LC2003

News From the Library of Congress


MOUG / MLA 2003

 

  1. Special Materials Cataloging Division
  2. Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division
  3. Music Division
  4. Cataloging Policy and Support Office
  5. American Folklife Center
  6. General Cataloging News
  7. Copyright Office
  8. Preservation
  9. Digital Programs
  10. LC ILS
  11. Network Development & MARC Standards Office
  12. Legislative Issues–108th Congress
  13. Special Events and Exhibitions

1. SPECIAL MATERIALS CATALOGING
DIVISION (SMCD)

– Joe Bartl, MSR1, SMCD

SMCD Personnel News:

Arrearage Reduction Efforts: In CY2002 SMCD processed and removed from the arrearage 147,262 discs and tapes. The following are selected highlights:

Score cataloging: In fiscal year 2002, the MSR teams produced 2141 original core/full level bibliographic records for scores, an increase of thirty-four percent over 2001. In addition, we provided copy-cataloging for 1106 scores, and brief cataloging for 612 scores.

Drake Pamphlet Collection: In June Jungja Yoon cataloged librettos included in the Samuel Gardner Drake Pamphlet Collection, a resource collection for the history of Boston in RBSCD. The librettos are written in English for the European operas as they were first adapted and performed in Boston during early to mid 19th century.

Mariinsky Theater Project: In March 2002, Irina Kirchik joined a small contingent from the Library that visited the Mariinsky Theater Archives in St. Petersburg, Russia. The aim of this particular visit was to get an overview of their holdings of largely Russian incidental music manuscripts. The list of the incidental musical works was prepared by the staff of the Archive and contained a significant number of obscure manuscripts awaiting discovery and possible performance. In order to establish musical and literary authorship for the works on the list, Irina contacted bibliographic specialists from the St. Petersburg Theater Library where the dramatic works and librettos are currently held.

Microfilming and preservation of the most valuable operatic scores by famous European composers are key elements in the agreement between Dr. Billington and Valerii Gergiev, artistic director and principal conductor of the Mariinsky Theater.

Some photographic materials preserved at the Archive were examined by the group for possible inclusion in the December 2003 exhibition celebrating the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg at the Library of Congress.

After arrival from Russia, Irina continued to contribute to the Mariinsky Theater Archives Project. She participated in a meeting of the Music Division and the Preservation Office representatives involved in the project with the Director of Public Service Collections D. Kresh.

At this meeting she was asked to evaluate a portion of the incidental music in the Archives and summarize its possible usage (after preservation) for the Library as well as the Mariinsky Theater.

Using reference sources in Russian available in the Music Division collections, Irina compiled the list of Italian operas staged and premiered in St. Petersburg in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Mariinsky Project is in a holding pattern as both the Mariinsky Theater and the Library of Congress assess and evaluate the impact of a new Russian cultural heritage law recently signed by President Putin. The Library representatives involved in the project are hoping to send a team of LC staff to begin serious work on the project this fall.

Marion S. Carson Collection of Americana: Lenore Holm and Sharon McKinley have begun cataloging this small collection of scores (140 items) for the Rare Book Division. This collection includes 19th century American sheet music, many items of which are unique to the Library’s collection. These will be housed in the Rare Book Division with other parts of the Carson Collection.

MUSUB-L: The Music Subject Cataloging Working Group launched its listserv MUSUB-L. Membership includes all MSR 1-2-3 catalogers and team leaders, some MBRS catalogers, and CPSO. Membership has also been extended to Music Division and Folklife Center personnel. The listserv serves to broaden subject discussion and awareness and to archive these discussions, music subjects on tentative lists, and other important communications.

Old Catalog Records: Formerly referred to as “premarc” records, these bibliographic records in the LC database all carry the type code for “language material” (i.e., printed monograph) regardless of what a record may actually represent, e.g., a sound recording, a book, a score, a film. Because user-specified searching parameters, including a parameter for type code, are available in the OPAC, we have started an effort to rectify type codes, beginning with sound recordings. Following guidelines which exclude items requiring complex processing, this part-time project has changed type codes for 78 rpm discs and 33 1/3 rpm discs through 1976. When the discs are finished, the project will move on to other sound recording formats and to scores.

[Go back to top]

2. MOTION PICTURE, BROADCASTING, AND
RECORDED SOUND DIVISION (MBRS)

– Gene DeAnna, Team Leader, Recorded Sound Cataloging Team

MBRS Recorded Sound Processing 2002: Managing and refining the flow of archival recordings through the processes of acquisition, selection/prioritization, preservation, and final cataloging has been a major focus this year. Brief MARC IBC records created on the ILS by technicians that utilize barcodes to track items into the Recording Laboratory have proven useful. These records include blank note fields for engineers to add content information, notes on sound quality, and technical information about the actual transfer. End-stage processing involves a joint effort between technicians and catalogers to add the new preservation copies to the record and edit the engineer’s notes. This process, while useful, has proven awkward for tracking and physical inventory. The planned 2003 implementation of MAVIS (Merged Audio-Visual Information System), a system specifically designed to provide this kind of inventory functionality, is expected to provide the kind of internal collection control needed by MBRS. Once implemented, MAVIS will be the staff only, in-house inventory system for audio, while the LC-ILS will continue to be the OPAC. Conversion programs to migrate data between the two systems are currently being developed.

