapes stored off the Hill. SMCD hopes to incorporate many features of the CD workflow into the bibliographic control of these LPs. One feature of the project will be to replace pertinent PREMARC records with more complete copy found on OCLC; there will be original cataloging as well.
Cataloging Documentation: In concord with direction from CPSO, SMCD is seeking ways to both simplify and distribute its documentation. Toward this end, SMCD, through the Music Cataloging Advisory Committee, is exploring the feasibility of rolling the provisions of the Music Cataloging Decisions (MCDs) into the LC Rule Interpretations, eliminating the need for this separate body of rules.
In addition, CDS, in concert with SMCD desires, has agreed to distribute via Cataloger's Desktop our internal Music and Sound Recording Online Manual (MOIM). This document, whose latest edition was authored and will be maintained by Richard Hunter, will furnish guidance on the application of MARC 21 for printed music and sound recording formats. While this document is LC- and Voyager-centric, SMCD assumes that much of the manual will be applicable to many systems, will furnish many examples useful especially for catalogers who only occasionally encounter music materials, and to those in the international community seeking direction for MARC applications to music materials.
Webmaster Training: As part of the Library's continuing effort to extend the digital expertise of its current staff, several MSR catalogers have undertaken Library of Congress Internal University-sponsored Webmaster courses. The skills they have learned are then applied to the maintenance of our new internal-only MSR Cataloging Resources Page.
Music Subject Cataloging Working Group (MUSUB): SMCD has initiated the creation of this Working Group which, like the Music Cataloging Advisory Group (MCAG), includes in it's the membership new and seasoned MSR catalogers, a representative from the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO), and a representative from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS). The goals of the group are to consolidated subject proposal review (both internal as well as SACO), facilitate music subject policy discussions and revisions of the music-related memos of the Subject Cataloging Manual, and to free MCAG for other work. The Group will use an internal listserve (MUSUB-L) to facilitate subject discussions among stakeholders (SMCD, CPSO, MBRS, and the Music Division) and to archive these discussions.
2. MOTION PICTURE, BROADCASTING, AND
RECORDED SOUND DIVISION (MBRS)
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center: The Recorded Sound Section staff continues to be actively involved in the planning for the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and its requisite Digital Mass Storage System, currently estimated to be completed in 2005. In addition, last year, the Library of Congress received significant funding from Congress to establish the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program. The Library is preparing a plan for the collection, preservation, and dissemination of information in digital forms, which will be of benefit to libraries throughout the country. Samuel Brylawski, Head of the Recorded Sound Section, will review some of these developments in his presentation during the second plenary session of the MLA meeting, on the topic of Perspectives on the Digital Music Library.
The National Recording Preservation Board: Established by Congress in 2000, the Board has been appointed by the Librarian of Congress and is scheduled to convene for its first meeting on March 12, 2002, at the Library of Congress. James Farrington is MLA's representative to the Board, and Barbara Sawka is the alternate. Mary Russell Bucknum, curator of sound recordings at the Library of Congress, will give a summary of the preservation board's mission and proposed meeting agenda in a presentation on Thursday afternoon, as part of the Preservation Committee's open meeting.
Collections News: Examples of recorded sound collections preserved and cataloged in the LC ILS in the past year include portions of the Voice of America Collection, in particular the Boston Symphony concerts from 1955 up to 1962, the Symphony of the Air, and the Negro College Choir Concerts, a concert series featuring a different choir each week, from 1960 into the 1970s. Other collections preserved and cataloged on the ILS include:
MAVIS: The M/B/RS Recorded Sound Processing Unit began accessioning collections using the Acquisitions module of MAVIS (Merged Audio-Visual Information System). MAVIS is an Oracle-based application for the inventory and cataloging of audio-visual collections. It was developed by the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia. The Recorded Sound Section's use is the first step towards fully integrating MAVIS as the in-house collection management component for recorded sound in a system that will include LC-ILS (Voyager) and SONIC (Cuadra STAR) as OPACs. Full implementation will involve the migration of ILS (MARC) and SONIC data to MAVIS via XML, and an ongoing process of data migration between MAVIS and the ILS databases as new records are added. MARC records will continue to be imported into the ILS from external sources such as OCLC, and original cataloging for published recordings will continue to be entered there as well. Data from these bibliographic records will then be migrated into the MAVIS inventory. The accessioning, preservation and cataloging stream for unpublished, archival materials will begin in MAVIS, with the final result being both an inventory record in MAVIS, as well as a bibliographic record in the ILS. Current plans call for SONIC to remain as a legacy OPAC until the entire database has been migrated to MAVIS and the ILS.
