BCC2004/Auth/5

Authorities Subcommittee
2004 Annual Report

Members: Marlena Frackowski (Chair), Richard Burbank, Brad Eden, Candice Feldt, Jean Harden, Michi Hoban, Nancy Sack, Margaret Kaus, Ralph Papakhian, David Sommerfield, (LC Rep.).

The business meeting of the BCC Authorities Subcommittee was held on Feb. 12, 2004 in Washington, D.C, and the open meeting was held as part of a joint Authorities/MARC Subcommittee meeting the next day.

Agenda for the business meeting included highlights of ACIG and MRC meetings at ALA Midwinter in San Diego, and discussion on issues of current interest, such as non-English collective titles that Subcommittee members felt that should be formulated in English and not in other languages (ex.: Schubert, Franz, 1797-1828. Liederzyklen). As it is not entirely, if at all, an authority control issue, the matter has to be referred to Descriptive Cataloging Subcommittee for a further consideration. Another issue that has been raised pertains to an apparent need for clear guidelines, by means of appropriate RI, for author-title cross references in authority record for works with shared responsibility. This issue was raised by the NACO Program participants, and has been discussed informally with LC that basically rebuked the idea. The Subcommittee members decided to pursue this matter nevertheless. A draft proposal will be prepared to address the basically reluctant LC stance on the issue. Another problem discussed was that of 100/240 connectivity, or rather disconnectedness, between the two fields as experienced by some local online systems. This issue will be referred to the MARC Subcommittee for further consideration. A special attention was given to a long-standing idea of inclusion of public notes in name authority records that would perform a function similar to that of 680 explanatory notes in the subject authority records. Apparently, such inclusion is technically possible but practically “discouraged” from making. Ralph Papakhian works on a proposal that includes justification and general guidelines for constructing such a note. After the proposal is ready, it will go to BCC for imprimatur before it is presented to CPSO for the approval. In conclusion of the meeting, the Subcommittee discussed the Mickey Koth’s idea to use Types of Composition document as a tool to assist the vendors with developing a suite of standard automatic flips that might improve the quality of the automated authority control services.

The Authorities section of the Open Meeting held on February 13, 2004, included the Chair’s report on liaison activities to Authority Control in the Online Environment Interest Group (ACIG) and Media Resources Committee meetings in San Diego, as well as Jim Zychowicz and Mickey Koth’s presentation on Music Cataloging Bulletin Online product that went public in January 2004.

Since the MLA Annual Conference in Washington, the Subcommittee kept working on developing further the proposal to include public notes in NAF records, however, the work is not finished yet and no definite results could be reported at this time. The highlights from Chair’s liaison report from ALA Annual in Orlando (June 2004) include information about an apparent demise of Media Resources Committee. It came as a surprise to some of the members and associates (including MLA liaison) but apparently, the Committee was not able to re-establish itself either as an interest group or a discussion group within ALA ALCTS formal structure and its members decided that this committee is merely a relic of the past, therefore should be disbanded. On the other hand, the LITA/ALCTS—CCS Authority Control in the Online Environment Interest Group (ACIG) held very interesting and productive session on emerging trends in subject authority control that included presentations by authority control luminaries such as Barbara Tillett from Library of Congress, Edward T. ONeill from OCLC, or John Attig from Pennsylvania State University, among others.

Submitted by Marlena Frackowski

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Last updated January 29, 2005