Highlights of Archival Audio Collections Preserved and Cataloged in 2002:

[Go back to top]

3. MUSIC DIVISION

– Henry J. Grossi, Reader Services

Music Division Personnel News:
Henry J. Grossi, appointed acting head, Reader Services
Wayne Shirley, music specialist, retired
Catherine Dixon, appointed music specialist/reference librarian
Denise Gallo, appointed music specialist/reference librarian
Karen Moses, appointed music specialist/reference librarian
Stephanie Poxon, appointed music specialist/reference librarian

New Collections:
Adolph Bolm Collection: 400 items
Katherine Dunham Collection: 1,000 items
Andre Previn Collection: 6,000 items [deposit]
Romberg Orchestra Library: 33,000 items
Leonard P. Smith Collection: 115, 000 items

Additions to Existing Collections:
Ballets Russes Collection (Manuscripts and papers of choreographer Serge Grigoriev): 300 items
Ernest Bloch/Suzanne Bloch Collection: 31,000 items
Jerome Kern Collection: 300 items
Moldenhauer Archives (Handel, G.F.: copyist's manuscript score for Ottone, Tamerlano, & Floridante, c. 1720.): 1 item

World premieres and commissions:
Ellen Taffe Zwilich. Romance (McKim Commission, 4/16/2002)
Andy Teirstein. Uneasy Dances. (Choreography by Liz Lerman, 10/17/2002)

[Go back to top]

4. CATALOGING POLICY AND SUPPORT OFFICE (CPSO)

-- Geraldine Ostrove, Cataloging Policy and Support Office

Descriptive Cataloging

AACR2 2002 Revision: The Library of Congress implemented the 2002 revision of the 2nd edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules on December 1, 2002. Revised Library of Congress Rule Interpretations were published and are available in Cataloger's Desktop or as printed copies. A summary of significant changes that will be seen in LC's bibliographic and authority records is posted on the CPSO public Web site, http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/.

MCDs and LCRIs: A project is underway to merge the Music Cataloging Decisions into the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations. Some updating is being done along the way. When the project is done, all subsequent commentary for music cataloging will appear as LCRIs.

Subject Cataloging

LCSH: Two long-term projects involving Library of Congress Subject Headings were completed. Authority records to control the more than 3,200 free-floating subdivisions in the LCSH have now been created and distributed to subscribers. The records represent topical, form, and chronological subdivisions that can be combined with main headings according to rules to create precoordinated subject heading strings in cataloging records. The records provide subdivision usage information for catalogers and can be used by cataloging systems to validate assigned subject headings. Plans call for including information on free-floating subdivisions from the records in an expanded introduction to the next printed edition of LCSH. CPSO has also posted “Subdivision Authority Records (18X),” which includes examples, at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/subdauth.html. Since 1999, information on the form of geographic subdivisions has been included in all newly established or revised geographic subject headings that are also authorized for use as subdivisions. The project to add this data retrospectively to approximately 20,000 existing geographic subject headings was completed at the end of the year. Authorization for use of the heading as a geographic subdivision is carried in MARC21 linking field 781; if the geographic heading is not authorized for use as a geographic subdivision, the proscription appears in a 667 field.

Subject headings for music materials: We began to add authorization for geographic subdivision routinely to new headings for musical forms and types, and to add it retrospectively as we encountered such headings in the course of our work. When establishing a new musical instrument, we began to also create at the same time a heading for its music. That heading enables the instrument to be immediately available for use as a medium of performance in headings for musical works, even if that was not what initially prompted establishing the instrument. Also, the 360 note in those records indicates the plural form, if any, of the instrument’s name.

New headings added over the past year include approximately 20 for brands and models of electronic instruments, authorized under a new policy reflected in the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings H 1918 Musical Instruments. Some other new headings were: Accordion in art, Alternative metal (Music), Art in music, Beguines (Music), Carols--Accompaniments, Christian rap (Music), Chromaticism (Music), Cool jazz, Country gospel music, Crying in music, Dolceola, Entartete Musik, Free reed instruments, Glass as a musical instrument; Glass harmonica music, New wave musicians, Pedal clavichord, Remixes, Simhat Torah music, Soca, Sound recordings–Remixing, Theater organ, Trad jazz, Turntablism, Turntablists, and Women musicologists. Representative changes were: 