Sound Recording Conservation: The M/B/RS Division and the Library of Congress Preservation Office have collaborated in the development of several sound recording conservation initiatives. Last year, in an attempt to prepare the Library's recordings for their move to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, M/B/RS curators and Preservation Directorate staff investigated several issues related to preservation-quality enclosures for discs. In the end, the group decided to place 45s, shellac 78s, and Edison discs into acid-free paper card sleeves (with a cutout in the middle to expose label information) and into Mylar dust jackets. Because there is so much graphic information on LP covers and because the grooves of LPs are especially sensitive to scratches, the group decided to use a high-density polyethylene sleeve to hold the LP, which is then placed into its original sleeve and then into its original cover, which is covered with a Mylar dust jacket. This approach provides multiple levels of protection at a reasonable cost.
Disc Cleaning--The Solution: Also, the Library's Research and Testing Division has developed a simple, environmentally-friendly solution for cleaning lacquer-coated instantaneous discs, shellac, and vinyl records. The solution contains Triton™ XL-80N surfactant (0.5%), ammonia liquor (0.5%)(added only for cleaning lacquer), Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (0.13%), and water. Such a solution should be prepared only by persons trained in the safe handling of chemicals, using proper facilities, and wearing safety glasses. This solution can be used to clean records manually or in mechanized record cleaners. In all cases, care will be taken to remove the solution after the cleaning step by washing with water or by vacuum suction. For manual cleaning, we will wipe the disc dry using a soft, non-abrasive, lint-free cloth.
3. MUSIC DIVISION
Music Division Personnel News:
Jan Lauridsen appointed assistant chief, Music Division
Henry J. Grossi, appointed assistant head, Reader Services
William Parsons, music specialist, retired
New Collections:
Patrick Hayes and Evelyn Swarthout Collection, 11,000 items
Frederick Loewe Collection, 1,200 items
Shelly Manne Collection, 10,102 items
Theodore Presser Archives, 1,000,000 items
Richard Robbins Collection, 102,250 items
Arnold T. Schwab Collection, 20,000 items
Don Walker Collection, 9,500 items
Additions to Existing Collections:
George and Ira Gershwin Collection, 29,000 items
Josef Gingold Collection, 12,420
Erick Hawkins Collection, 5,000 items
John Philip Sousa Collection, 5,000 items
Ballets Russes Collection (addition of Grigoriev materials)
Additions to the Music Division Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection:
81 letters of Leon Bakst, Irving Berlin, Johannes Brahms, Aaron Copland, Marilyn Horne, Otto Klemperer, Erich Wolfgang
Korngold, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Ned Rorem, Arnold Schoenberg, Robert Schumann
Manuscripts of Commissioned works by:
Augusta Read Thomas (Kindler Foundation)Chen Yi, James Dashow, Franco Donatoni, Jason Eckardt, Richard Feliciano, Brian
Fennelly, Pablo Furman, Thea Musgrave (Koussevitzky Foundation)
Converted from Deposit to Gift:
Billy Taylor Collection
Video Histories of former Motown artists Bobby Rogers and Claudette Robinson, former Motown Vice-President Esther Gordy
Edwards, and blues and radio personality The Famous Coachman
World premieres and commissions:
4. CATALOGING POLICY AND SUPPORT OFFICE (CPSO)
CPSO Personnel News: Barbara Tillett returned full-time as Chief of the Cataloging Policy and Support Office effective August 2001. Tom Yee resumed his position as Assistant Chief of CPSO. Larry Buzard, team leader of the Classification Editorial Team, retired in October.
