BCC2005/SAS/1
ALCTS CCS Subject Analysis Committee Report
ALA Midwinter Conference, Boston, January 2005
Submitted by Mark McKnight, Chair, Subject Access Subcommittee
of the MLA Bibliographic Control Committee
The following report represents selected coverage of topics from the SAC meetings in Boston, January 16-17, 2005
1. LC report (Lynn El-Hoshy)
LC NEWS
Library Services Service Unit Realignment. In July 2004 Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, announced that in order to streamline processes and emphasize collections there would be new reporting lines for the top levels of management within Library Services. There are now five directorates: Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access (ABA); Collections and Services; Partnerships and Outreach Programs; Preservation; and Technology Policy. The new ABA directorate merges acquisitions and cataloging functions, which had previously been separate; it now also includes the Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) and the Instructional Design and Training Division (IDTD—formerly the Technical Processing and Automation Instruction Office). The ABA director is Beacher Wiggins, who is also the acting assistant director for Acquisitions. Former director of Acquisitions, Nancy Davenport, retired from the Library in July. Judith A. Mansfield serves as assistant director for Bibliographic Access, in conjunction with her duties as chief of the Arts and Sciences Cataloging Division.
LC ILS (Integrated Library System). During 2004 the ILS Program Office continued to expand access and improve services to users by implementing new systems to organize and manage licensing data for the Library’s electronic resources; add searching functionality; and examine and improve access to collections. These efforts were effected by the transition from a single integrated, commercial off-the-shelf product (COTS), Voyager, to multiple COTS products, in order to increase access to the Library’s ever-expanding digital collections. ILS acquired the OpenURL software SFX from Ex Libris, Inc., which offers the new feature called Find It!, which should be made available during the first quarter of 2005. LC is also working to make its metadata available for systems that rely on Z39.50 search protocol.
Cataloging. The Bibliographic Access Management Team (BAMT) has been drafting new Bibliographic Access Strategic Goals and Initiatives for fiscal years 2005-2006. The plan comprises five strategic goals:
In October it was announced that LC had completed its arrearage reduction program for collection materials in nonrare print, maps, rare books, and prints and photographs. This reduction represents a drop from 4,042,526 items to 291,631 or 93% reduction. Intensive efforts are still underway to meet arrearage reduction goals for music and sound recordings, manuscripts, and moving images.
The Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) has developed software to include tables of contents (TOC) in more than 45,000 bibliographic records for Electronic Cataloging in Publication (e-CIP), along with 8,300 records to D-TOC, or digital tables of contents. Also introduced were links to contributor biographical information and book jacket illustrations. There were more than 1.5 million visits to these records during this fiscal year.
Cataloging Distribution Service. Cataloger’s Desktop on the Web has added new resources, including AACR2 Rule Interpretations of the Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Subject Headings, LC Classification Outline, and Web resources from the National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library. Classification Web has recently added LC/Dewey correlations through a cooperative agreement between OCLC and CDS. OCLC also provides a link to Classification Web from its WebDewey service in order to obtain current Dewey classification data. Classification Web also plans to add LC Name Authorities in the second half of 2005. A number of instructional resources are also available from CDS. These include Basic Subject Cataloging Using LCSH (2004) and Basic Creation of Name and Title Authorities (coming Sept. 2005), both of which may be acquired as PDF files through the Cooperative Cataloging Training Program (CCT). Another publication, Rules and Tools for Cataloging Internet Resources, is available as part of the “Cataloging for the 21st Century Program.” In addition, two popular brief publications, Understanding MARC Authority Records (2004) and Understanding MARC Bibliographic (7th ed., 2003) are both available from Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMS). MARC Bibliographic is also available on the MARC Website.
Copy Cataloging. The Special Materials Cataloging Division (SMCD) has instituted the Z-Client application for simultaneous database searching for compact discs, LP recordings, scores and books. Overall, the BA Divisions increased production of copy cataloging in FY 2004 by 19% over the previous year through the implementation of Z-Processor, a similar application to Z-Client.