		From:				To:
	Bagpipe–Reeds			Bagpipe reeds
	Bass guitar–Instruction and study	Bass guitar–Harmonics
		–Harmonics
	Bow (Stringed instruments)		Stringed instrument bows
	Bugle-calls			Bugle calls
	Campanologists			Bell ringers
	Children’s musical compositions		Music by child composers
	Clarinet–Fingering charts		Clarinet–Fingering–Charts, diagrams, etc.
	Coaches (Music)			Vocal coaches
	Damba (Dance drumming)		Damba (Drum)
	Electronic percussion instruments	Drum machine
	Frottole				Frottolas (Music)
	Guiro (Scraper)			Guiro
	Guiro (Scraper) music		Guiro music
	Motet				Motets–History and criticism
	Music–Arab countries–Theory		Music theory–Arab countries
	Musical instruments, Electronic		Electronic musical instruments
	Musical instruments for the		Musical instruments for people with
		handicapped			disabilities
	Musico-callisthenics			Exercise music
	Oboe–Reeds			Oboe reeds
	Part-songs				Part songs
	Pianocorder (Reproducing system)	Pianocorder
	Sacred duets [trios, etc.]		Sacred vocal duets [vocal trios, etc.]
	School songbooks, Catholic		Catholic school songbooks
	Suites (Piano and organ)		Suites (Organ and piano)
	Tablature (Musical notation)		Tablature (Music)
	Thorough bass			Continuo
	Variation (Music)			Variations–History and criticism
	Variations (Vocal)			headings of the type:
					Variations (Voice...), and,
					Variations (Chorus...)
	Violin bow				Violin bows
	Violin–Instruction and study		Violin–Positions
		–Positions

CPSO receives occasional queries from those of you who consult our catalog over the Web and notice that we may be behind in bibliographic file maintenance as a result of subject heading changes. Because we have only a very small staff to do it, changes that involve many records can take longer than we might like to complete.

LC Classification: LC implemented subclass KBP, Islamic Law on January 20, 2003. Subclass KBP is the most recent of the religious law schedules to be added to the forthcoming hard copy publication of KB subclasses: KB (Comparative religious law), KBM (Jewish law), KBP (Islamic law), KBR/KBU (Canon law). The P schedules in Classification Web have now been reconfigured so that they work properly with the “enhanced” and “hierarchy” browsers. Users can now run either the “standard,” “enhanced,” or “hierarchy” browsers with class P and all of its subclasses, as well as with all of the other LC classes. A cumulation of class M, whose most recent printed edition is dated 1998, is in progress. It will have a new outline and will include virtually all obsolete classes, thereby providing access to a large quantity of material on the shelves that cannot now be identified by class number except by consulting previous editions of the schedule. Class M is likely to be the last printed schedule published by the Cataloging Distribution Service. The online version of LCC, available as Classification Web, is now the authoritative one.

[Go back to top]

5. AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER

– Catherine Hiebert Kerst,
Folklife Specialist, American Folklife Center

During 2002, the American Folklife Center was reorganized to create a collections processing unit to work specifically with Archive of Folk Culture collections. The Center also received nine new staff positions both for its Veterans History Project and for on-going processing work to help address the Archive’s large processing arrearage.

Save Our Sounds Recorded Heritage Preservation Project: Using 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 has continued to make good progress in restoring, preserving, and digitizing endangered sound recordings held by the American Folklife Center and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution. For the American Folklife Center’s Save Our Sounds project, processing work during 2002 continues on eight collections, including 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, the Zuni Storytelling Collection, the Pearl Harbor Collection, and the Don Yoder Collection, consisting of wire recordings of Pennsylvania German folklore and music.

Veterans History Project: On October 27, 2000, the U.S. Congress mandated the Veterans History Project, a new national collection of oral history accounts of America’s war veterans. Since that date, the Project has distributed approximately one hundred thousand project kits which provide guidelines, sample questions and release forms for conducting oral history interviews with veterans. During 2002, there were over 3200 project submissions to the collection. The Veterans History Project’s website includes a wide variety of information about the project’s outreach activities, workshops, and partners associated with it. http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/ On May 14, 2002, a new searchable collections database was unveiled, which will enable comprehensive archival tracking of all the documentary materials received, as well as subject access to this large collection.

September 11, 2001, Documentary Project: On September 12, 2001, the Center launched a project to collect public reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11 in the form of audio-taped interviews and other forms of documentation for preservation in the Archive of Folk Culture. The collection, entitled the “September 11, 2001, Documentary Project Collection.” is currently available through our website by going to: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/nineeleven/nineelevenhome.html The September 11 Project was modeled after a similar initiative from sixty years earlier, when Alan Lomax, then head of the Archive of American Folk Song, issued an urgent request to folklorists to collect “man on the street” reactions to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war by the United States. As of December 13, 2002, this collection has also been added to our website and may be accessed under the title, After the Day of Infamy: “Man-on-the-Street” Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html

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 in the Archive of Folk Culture. During 2002, three new processing technicians were hired. In the next year, we look forward to filling several new positions, including a reference specialist and an additional cataloger, in the Center. At the end of 2002, a total of twenty-four of the Center’s collections were in various stages of processing.

