BCC2007/SDC/1

COMMITTEE ON CATALOGING: DESCRIPTION AND ACCESS MEETINGS

ALA Midwinter Conference, Seattle, WA
Jan. 27 and 29, 2007
Reported by Mark Scharff, MLA Liaison to CC:DA

The Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) met in two sessions during the ALA Midwinter meeting in Seattle; the scheduled Friday meeting was cancelled. The Chair, Cheri Folkner (Boise State University), led the discussions.

This report focuses on items of interest to the music library community. For more information about the meeting and for reports about activities mentioned below, please see the CC:DA web page at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/index.html. Presentation is more topical than chronological.

Reports

CC:DA Chair The full report is at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/chair35.pdf.

The Chair reviewed the votes taken by electronic mail since Annual 2006, and asked for an received confirmation of the results. Most of the votes related to RDA, largely to authorize a CC:DA response to documents from the JSC or its constituencies. She noted that big topics of discussion included RDA's issues with works of mixed responsibility and with performances. CC:DA member Kathy Glennan received special mention for her service on many task forces, including the one that formulated a response to the draft of the consolidated ISBD's. Cheri reported the creation of a Task Force to review the forthcoming Statement of International Cataloging Principles. Another document that received CC;DA review was a revision of section 3.2.2 of FRBR, which covers expressions. Finally, she reported that the CC:DA discussions on RDA would be moving to ALA-sponsored groupware in the spring [note: new discussion has begun on a CC:DA Wiki as of mid-Febrary].

Library of Congress (Barbara Tillett, LC liaison to CC:DA). For a detailed report of LC initiatives, visit: http://www.loc.gov/ala/mw-2007-update.html.

Barbara Tillett reviewed highlights from her report. Issues of particular interest to the music community include:

• Continued activities of the Section 108 Study Group, working toward recommendations for legislation to allow reasonable uses of copyrighted works by libraries and archives in the digital age. Web site: http://www.loc.gov/section108.Working Group on the Future of Bibliograhic Control, an LC-sponsored group of librarians and information providers and vendors (OCLC, Google, Microfost). Web site: http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future.
• Web site redesigns for the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate (http://www.loc.gov/aba). Note in particular that material formerly on the Cataloging Policy and Support Office Web site has been integrated into the ABA site.
• Work toward providing non-Roman data in authority records in the LC/NAF. Heads-up: early agreement is to use "regular" 4XX and 7XX fields rather than pairing "regular" and 880 fields.New edition of the Library of Congress Classification Schedule M (Music and books on Music) to be published during 2007.Planning for implementation of form/genre headings with moving images and music: still at work on the former; work on the latter suspended to allow completion of the new M schedule. Work could resume as early as March. MLA and OCLC had been mentioned as collaborators in previous reports, but no mention in this one.Database Improvement Unit in CPSO has "killed off" ca. 1000 persons in the LC ILS.Free PDF versions of some LC publications at ( http://www.loc.gov/cds/freepdf.html): Cataloging Service Bulletin, LCRI updates, SCM updates, CONSER documents updates, DCM updates, MARC21 documentation updates.Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) published in January; a volume for Music is planned for future publication.CDS customer service issues: regrets for problems; 40% of staff retired in 2006.Progress in processing the Bronislawa Nijinska Collection (manuscripts relating to Russian dance materials).Casalini Shelf-Ready project (Italian monographs) moved from pilot project to full production.Revision of CD cataloging workflow at LC: Music and Sound Recordings Team 3 is now keeping up with new receipts. LC has signed licensing agreement for metadata from the All-Music Guide to popular SR bib records.The move of collections from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA: nearly 4 million items have been moved thus far; MBRS Division staff from D.C. and Dayton, Ohio will relocate to Culpeper in April.
• Metasearch project to search across the LC Online Catalog, LC Web site, American Memory, Prints and Photographs Online Catalog and THOMAS Legislative Information System. A search box can be found at the top of the Library's home page [note: attempt on Feb. 19 to search was unsuccessful].

ALA Publishing Services (Don Chatham, Associate Executive Director)

ALA Publishing continues to work toward publication of RDA on a slightly revised timeline. "Logic testing" of the online product is scheduled for the period between Dec. 2007 and June 2008; beta testing between September and December 2008; release date of March 2009. Hopes are to convene focus groups at ALA Annual for the print product. Development has been helped along with a $150,000 allocation from ALA. The RDA prototype is still available to see at http://www.rdaonline.org.

Joint Steering Committee (Jennifer Bowen, ALA Representative). For the full report, see http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/jsc0610.pdf.

JSC met in October 2006 in Washington, D.C.  The major action items were 1) responding to concerns raised by ALA about the RDA development process, which resulted in a reaffirmation of the JSC’s commitment to use resources besides AACR2 to inform RDA and a revision of the development timetable to allow a review period for the draft as a whole; 2) meeting with representatives of the Dublin Core and IEEE-LOM (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers—Learning Object Metadata) communities as outreach; 3) engaging in extensive and detailed work on Chapter 3, newly titled “Carrier;” 4) reviewing comments for Chapters 6 and 7 and making some high-level decisions, most notably to reverse the order of the chapters and to move material related to “primary access” to the forthcoming Part B; 5) reviewing the work of the Appendices Working Group; 6) preparing for a hoped-for meeting with MARBI at ALA Annual 2007 to discuss the issues around using RDA in a MARC21 environment; and 6) looking at the list of specialist cataloging manuals compiled by ALA, with a decision that a revised list would be maintained on a separate Web site, perhaps as a Wiki, rather than be incorporated into RDA itself.