Music Cataloging Advisory Group (MCAG): The MCAG was formed in 1996 to address cataloging matters as they affect both technical services and public services. Its regular members represent the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (chair) and the three Music and Sound Recordings Teams in the Cataloging Directorate, and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division and the Music Division from the Public Services Directorate. The American Folklife Center participates in selected MCAG activities. Highlights of the MCAG's work during the past year include the following:
Subject Headings of Interest in Music:
Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings (SCM). Most of the instruction sheets pertaining to music have been expanded to include more information about present practice, some subject policies have been revised, and many more captions have been added to individual chapters to clarify the topics covered. The revisions will be incorporated in 2002 Update No. 1, to be published later this year. LC catalogers will implement these provisions around the beginning of March. Changes include,
5. AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER
The American Folklife Center celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary on January 2, 2001. The year that followed was full of activity, with a host of new acquisitions and several new large and exciting projects for Center staff. The Center's Folk Heritage Preservation and Access Initiative proposed and accepted in the Library's fiscal 2002 budget will generate additional much-needed staff positions and funding for the Library's Veterans History Project.
Veterans History Project: On October 27, 2000, President Clinton signed a bill creating the Veterans History Project, which directs the American Folklife Center to establish a program for preserving the personal experience stories and oral histories of America's war veterans and making those histories available to the public. Ellen McCulloh-Lovell was named director in March, 2001, and additional staff were subsequently hired. Among other things, a Veterans History Project Website has been put online, with a “project kit” providing instructions and forms for people wishing to collect oral histories from veterans.
Save Our Sounds Recorded Heritage Preservation Project: Based on a Year 2000 award from the National Park Service, under the Save America's Treasures Program of the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Center's Save Our Sounds preservation project will restore, preserve, and make accessible endangered sound recordings held by the American Folklife Center and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution. For the Save Our Sounds project, processing work began during 2001 on the James Madison Carpenter Collection, the Eloise Hubbard Linscott Collection, the American Dialect Society Collection, the collections of the International Storytelling Center of Jonesborough, Tennessee; the Eleanor Dickinson Collection and a collection of wire recordings of Pennsylvania German folklore and music made by Don Yoder.
September 11, 2001, Documentary Project: On September 12, 2001, the Center launched a project to collect public reactions to September 11 in the form of audio-taped interviews and other forms of documentation for preservation in the Archive of Folk Culture in a collection entitled the September 11, 2001, Documentary Project Collection.
National Digital Library Program Presentations: In October, the Woody Guthrie Manuscript Collection became available as a new online presentation from the AFC. The collection includes correspondence between Guthrie and the staff of the Folk Archive written primarily in the 1940s, shortly after Guthrie had moved to New York City and met Alan Lomax, then assistant in charge of the Library's Folk Archive. There are fifty-three items of manuscript material, along with a biographical essay and time line.
Legacy of Benjamin A. Botkin: On Nov. 15-16, the AFC presented “Living Lore: The Legacy of Benjamin A. Botkin,” two days of concerts, performances, interviews, and panel discussions. The event was sponsored by the AFC, the Center for the Book, the Library's Music Division, the National Council for the Traditional Arts, and the New York Folklore Society, with support from the Shakespeare Theatre, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with transportation provided by U.S. Airways.
Processing: The American Folklife Center continues to create collection-level MARC cataloging records and EAD (Encoded Archival Description) Finding Aids for the unpublished multi-format ethnographic field collections that are being processed for our Archive of Folk Culture here at the Library. During the coming year, we look forward to filling several new positions (processing technicians and an additional cataloger) in the Center that will contribute considerably to the processing of the large arrearage of field collections that both exist in our collection and continue to be acquired in significant numbers. At the end of 2001, a total of fourteen of our large collections were in various stages of processing in addition to numerous small collections that had been completely processed.
Ethnographic Thesaurus Project: During the summer of 2001, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a Chairman's Grant for $30,000 to the American Folklore Society for the development of an ethnographic thesaurus, a project co-sponsored by the Society, the American Folklife Center, and George Mason University that will create a valuable reference tool for the use of folklorists, ethnomusicologists, archivists, librarians, and the public. Meetings held in 2000 and 2001 at the American Folklife Center with a group of specialists in folklore, ethnomusicology, thesaurus construction, and archiving lead to the formulation of the grant proposal and subsequently, the hiring a researcher to work at George Mason University in this early planning phase of the project.
Significant 2001 Acquisitions:
6. GENERAL CATALOGING NEWS
LC ILS (Integrated Library System): The LC ILS primary database resides on a Sun E10000 server and includes nearly 12.5 million bibliographic records; approximately 12.5 million holdings records; over 12.9 million item records; approximately 5.4 million authority records; over 28,400 patron records; data for circulation and acquisitions transactions; and over 32,200 vendor records, ledgers, funds, tables, and keyword and other searchable indexes.