Ethnographic Thesaurus Project: A joint project of the American Folklife Center and the American Folklore Society, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ethnographic Thesaurus Project seeks to create a major new reference tool to address the subject access needs of archivists in making multi-format ethnographic materials accessible to researchers and the public. This year, the project hired a researcher, based at George Mason University; surveyed potential users; selected and tested software; and reviewed and enhanced an existing proto-thesaurus.

Significant 2002 Acquisitions:

Public Programs: During 2002, the American Folklife Center hosted several lectures and also inaugurated the Homegrown Concert Series, which brought back the popular traditional ethnic and regional music and dance concerts held on the front steps of the Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, not presented for several years. With this series, we are pleased that audio and sound recordings of the concerts and interviews with the wide variety of performing artists at these events will once again become part of the Archive’s collections.

[Go back to top]

6. GENERAL CATALOGING NEWS

Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT): The Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) celebrated its 10th anniversary in November. BEAT is a Cataloging Directorate initiative aimed at developing tools to aid catalogers, reference specialists, and searchers in creating and locating information. Major components of the team’s work are enriching the content of Library of Congress bibliographic records, improving access to the data the records contain, and conducting research and development in areas that can contribute to furthering these efforts. The team’s membership represents a wide spectrum of the Library's functions reflecting the Cataloging Directorate's desire to provide benefits from its projects to as wide an audience as possible and to incorporate within its program objectives the needs and interests of various constituencies beyond those of technical services.

Additional information regarding BEAT and its work may be found at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat Questions about BEAT or its projects may be directed to the BEAT Chair, John D. Byrum, Jr., Chief Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, Library of Congress, at jbyr@loc.gov.

From among the more than two dozen ongoing activities of the team at the present time, here are presented several projects demonstrating how BEAT reaches the objectives discussed above.

Cataloging in Publication (CIP): In order to encourage electronic submission of CIP galleys during the Library’s embargo of U.S. Postal Service mail after anthrax was detected on Capitol Hill last fall, the CIP Division eased the requirements for participation in ECIP, Electronic Cataloging in Publication. The number of publishers participating in ECIP more than doubled, from 1,066 in fiscal 2001 to 2,222 at the end of fiscal 2002. More than a third of all CIP galleys–-18,082 out of 53,733 galleys in all--were submitted electronically in fiscal 2002, making ECIP cataloging one of the directorate’s principal workflows.

American Memory cataloging: The Computer Files and Microforms Team cataloged twenty National Digital Library American Memory sites in Fiscal 2002 including the following:

Electronic Resources Cataloging: In a pilot training project for senior catalogers, including one music and sound recording cataloger, to catalog electronic resources, four catalogers were detailed to the Computer Files and Microforms Team for 120 days each. Training for the cataloging of remote-access digital resources at the core level was easily achieved using the OCLC Web-based educational course, Cataloging Internet Resources Using MARC 21 and AACR2. A cataloger with excellent descriptive cataloging skills can typically become independent in about three weeks after completing the course and working under the review of a senior cataloger with electronic resources expertise. Learning to catalog direct-access digital resources, such as CD-ROMs, is much harder and requires more training, and for this reason the detailed catalogers were trained to do minimal level cataloging rather than core level for direct-access resources.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC): NUCMC staff produced 3,700 RLIN bibliographic records describing collections held by repositories located throughout the United States. In addition to local, regional, and state historical societies, the NUCMC Team produced cataloging for a variety of special focus repositories including, under the heading of performing arts, Boston University Dept. of Special Collections and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging–NACO: In Fiscal 2002 NACO expanded with the training of seventeen new NACO libraries, the retraining of eleven libraries, and the creation of three new funnel projects (Mississippi Project, Mountain West Project, and the Minnesota Funnel Project) that collectively added twenty-seven new member institutions. There are now a total number of 223 libraries participating in 19 NACO funnel projects. Several studies measured the cost-benefits of NACO and the reduced LC expenditures resulting from more documentation being freely available to participants on the PCC Website. In order to manage the growth of NACO the PoCo approved numerical goals (100 new and/or updated records for small libraries; 200 new and/or updated records for large libraries). Also approved was the need for a designated “back-up” NACO contact at each institution to assure continuity. The Secretariat issued letters to institutions whose annual production has fallen under the new quotas. The letters stated that the new parameters are being applied to current members and offered alternatives for continued participation. NACO institutions have one year in which to comply with the new regulations. In other developments, Judy Kuhagen, CPSO updated the series training materials to reflect the new AACR2 revisions and a website for the electronic delivery of these materials to training sites was developed as well as a the counterpart site for trainers.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging–SACO: SACO, the component of the PCC for subject authority work, profited from accelerated handling of LCSH subject proposals. The major innovation was making interactive subject proposal forms available on the PCC Website. This year contributions to LCSH from PCC libraries exceed the number of subject headings developed by LC staff. The growth of SACO participation prompted the PoCo to approve the formation of a task group to draft membership criteria and to examine the impact of folding the SACO Program into a structured component of the PCC. Currently, SACO members are not represented on the PoCo nor is there a training curriculum to mirror the NACO/CONSER/BIBCO components. SACO plays an essential role in the PCC and it is time to examine and analyze a mechanism to further develop its potential.