Program for Cooperative Cataloging. The Subject Authority Cooperative (SACO) has achieved status as a full-fledged component program of the PCC. Guidelines that include requirements, applications, procedures, and training workshops are available for libraries that join the program. During FY 2004, SACO participants contributed 2,558 new subject authority headings, revised 586 subject headings, and successfully proposed 1,724 new classification numbers to be included in LCSH and LCC and 053 fields of name authority records for literary authors.
SUBJECT HEADINGS AND CLASSIFICATION
LCSH. Library of Congress Subject Headings, 27th ed., was published in the summer of 2004.
Subject Heading changes. The subdivision –Contributions in [specific field or discipline], formerly authorized as a free-floating subdivision under names of individual persons, is now obsolete. The subdivision –Views on [specific field or discipline] is also no longer used as a free-floating subdivision. It is retained, however, as specifically established under the headings Jesus Christ and Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865. For works about a person’s contributions or views, the name heading for the person should now be assigned with no subdivision, or where appropriate, with another existing subdivision, such as –Political and social views. An additional heading should be assigned to bring out the topic of the person’s contributions or views. CPSO will update existing bibliographic records with these subdivisions on a gradual basis.
Implementation of Second Indicator in 655 fields. LC recently implemented the use of second indicator “0” to identify form/genre headings from LCSH that are assigned in 655 fields. Formerly the second indicator “7” was used in combination with “lcsh” in subfield $2. The Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings will be revised to reflect this change later this spring.
Classification. Printed editions of Class h, Subclasses PN and PQ, and P-PZ Tables were published by CDS in the summer of 2004. A new schedule KB religious law in general was published in the fall. This schedule includes newly completed subclasses KBM (Jewish law) and KBP (Islamic law) as well as updated versions of KBR (History of canon law) and KBU (Law of the Roman Catholic Church).
2. The FAST Project
A brief report was made on the FAST Project. FAST stands for Faceted Application of Subject Terminology. It is a new subject heading schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that uses a simplified syntax while retaining LCSH vocabulary. The idea behind FAST is that it can be used by personnel without extensive training. FAST headings can easily be converted from LC subject headings. There are eight distinct facets within FAST: Topical, Geographic, Personal Name, Corporate Name, Form (Type, Genre), Chronological, Title, and Meeting Name. FAST is being developed by a team based in the OCLC Office of Research with support from the Library of Congress. The beta version of FAST is now available on the FAST Web site. There are (as of January 2005) approximately 1.3 million FAST records in the FAST authority file. The latest version of the FAST authorities can be accessed at http://fast.oclc.org
3. Sears List of Subject Headings
Plans are underway to publish the Sears List on WilsonWeb later this year; it will include downloadable MARC records and will be presented in a fully interactive format that incorporates the Thesaurus module and all search capabilities of WilsonWeb.
4. Dewey Decimal Classification Division Reports
The 22nd edition of Dewey Decimal Classification was published in July 2003, and the 14th Abridged Edition appeared in February 2004. DDC 22 is currently available on WebDewey. Dewey Decimal Classification: Principles and Application, 3rd ed., by Lois M. Chan and Joan S. Mitchell, is now available. It has been updated to reflect changes in DDC 22. An updated version of Using WebDewey: an OCLC Tutorial is now available on the Dewey Website at www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/tutorial. Also available is the Dewey Cutter Program, a software program that automatically provides cutter numbers from the OCLC Four-Figure Cutter Tables upon input of text. It can be downloaded from the Dewey Website at www.oclc.org/dewey/support/program.
5. Subcommittees
The Subject Analysis Committee has a number of subcommittees working on projects: these include the Subcommittees on Semantic Interoperability, FAST, Named Buildings and Other Structures, and LC Classification Training Materials. The last-named subcommittee was recently formed and had its organizational meeting at the conference. Lori Robare of the University of Oregon is chair of the committee, and Mark McKnight has been appointed as one of the subcommittee members.
6. ALA Draft Strategic Plan. Time was set aside during the meeting to discuss ALA’s Draft Strategic Plan, ALA Ahead to 2010. The Draft Strategic Plan Feedback Form was distributed and members were given the opportunity to offer their input and suggestions. The Executive Board will be collected all suggestions and comments by member groups and aggregating them for review by the ALA Council at the 2005 Annual Meeting in Chicago.
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Last updated March 5, 2005