Jennifer spent time reviewing the JSC’s reaction to the CC:DA response to Part A and the larger concerns about the process and timeframe of RDA development. She felt that CC:DA’s concerns were taken seriously, and to some effect; but that the others in the Committee of Principals did not share those concerns. In response to statements from some that RDA development should slow down or halt to address CC:DA concerns, or that ALA should pull out of what was seen as a flawed project, Jennifer asserted that RDA development will move forward, and that ALA will not pull out of the process. Even so, there is a group that has announced its intent to draft an alternative standard, aiming for a draft by the end of April. What bearing such a document might have on RDA remains to be seen.

Jennifer continued with further comments of specific areas of RDA.

Chapter 3: More alignment between it and Chapter 4 ("Content Description") is a goal, with some elements being moved to Chapter 4 from Chapter 3, including duration information and tactile-system information. Abbreviations will be far less frequent, except those for English-language units of measure (e.g. ft.).

Chapter 7 (formerly Chapter 6): There are two possible outlines for the new chapter 7. Based on a document produced by CC:DA member Robert Maxwell, both build on the taxonomy of bibliographic relationships outlined by Barbara Tillett in her doctoral work. One would organize by FRBR Group 1 entities (work, expression, manifestation, item), the other by relationship types (e.g. equivalent, derivative, whole/part, etc.). In subsequent discussion, points raised included: 1) The proposed outlines do not adhere completely to Tillett's model; 2) A criterion for choosing between the options is that of which aspect RDA users will consider primary; 3) There is still sentiment for folding the special rules for music and other materials into the general rules. CC:DA members expressed some preference for the FRBR approach, though not adamantly.

Appendices: No decision has been made about the future of the Capitalization and Abbreviations appendices, since their utility for Part B data elements is not yet known.

RDA vis-à-vis MARC: among the needed changes will be clear delineation of coding for content type and carrier type, and a new Rules value.

Jennifer invited Marjorie Bloss, the RDA project manager, to speak to the group. She explained that her primary role is to make the groups involved (the Committee of Principals, the JSC, the co-publishers) interact. She also deals with a Project Management Committee, made of representatives from the constituencies listed.

A third document to help define the framework for the development of RDA was released in December 2006.  RDA Scope and Structure joins the RDA Strategic Plan and the RDA Objectives and Principles. The new document can be seen at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/docs/5rda-scope.pdf . Though the JSC did not propose to receive comments on the document, CC:DA resolved to provide a formal response.

The JSC has made the vast majority of the RDA working documents publicly available at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/working1.html, to provide context for the changes being incorporated into RDA.

The JSC next meets April 16-20, 2007, in Ottawa, Canada. The major pieces of work will be dealing with comments on the drafts of all Part A chapters except Chapter 3 (discussion on that chapter is due to be finished before ALA Annual), preparing to issue a new draft of Part A’s chapters 6 and 7 just before Annual, and looking at the draft for Part B. Jennifer opined that Part B won’t contain radical departures from current practice.

Jennifer announced that because of changes in her responsibilities at the University of Rochester, she would be stepping down from the position of ALA representative to the JSC sometime in the spring. John Attig (Penn State) has agreed to be her replacement, and will be working with her during a transitional period. [Though John does not have the music background that Jennifer brought to JSC, John appreciates the needs of the music community and should be supportive].

ALA Representative to NISO (Betty Landesman)

Of interest to the music community is the proposed revision to ISO 10957, for the International Standard Music Number. The principal change is a restructuring of the ISMN to a 13-digit format by replacing the letter “M” with the prefix 979 0.

RDA Proposals

CC:DA/MLA/2006/1/Rev, Change to Rule 5.5B1, Extent of item for notated music
(http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/mla9rev.pdf)

CC:DA accepted this proposal as presented, for JSC consideration at its April meeting. It represented a revision of a proposal approved at 2006 Annual, but later withdrawn because of problems with an on-the-fly definition of "score."

Other

While several task forces were discharged, two were extended—the Task Force to Maintain ““Differences Between, Changes Within,” which has issued a final report but needs to see publication of the revised document through to completion; and the Task Force on the Technical Description of Digital Media, which can monitor work on RDA chapter 3. A re-formed Task Force for Communications and Outreach was approved to investigate options for opening the CC:DA mailing list to others to read, or to look at other strategies to promote awareness and exchange of information.

The ALCTS CCS Executive Committee is seeking a chair for a forthcoming RDA Implementation Task Force.

Considerable time was devoted to a request from CONSER representatives that CC:DA forward to the JSC a paragraph that was omitted from the document Access Level Record for Serials, Working Group Final Report. The instruction would allow, as an optional practice, for series statements on items in series that are under authority control to be replaced by controlled access points, whether or not the form on the piece matched the authorized heading. Variant series statements would be added to the authority record. The discussion itself was quite convoluted, but there were proposed practices involving uniform titles that will have to be tracked closely; since an operating principle of RDA is to treat formats consistently, a change driven by serials cataloging could have an impact on music.

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Last updated April 12, 2007