[Go back to top]

7. COPYRIGHT OFFICE

Eldred v. Ashcroft: The most important copyright case in the last year was the appeal to the Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft. Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) during the 105th Congress. The CTEA extended the maximum duration of the copyright term from the life of the author plus 50 years to life plus 70 years (for works made for hire, anonymous or pseudonymous works, 20 years was added, resulting in 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first).

The plaintiffs initially filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against former Attorney General Janet Reno seeking a declaration that the CTEA is unconstitutional. The District Court granted summary judgment and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed, both finding the CTEA to be a constitutional exercise of congressional authority under the Copyright Clause.

The Supreme Court accepted certiorari in the case on two questions:

  1. Did the Court of Appeals err in holding that Congress has the power under the Copyright Clause to extend retrospectively the term of existing copyrights?
  2. Is a law that extends the term of existing and future copyrights “categorically immune from challenge” under the First Amendment?

The oral arguments were held on October 9, 2002. The Solicitor General of the United States, Theodore Olson, argued the case for the government and Professor Lawrence Lessig argued for the Petitioners. On January 15, 2003, the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision affirmed the D.C. Court of Appeals decision. Therefore, it determined that the CTEA was constitutional. The opinion is posted on the Copyright Office's Website. http://www.copyright.gov

Anticircumvention Rulemaking: On October 15, 2002, the Copyright Office published a Notice of Inquiry in the Federal Register initiating the second triennial anticircumvention rulemaking proceeding. In this notice, the Office explained the scope of the rulemaking and provided the dates for initial comments that would propose classes of works for exemption from the prohibition on circumvention of technological measures that protect access to copyrighted works and for reply comments that would respond to these initial proposals, either in support or opposition.

The initial comment period closed on December 18, 2002, and the Office received fifty comments that were posted on the Copyright Office’s website on December 20th. In addition to again accepting comments electronically, in this rulemaking, the Office created a Web-based submission form which allowed commenters to fill in the required information and attach their comment to the form electronically. A new form will be placed on the Office’s website on January 21, 2003, for the submission of reply comments. The reply comments may be submitted until February 19, 2003. The Office then intends to hold hearings on proposals this Spring. The final decision by the Librarian of Congress is due by October 28, 2003. Further information on rulemaking as well as the entire record of the previous anticircumvention rulemaking are available on the Copyright Office’s website at: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (the Teach Act): The Teach Act became law on November 2, 2002. It implements the Copyright Office’s recommendations delivered to Congress in a 1999 study on Digital Distance Education mandated by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That report recommended amending the law to encompass digital distance education. An important part of the recommendations, however, was to add safeguards to counteract new risks encountered when works are transmitted in digital form.

Senators Hatch and Leahy introduced S. 487 on March 7, 2001, and shortly thereafter held a hearing. Following the hearing, the Copyright Office was asked to facilitate negotiations between the parties. As a result, a consensus bill that is balanced and sound passed the Senate on June 7, 2001, and the House in the fall of 2002.

Sections 110(2) and 112 of the copyright law have been amended to cover online systematic mediated instructional activities carried out by accredited nonprofit educational institutions. All works, except those produced or marketed primarily for performance or display as part of mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks, are included. The performance or display must be made by or at the direction of, or under the actual supervision of, an instructor as an integral part of a class session. Reception is limited to students officially enrolled in the course.

Additionally, institutions must apply technological measures that reasonably prevent retention of the work in accessible form for longer than the class session and prevent any unauthorized further dissemination of the work in accessible form by others. Institutions must put policies in place to promote faculty, student and staff compliance with copyright law. There are a number of additional and complex provisions. For a full explanation of the various provisions, see the House and Senate reports that accompanied this legislation. See e.g., Senate Report 107-31 (Committee on the Judiciary, June 5, 2001).