The Library of Congress expects to upgrade its integrated library system to Voyager 2000.1.3 in February. The data conversion is currently scheduled to begin on Friday evening, February 15. Training in Voyager 2000 for staff is scheduled to begin January 7 and conclude February 15. The data migration and regeneration of indexes are expected to take from one to two weeks, during which time LC staff will not be able to perform work in the LC ILS production database. The Cataloging Distribution Service will not distribute records, except for CONSER and JACKPHY- language records, during the downtime period. Staff and public users will be able to search against a “frozen” OPAC during the upgrade period. Cataloging and acquisitions divisions have developed contingency plans to keep CIP galleys moving through the cataloging pipeline and to ensure that all staff who work in the production database either have meaningful work or are taking prearranged leave while the production system is unavailable.
The Library expects to make full MARC 21 authority records for name and subject headings available in LC's Web OPAC in the spring of 2002. The “Web Authorities” feature will enable users to search, display, and save authority records; right now it will not include support for the MARC 21 character set nor access to authorities via Z39.50. LC is working with its software vendor, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., to provide those features in the future. LC is also working with Endeavor to improve performance of the system to enable expansion of public access to the OPAC. (Currently there are 250 ports for Z39.50 and 275 ports to access the OPAC.) Additional information can be found on the public ILS Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/ils.
US Postal Service: Delivery to the Library has been suspended since October 17, after a letter delivered to Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle's office in the Hart Building on Capitol Hill was found to be contaminated with anthrax. The three Library of Congress buildings on Capitol Hill were closed to the staff and public at close of business Wednesday, October 17, in order to facilitate environmental tests of the buildings for possible anthrax contamination. The buildings reopened to staff on Thursday, October 25, and to researchers and the public on Friday, October 26. Although no evidence of anthrax contamination was found in the LC buildings, certain LC staff members who handle mail and shipments were issued prophylactic antibiotics as a strictly precautionary measure after the buildings reopened to staff. The Library has had to institute rigorous and time-consuming procedures for the examination of all incoming mail.
While mail sent by commercial carriers, such as FedEx and UPS, is being received, LC has received no deliveries of USPS mail since the suspension. Resumption of receipt of USPS mail is dependent on the establishment of an off-site mail processing center for the Library and Congressional offices, and no firm date has yet been set for that.
Pinyin Romanization: The Library continues to share information about the pinyin conversion project on its pinyin Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/cat/dir/pinyin. At that site may be found explanations of how authority and bibliographic records converted, along with new, detailed explanations of conversion errors and inconsistencies; periodic updates to the project time line; and tips for classifying and Cuttering Chinese material after pinyin conversion, particularly Chinese literary authors. LC staff are now working to convert non-Chinese bibliographic records in the LC database that contain Chinese character data. Next, the remaining Wade-Giles headings, Chinese subject headings, and former conventional Chinese place names in the LC database will be found and converted to pinyin. Headings that could have “double-converted” have been checked to make sure that they converted correctly. Lists of LC subject headings that were revised in the project are posted on the pinyin Web site.
AACR2 Amendments: LC implemented “Amendments 2001” to AACR2 on December 1, 2001. The “Amendments 2001” rule revisions are included in the current Cataloger's Desktop; they have been incorporated into the AACR2 text and they also appear separately under “Most recent Amendments.” There are three major rule revisions in “Amendments 2001”: (1) Conference publications can be entered under the heading for the conference if the name of the conference appears anywhere in the item being cataloged. LC began to apply this rule to conference publications cataloged after November 30. (2) British terms of honor (“Sir,” “Dame,” “Lord,” “Lady”) will no longer be included in headings but will be retained in statements of responsibility and can be used to resolve conflicts in headings. LC is applying this rule revision to headings being newly established after November 30. Existing headings are not being changed to reflect current policy unless a heading needs to be changed for another reason. (3) Chapter 9 has been renamed “Electronic Resources.” The GMD “electronic resource” replaces “computer file,” and conventional terminology, such as CD-ROM, can now be used in the extent statement. The entire chapter has been reissued although a number of the rules within the chapter do not contain any changes. LC is applying revised Chapter 9 to items cataloged after November 30. “Amendments 2002” will be implemented by LC September 1, 2002.