[Go back to top]

8. PRESERVATION

The following represent major preservation initiatives for sound recordings and film. The many other preservation efforts for print materials, photographs and prints, and digital materials can be found at http://www.loc.gov/ala/an03-update.html

Preservation of Sound Recordings: The 106th Congress passed legislation that established a sound recording preservation program and authorized a Sound Recording Preservation Board and Foundation for a period of seven years: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.4846. The legislation requires the Board to develop a comprehensive national recording preservation study and action plan. The Board and Foundation met in March 2002, and in November the Board discussed entries for the first National Sound Recording Registry of historically, culturally and aesthetically significant American sound recordings. The initial Registry selections can be viewed at the following address: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2003/03-014.html

Preservation/MBRS Working Group: The Preservation/MBRS Working Group continued to meet to address issues regarding the preservation of sound recordings, films and videotapes. The group accomplished much this year including the design and production of archival sleeves for sound discs, and the development of a revised specification for a plastic can and a new specification for a stainless steel film can. Examples of these will be tested in the coming months. Specifications for both types can be found at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/supply/specific.html

National Audio Visual Conservation Center: Planning for the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) in Culpeper, Virginia, broadened to include not only ongoing design consultation for the architectural and engineering team, but also program, business, and preservation production planning for the overall Culpeper operations. A Program and Vision Statement for the NAVCC was prepared in March. During the summer, an investment and program cost model and detailed cost requirements for the entire facility across a five-year period were drafted. In other work, the MBRS Temporary Audio-Visual Storage Center, Elkwood, Virginia, a 36,000 square foot storage facility, was acquired by the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) for the temporary storage of the film and video materials previously stored in the Culpeper facility, until the completion of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. PHI expenditure for this facility exceeded $1 million. All remaining nitrate collections were packed and removed from the film vault located at the Suitland Federal Record Center to the Motion Picture Conservation Center at Dayton, Ohio.

The Recorded Sound Processing Unit developed a workflow system with the MBRS Recording Laboratory in which all recordings preserved receive initial bibliographic control in the ILS before preservation and complete records after preservation. There was no systematic program for control of preservation work until this project was developed. The system was further developed to include creation of METS records for the collections digitally preserved.

The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division acquired the Prelinger Collection of 48,000 educational, industrial, and advertising films and independent productions from the 1930s-60s and the Daniel P. Moynihan video collection, 900 videocassettes that were part of the Senator Daniel P. Moynihan papers.

The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division continued to participate in such key organizations as the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Association of Moving Image Archivists, International Federation of Film Archives, International Federation of Television Archives, Music Libraries Association, Audio Engineers Society, and National Television and Video Preservation Foundation. For the first time, staff members were appointed to serve on each of the three formal commissions (Technical, Cataloging and Documentation, and Access) of the International Federation of Film Archives. NBC News gave the Library authorization to mount all NBC Radio Collection news broadcasts on the Library's Web pages.

The Audio-Visual Digital Prototyping Project refined a digital object metadata system that captured METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard) digital-object metadata in Oracle and Java application hosted on the Library's servers. Java tools produced the XML output from the database. More than 500 METS digital objects were added to the database.

National Film Board and Foundation: New initiatives for the National Preservation Boards and Foundations this year included the National Film Registry Website. The National Recording Preservation Board convened for the first time in March 2002. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division laid the groundwork for an Internet-based Moving Image Gateway, a collaborative project of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and the Library of Congress. A $900,000 National Science Foundation grant, announced in September, would fund the two-year development of the Web portal (now known as MIC [Moving Image Collections]), which would eventually be hosted by the Library of Congress.

National Recording Preservation Board: The inaugural meeting of the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) was held at the Library of Congress on March 12, 2002. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington welcomed the 20 Board members in attendance, outlined the broad objectives of the National Recording Preservation Act, and introduced Marilyn Bergman, President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP, as the new NRPB chair. The bulk of the day's discussion was devoted to two key topics: establishing selection criteria and procedures for the National Recording Registry, and identifying field-wide issues and needs to be addressed in the Recording Preservation Study and Report. A consultant, appointed by the Librarian, will be hired shortly to conduct the study and report, which will identify crucial components of the National Sound Recording Preservation Program. As a follow-up to the meeting, the Library established a NRPB Website and electronic discussion list (“listserv”) to facilitate on-going dialogue among Board members. See http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/

Save our Sounds: The American Folklife Center’s audio-preservation project Save Our Sounds has received a major grant from the Rockefeller Foundation of $250,000. The grant, which will be shared with the Smithsonian Institution, ensures that the two organizations will match and thus receive federal monies appropriated under the Save America’s Treasures Program, now administered by the National Park Service in cooperation with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The project draws from Save America’s Treasures funds. The overarching goal is to save Smithsonian and LC collections and also come up with standards to guide preservation of sound recordings. To date, LC has raised its match of $285,000 [$570,00] (the total award was $750,000). The Library has chosen various format collections for preservation demonstration: e.g., wires, discs, etc., working with the Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division and others to preserve the originals and digitize. To contribute and for more information, see http://www.loc.gov/folklife/sos/

Audio-Visual Digital Preservation Prototyping Project: The Library of Congress is developing a library-wide digital repository that will preserve every type of digital content for which the Library takes responsibility, including reformatted and born-digital audio-visual collections. Since audio-visual materials raise unique issues in repository design, the Library's MBRS Division has undertaken an Audio-Visual Digital Preservation Prototyping Project as part of the general planning for the construction of the digital infrastructure within the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center to be constructed in Culpeper, Virginia. The combination of the MBRS AV Prototyping Project and the Library-wide repository development effort provides a platform for testing the latest technologies in creating, preserving, storing and providing access to audio-visual formats. This collaboration is experimenting with new approaches for reformatting historical materials in digital form, receiving and processing “born-digital” recorded sound and moving image collections, exploring how digital materials may be stored and thus preserved, and testing new ways to present them to researchers. Access to the digital sound recordings, television and video titles and, eventually, film materials in the repository will be provided by a storage area network with nodes in Culpeper and on Capitol Hill connected by fiber optic links that serve the Library's reading rooms.

During recent months, the MBRS Digital Culpeper project continued to define the digital object production and ingest functions, while also conducting feasibility tests on the metadata software packages that will accompany these digital objects. Digital preservation prototyping continued to be performed on specific audio-visual samples from the collections of MBRS and the Library's American Folklife Center. More information is available at:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/avprot/avprhome.html;
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/avprot/projover0103/index.htm; and
http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/metadata.html.

[Go back to top]

9. DIGITAL PROGRAMS

NDIIPP: In September 2002, the Library held several briefings for our appropriations and oversight staff on the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Policy strategic plan. The plan develops a national strategy for collecting and preserving digital information. Congress specified that $5 million of the roughly $100 million appropriated for this project could be spent during the initial phase for planning and emergency acquisitions.

After consultation with the Joint Committee on the Library, the plan was submitted to the House and Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittees, the Committee on House Administration, and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for approval. The plan, which has been approved by the committees, requests release of $35 million of the $100 million to continue research to advance development of a national preservation infrastructure. The committees thanked the Library for its collaborative efforts in spearheading the nationwide effort.

For more information, see http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndiipp/

MINERVA: The Library of Congress' mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. 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. MINERVA has had significant achievements during the past year. Four major web collections have been undertaken in partnership with the Internet Archive which has provided the technical expertise on Website collecting. The September 11th Web Collection, consisting of over 30,000 Websites and 331 million objects, premiered during September 2002 and is accessible at http://september11.archive.org/. Also during the past year, Website collecting operations have been completed for three collections (Winter Olympics 2002, September 11th Remembrance, and Election 2002). Cataloging and preparations to provide collection access at the Library is in process for all four of these collections.

These four collections have provided the MINERVA team, a multidisciplinary team of Library staff representing cataloging, legal, public services, and technology services, with a broad spectrum of challenges during the past year on the best methods to evaluate, select, collect, catalog, provide access to, and preserve Website materials for future Website collection activities.

The MINERVA team is collaborating with the Internet Archive (Alexa) and new groups, SUNY and the University of Washington to expand the project. The latter are assisting in identifying content and in using tools of their design [metadata database] to assign metadata descriptions to the Websites collected. This metadata database will be used to search, retrieve and analyze the archived collection of Websites.

DIGITAL REFERENCE: The Digital Reference Team handles reference support for the digital collections and spearheads the Library’s digital reference initiative. With the inauguration of Question Point in June 2002, the team provides both text-based and chat services via access from the Library’s website and continues to build the knowledge base that is available to QP member libraries and the global network. To this end the team has answered 5,600 inquires in the last six months.

Additionally the Digital Reference Team is the public interface for the Library’s digital collections. The team designs and presents demonstrations, onsite workshops, and video conferences to members of Congress, distinguished guests of the Library, visiting scholars, and educators. Opportunities for video conferencing and webcasting are continually expanding with over 2,100 educators and students participating in 58 video conferences in the past year. Working with the Center for the Book, the team is responsible for creating and updating the “Read More about It” selections targeted for general readers and younger students. The Virtual Programs and Services page at http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/ further outlines the activities of the team.

QUESTIONPOINT: Significant QuestionPoint developments include the following:

[Go back to top]

10. LC ILS
(Integrated Library System)

Expanding access and improving service: for external users of the Library of Congress Database. The Library has initiated an effort designed to increase the number of external users of the Library of Congress Online Catalog (catalog.loc.gov) as well as Z39.50 access to the LC Database. The Library expects to raise the number of OPAC and Z39.50 users gradually over the first few months of 2003.

Upgrades: The Library successfully upgraded its integrated library management system in February, 2002 to the 2000.1.3 version of the Voyager software. The Library intends to upgrade to the 2001.2 version of Voyager in May, 2003. Planning has also begun for the implementation of the Unicode standard for LC’s MARC 21 bibliographic, holdings, and authority records. The first step is a test conversion of a full copy of the LC Database to Unicode in January, 2003. Current plans call for LC to implement the Unicode Release of the Voyager software in the summer of 2003.