Data Elements in Authority Records: LC has decided that it will not use the 856 field for electronic location and access in name/series and subject authority records nor will NACO/SACO participants be permitted to add that field in records that they contribute. Instead LC will use a newly defined subfield $u (Uniform Resource Identifier) in the 670 (Source Data Found) field, once that subfield is officially authorized in MARC 21. Use of the 670 $u rather than the 856 will provide the opportunity for enabling links to Web resources while clarifying the relationship of that resource to the entity described in the authority record. It will also reduce the redundancy of data in the authority record, since it would be necessary to add information in a subfield $b of a 670 field even if the 856 were to be used. The 670 subfield $b will contain, as is now the practice, a summary of the data found in the source for immediate use when consulting the authority record for normal cataloging purposes. The new subfield $u would provide a link to the URL for those needing additional information.
Approved Subject Headings Distributed Sooner: As a result of a workflow enhancement in CPSO, subscribers to CDS's weekly distribution of subject authority records have been receiving newly approved subject authority records sooner since last fall. Records for new and revised subject heading proposals that are approved without change at weekly subject heading editorial meetings are now being distributed in the next week's MDS-Subjects issue. The new procedure shortens the length of time required for a newly proposed heading to be readied for distribution by as much as a week.
Romanization tables: The text of the 1997 edition of the ALA-LC Romanization Tables is now available on the CPSO Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html. There are links to the tables under “The Latest News from CPSO” and under “Cataloging Tools and Documentation.”
LC Classification Weekly Lists: Weekly lists of additions and changes to the Library of Congress Classification schedules are now posted on the CPSO Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso as they are approved. This information was formerly made available in a quarterly publication entitled LC Classification: Additions and Changes. That publication ceased with List 284 covering October - December 2001. The lists are in the form of PDF files that require Adobe Acrobat Reader. The free reader may be downloaded from the Adobe Web site.
Classification Web: In addition to using the printed editions of the classification schedules, users can currently search and browse the latest versions of the schedules online with the CD-ROM product Classification Plus (updated quarterly), and will soon be able to do so on the World Wide Web with Classification Web (updated weekly). Following a successful pilot test from January to August 2001, Classification Web is expected to be available from CDS as a subscription product in early 2002.
Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Activities: NACO (Name Authority Cooperative) participants, including institutions from which some 175 catalogers were trained this year, contributed 143,031 new name authority records and 9,410 new series authority records, and modified 40,621 name and series authority records, an 11 percent increase in contributions over fiscal 2000.
The NACO Participant's Manual, 3rd edition, has been revised and readied for publication and a NACO/BIBCO Trainers' Web page will be unveiled at the 2002 Midwinter Meeting, containing links to pdf. copies of all existing BIBCO, NACO, and Series training materials.
This year, libraries belonging to the monograph bibliographic program, BIBCO, created 73,115 new bibliographic records for an increase of 11% last year. There are currently a total of 43 BIBCO libraries which, over the life of the program, have created a total of 428,751 program records for use by the global library community. Recently, three new libraries: New York University Law Library, Duke University and the State University of New York--Buffalo libraries have joined BIBCO.The BIBCO Operations Committee (OpCo) has been focusing on issues related to continuing resources processed in BIBCO and CONSER institutions; modification of the MARC format encoding level “i” ; and terms of OpCo membership. The group also provided input and review to the draft BIBCO Participants' Manual being edited under the auspices of the Standing Committee on Training. The final report of the BIBCO Core Record Study conducted by David Banush (Cornell University) and the report's recommendations for the future direction of the BIBCO Program were presented to the Policy Committee in November 2001.
During fiscal 2001, participants in the subject analysis program, SACO, submitted 2,603 Subject headings; 388 subject changes; 2,043 new classification numbers and 92 classification changes for Library of Congress Subject Headings and Library of Congress Classification. To increase the quality and quantity of subject proposals, SACO workshops, presentations, and multi-day seminars for over 200 catalogers were conducted at a variety of venues in the U.S. and abroad: ALA conferences, at the Library of Congress, at PALINET, at the CORMOSEA meetings, at CEAL, and in Florence, Italy. The first edition of the SACO Participants' Manual was published, in electronic and hard copy formats.
MARC 21: Nine proposals and seven discussion papers were prepared for discussion at the ALA Midwinter 2002 MARC Advisory Committee meetings. The MARC 21 LITE Bibliographic Format was released online at www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/lite/ in July 2001. It is a subset of the markup defined in the full MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data. It includes all essential data elements that are needed to create bibliographic descriptions of information items and thus allows libraries from all over the world in adopting and translating the format. It links to but does not list many of the data elements that are used by specialized populations of MARC 21 users. Update No. 2 to all five MARC 21 formats was published in October 2001 and will be released to the public in January 2002. It includes changes resulting from proposals which were considered at meetings in 2001. The online and print editions of the MARC 21 Concise Formats was also updated in January 2002. NDMSO is exploring the development of an XML schema for a bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes particularly for l ibrary applications. It contains a subset of MARC data elements and is intended to carry selected data for existing MARC records or to be used for the creation of original resource description records.
The MARC 21 Website (www.loc.gov/marc/) continues to be updated.
7. COPYRIGHT OFFICE
104 Study: The Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, submitted to Congress the Copyright Office's “DMCA Section 104 Report” on August 29, 2001. The DMCA directs the Register to prepare the Report as part of Congress' continuing evaluation of the impact of the digital age on copyrighted works. The Report focuses on two proposals: creation of a digital first sale doctrine to permit certain retransmissions of downloaded copies of works in digital form; and an exemption of certain digital reproductions that are incidental to the use of a copyrighted work in conjunction with a machine.
On the creation of a digital first sale doctrine, the Report declines, at this time, to recommend an amendment to section 109 to permit the transmission of a digital copy of a work to another person without the copyright owner's permission. Physical copies of works in a digital format, such as CDs or DVDs, are subject to section 109 in the same way as physical copies in analog form.
With respect to an exemption for temporary copies, the Register recommends a narrow change to the Copyright Act to address the issue of buffer copies that are incidental to a licensed digital performance of music. This will have an impact on Webcasters primarily. The Report also addresses the issue of the archival copies exception of computer programs and recommends that the law be amended to permit users to make back up copies of all kinds of digital works - not just computer programs, as is now the case.
The Register of Copyrights testified before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property on both December 12 and December 13, 2001 during oversight hearings on the “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 104 Report.” ALA was represented at the hearings by Gary Klein, Counsel, Consumer Electronics Association, testifying also on behalf of Home Recording Rights Coalition. ALA takes the position that the Copyright Office has, in the Section 104 Report and its Section 1201 anticircumvention rulemaking, significantly understated the adverse effects of the D MCA (and the technological advances it engenders) on the operation of Libraries and the exercise of “fair use” principles by end users.
Term Extension and Restoration: There are three pending court cases on the issues of term extension and restoration:
8. PRESERVATION
Strategic Directions for fiscal 2002 in the Preservation Directorate:
Preservation Research and Testing Division Projects:
CD Longevity Project:
A project is currently in progress to investigate if laser engraving on audio CD's used to mark them as Library of Congress
property has any effect on their long-term stability. A natural aging program for studying the long-term effects of routine
handling and storage on the playability of CD collections has been in progress for the past four years. This program
started initially with a sample population of 125 CD's. With the increased testing capacity now available with the new
testing system, this study population has now been increased to 625 disks, thereby substantially enhancing the confidence
level of the findings that would result from this study.
In an earlier effort to explore the use of security labels for CD's we tested a label that extended across the full face of a CD. Accelerated aging of these CD's with this label suggested that it may shorten the life of CD's. An ongoing dialog with manufacturers of security strips has resulted in at least one vastly improved option for labels that cover only the hub of the CD where no data resides.
Development of Specifications: Scientists in PR&T Division have developed three new specifications for pressure-sensitive adhesive security strips for application in the spine hollow of bound books and to text pages of bound books and pressure-sensitive adhesive security strips and cover labels for use on plastic video tape cassettes. Different surfaces often require different adhesion properties for labels that will remain attached indefinitely over the life of the item. Library of Congress specifications are available on the Preservation Directorate Website.
New Audio Disk Cleaning Solution:
After Freon solvents became unacceptable for cleaning of audio records because of their environmental impact, this Division
undertook a comparison of commercially available cleaning solutions for audio records, and recommended one of them for use.
Because of a change in the composition of this product introduced by the manufacturer, it began to grow mold within a few
months of storage. The need for a cleaning agent with a generic formula that could be controlled by the Library became
evident. A formula for an effective water-based, environmentally friendly cleaning solution that works equally well with
acetate, shellac, vinyl records and CD's has been developed and will soon be available on our Website.