Library of Congress Authorities: The Library has established this new service, http://www.authorities.loc.gov to provide free access to LC’s authority data via the Web. This service was made available on a trial basis on July 1, 2002. During the trial period, the Library sought feedback from users worldwide to assist in evaluating the service. User response was overwhelmingly positive. Based on user feedback, the Library made improvements to LC Authorities and decided to offer this free service on a permanent basis. The Library welcomes comments from users, which should be sent via email to ils@loc.gov.

Auxiliary software and functionality: In 2002, the Library implemented the use of BatchCat for certain database maintenance tasks. LC also implemented the first e-commerce activity by taking advantage of EDI capabilities for accepting electronic invoices from two of LC's largest subscription agents; testing is underway with a third supplier. The Library has begun using the claiming functionality in Acquisition/Check-in on a limited basis, with expansion planned for the autumn of 2003.

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS): In early 2003 the NLS will migrate its database to LC’s ILS environment. The NLS Database is scheduled to be available via the Web in February, 2003.

[Go back to top]

11. NETWORK DEVELOPMENT
AND MARC STANDARDS OFFICE
(NDMSO)

The following are abbreviated descriptions of LC involvement in maintaining, developing, or researching digital and metadata standards:

ZING: Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO) has begun development of Z39.50 International Next Generation (ZING). The Library of Congress has organized this ZING initiative to evolve Z39.50 to a web platform protocol that will be attractive to information providers, vendors, and users.

Z39.50 Gateway: LC’s WWW/Z39.50 Gateway now contains more than 500 databases on 400 servers; 145 of the databases listed are non-U.S., from over 20 other countries. Servers of over eighteen different library system vendors are represented.

Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS): NDMSO staff participated in the development of the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema for creating XML documents that express the hierarchical structure of digital library objects, the names and locations of the digital files that comprise those objects, and the associated metadata. NDMSO is the maintenance agency for the METS standard which is being taken up by many digital library projects, worldwide. The official METS website was established at the Library http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets

MARCXML: NDMSO has developed a new XML Schema and toolkit (MARCXML) for working with MARC metadata in XML. It provides a flexible “bus” through which metadata can be transformed and manipulated. Users can now convert MARC data to and from various descriptive metadata standards such as Dublin Core, ONIX, and NDMSO’s Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). MARCXML can easily be used to display MARC records on the web in HTML. The toolkit is being developed in a modular fashion while emphasizing the use and promotion of freely available open-source tools.

Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS): In December the trial use period for the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) completed and version 2.0 of the schema is now out for review. It is a lightweight version of MARC using language based tags rather than numeric ones (e.g. “Title” rather than “245”), that is intended to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as supporting original resource description records. It targets applications that require richer resource descriptions than simple Dublin Core but not as complex as full MARC.

MARC 21: The harmonization of the MARC 21 format with UKMARC was completed with agreement among MARC 21 users and UKMARC users to changes to MARC 21. This is a major milestone for catalog sharing and efficient interoperability with the UK and other users of UKMARC. The 2002 updates for MARC 21 were published in December 2002. For the January 2003 MARBI meeting 3 Discussion Papers and 2 Proposals were prepared and put on the agenda.

[Go back to top]

12. LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
108TH CONGRESS

Fair Use/Copyright Piracy: A number of bills were introduced late in the 107th Congress, none of which were taken up and passed, that would effect the statutory limits of fair use of copyrighted materials. Some or all of these concepts will be reintroduced during the 108th Congress:

Film Preservation: The National Film Preservation program, including the National Film Registry, was last reauthorized in 1996 [P.L. 104-285]. The current authorization expires during the 108th Congress, in October 2003. The Library will be asking Congress to reauthorize the program for a 10-year period. The program is still needed, and in fact will become more important as the Library proceeds to relocate its audio/visual collections and preservation efforts to the National Audio Visual Conservation Center at Culpeper, Va. Some amendments to the current authorization are necessary to move the program into the digital age and dovetail the film preservation efforts with the recently authorized sound preservation program.

[Go back to top]

13. SPECIAL EVENTS AND
EXHIBITIONS

Currently on Exhibit:

[Go back to top]

News From LC Contributors:
 
Report prepared by Joe Bartl with the assistance of Vera Clyburn (MSR3), Stephen Yusko
(MSR2), Eugene DeAnna (MBRS), Henry Grossi (Music Division), Catherine Hiebert Kerst
(American Folklife Center), and Geraldine Ostrove (CPSO).
 
Much of the general Library information in this year’s News was abstracted from the LC
midwinter report to ALA. For more comprehensive information, please see the July–December
2002 ALA Update: http://www.loc.gov/ala/an03-update.html.

Return to 2003 Documents Menu
Return to BCC Historical Documents Menu
Return to BCC Home Page

Last updated May 17, 2003