Bibliography on magnetic tape:
PR&TD staff have completed an annotated bibliography on magnetic tape preservation with almost 800 citations, to be
published this bibliography in January, 2002.
New Research Proposals:
A new storage strategy for the preservation of cellulose acetate-based motion picture film is defined in a research
proposal prepared recently. A key feature of this strategy is the removal of the accumulated acetic acid from film before
it is sealed under vacuum for economic storage in freezers as compared to cold vaults which need to control the relative
humidity. Preliminary laboratory work already completed has qualitatively demonstrated the feasibility of such a storage
system. However, more quantitative laboratory data need to be produced to lend further support to this concept.
Another research proposal is in preparation at present, concerned with obtaining a better understanding of the “sticky shed” phenomenon that leads to shedding of metal oxide particles from aged tape when its stickiness results in a high degree of friction against the play head in a tape player.
9. DIGITAL PROGRAMS
American Memory Collections: The National Digital library has reached a total of over 7.5 million digital items available on the American Memory Website. At present American Memory has over 100 collections available online. In fiscal 2001, twelve new online historical collections were added to American Memory and four LC/Ameritech award-winning collections were added. Through the LC/Ameritech competition, thirty-three institutions have received $1.75 million to support twenty-three digitization projects.
Digital Security: The Office of Security continues to coordinate updates to the 1997 Security Plan. Major initiatives include the development of a digital collections security framework to ensure the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of those collections.
Web Projects: Of particular interest to MLA may be the following three projects:
Minerva Project and September 11 Web Archive: An ever-increasing amount of the world's cultural and intellectual output is presently created in digital formats and does not exist in any physical form. Such materials are colloquially described as “born digital”. This born digital realm includes open access materials on the World Wide Web. The MINERVA Web Preservation Project was established to initiate a broad program to collect and preserve these primary source materials.
The Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Internet Archive, WebArchivist.org and the Pew Internet & American Life Project, is creating a collection of digital materials called the September 11 Web Archive, available at September11.archive.org (http://150.156.112.3). The Archive preserves the Web expressions of individuals, groups, the press and institutions in the United States and from around the world in the aftermath of the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS): Launched by the Library of Congress in the spring of 2000, CDRS provides professional reference service to researchers anytime anywhere, through an international, digital network of libraries and related institutions. With a growing membership of more than 100 libraries, CDRS enables libraries to help each other serve all of their users, no matter where the users are. For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/digiref
E-Government: See below, 12. Legislative Issues.
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS): The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard is an XML schema designed for the purpose of describing digital objects in library collections. The schema provides a standard form for the recording and transmission of structural, administrative, and technical metadata. The schema is currently at the alpha draft stage, draws on the experience gained in the Making of America projects. The development of METS is an initiative of the Digital Library Federation. The Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO) is participating in the development effort and will also serve as the maintenance agency for the proposed standard.
10. NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED
(NLS)
Digital Talking Book Program: The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is actively implementing its vision to transform the NLS analog cassette talking-book program into the world's first digitally-based national program by 2007. Analog technology has served us well, but it is moving toward obsolescence and thus becoming too expensive. Users are beginning to expect their talking-book playback machines to have navigation features found in CD and DVD players and computers, such as the ability to skip sections and return to a bookmark. Toward this end, the NLS has undertaken the following steps:
Major National Outreach Campaigns: Two major public service outreach campaigns about talking books, the “Take a Talking Book” campaign for seniors and a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) series for the general public, will be mounted across the country by participating network libraries over the next three years. These campaigns represent a cooperative venture between NLS and network libraries. NLS provides materials; libraries work to make them effective
11. LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
107TH CONGRESS
Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. By paper ballot taken in October 2001, the Joint Committee on the Library members elected Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) Chairman of the JCL and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) Vice-Chairman. Other members of the Committee are: Reps. Robert Ney (R-OH), Charles Taylor (R-NC), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Jim Davis, and Sens. Charles Schumer, Mark Dayton, Ted Stevens and Thad Cochran. Sen. Mark Dayton is the new chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing.
E-Government. On May 1, 2001, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) introduced S. 803, the E-Government Act of 2001. The bill creates a government-wide Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), strengthens the existing CIO Council, and provides for more coordination of the IT components of complex inter-agency objectives like crime fighting and emergency response. The bill includes a $5 million authorization for the Library of Congress and $5 million for the National Science Foundation to create, in conjunction with other governmental and private entities, an Online National Library. The online library would provide public access to an expanding database of educational resource materials, including historical documents, photographs, audio recordings, films, and other media as appropriate, that are significant for education and research in United States history and culture.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing in July; significant differences were expressed by Office of Management and Budget regarding the appropriate organizational structure for a Chief Information Officer. Senator Stevens urged the Committee and OMB to look at the Library of Congress as a model; “they're ahead of the world in digitizing materials, and still provide access to the printed word, without doubling their budget (although it has increased).” In August, CRO attended a meeting to discuss the Online National Library and the cataloging standards sections of the legislation. No further action has been taken on the bill.
National Digital Library. The fiscal 2002 appropriations act includes $9.6 million for the National Digital Library Program (the lower Senate level), with authority for 46 FTE's. Under the House report, the Library is directed to use a phased-in approach, to enhance its ability to “implement successfully the extraordinary amount of change required” in a program of that size and scope.
Veterans' Oral History Project. H.R. 5212 [P.L. 106-380] directs the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to develop and coordinate a program to collect and preserve at the Library the audio and video recorded oral histories and documentary materials such as diaries and letters of America's war veterans. The Library has been working closely with interested groups, such as veterans organizations, to coordinate the project and make the collections available to the public, including online presentations. American Association for Retired Persons [AARP] has provided $3 million for the project, and several Members of Congress have participated in providing documentary materials and expressed strong support for the project.
Preservation of Sound Recordings. Legislation to establish a sound recording preservation program and foundation in the 106th Congress authorizes a sound recording preservation Board and Foundation for a period of seven years, and includes a directive for a comprehensive national recording preservation study and action plan. The composition of the Board and Foundation is being finalized and the Board will hold its first meeting in March 2002.
12. SPECIAL EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
National Book Festival: The Library sponsored the first National Book Festival on Sept. 8. Hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, the event attracted approximately 30,000 people to pavilions on the east lawn of the US Capitol and to the Thomas Jefferson Building and James Madison Memorial Building. The Festival featured author readings and book signings, tours of the reading rooms in the Jefferson Building, food, music and storytelling, displays of books of international interest, and a Conservation Clinic on caring for family photographs and documents.
Conference 2000 Action Plan Forum: Beacher Wiggins, Director for Cataloging, will chair the Conference 2000 Action Plan Forum in New Orleans. The forum will be a kickoff meeting for internal and external stakeholders who may undertake action items in “Bibliographic Control of Web Resources: A Library of Congress Action Plan.” This Plan stems directly from recommendations made during the Library's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, November 15-17, 2000. The Plan can be viewed on the Conference Website, which remains active at http://lcWeb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/. Comments on the plan should be directed to Judy Mansfield, chief of the Arts and Sciences Division, in writing via email at juma@loc.gov or via fax at 202-707-0973.
Currently on Exhibit:
Upcoming Exhibit: Roger L. Stevens Presents, planned for Spring 2002 in the Great Hall of the Jefferson Building, will document his contributions to American cultural history, primarily through his untiring efforts for the performing arts. His career will be seen largely through his involvement with American and European theater. The emphasis will be on the great number of stage productions of high quality, particularly legitimate drama, which were presented by, or fostered indirectly through, Stevens, for example, thorough the National Endowment for the Arts. These productions encompassed classic theatre, for example, Shakespeare, and constant exploration of modern European and American work (Giraudoux, Taylor, Inge, Williams, Pinter, Dürrenmatt, Stoppard). Other aspects of Stevens' s theatrical concerns to be covered will include his involvement with lyric theater, seen especially through longtime association with Leonard Bernstein; and his critical role in the creation of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Apart from the Kennedy Center, Stevens had a role in the development of other theater organizations including New York's Phoenix Theatre, and the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. Throughout the exhibition, Stevens's achievements will be viewed through the many productions with which he was involved and which contributed greatly to the American cultural scene.
Report prepared by Joe Bartl with the assistance of Mary Bucknum (MBRS), Vera Clyburn (MSR3), Lynn El-Hoshy (CPSO), Henry Grossi (Music Division), Catherine Hiebert Kerst (American Folklife Center), Geraldine Ostrove (CPSO), Winston Tabb's (Associate Librarian of Congress) ALA Briefing, Jan. 9, 2002, Stephen Yusko (MSR2).
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Last updated September 23, 2002