BCC2007/SDC/3

Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access
ALA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., June 22, 23. 25, 2007
Reported by Mark Scharff, MLA Liaison to CC:DA

The Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) met in three sessions during the ALA Annual meeting in Washington; the later of the two session scheduled for Monday, June 25 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

Library of Congress (Barbara Tillett, LC liaison to CC:DA). For a detailed report of LC initiatives, visit: http://www.loc.gov/ala/an-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
• Ongoing activities of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, a LC-sponsored group of librarians and information providers and vendors (OCLC, Google, Microsoft).  Web site: http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future
• Progress toward providing non-Roman data in authority records in the LC/NAF.  “Regular” 4XX and 7XX fields will be used for the vernacular forms.  Inclusion of such data in authority records will occur no earlier than December 2007.
• New edition of the Library of Congress Classification Schedule M (Music and books on Music) to be published during the summer of 2007.
• The ABA Directorate Management Team has endorsed CPSO’s recommendation that the Library of Congress continue to apply LCSH in a precoordinated fashion.  A consequence of this is a decision to begin projects to establish many more subject-subdivision strings in authority records.  This appears to be limited at this time to topical and geographical headings followed by free-floating subdivisions. It should have a positive impact on machine authority control processing.
• Planning for implementation of form/genre headings has moved ahead; an instruction sheet in the Subject Cataloging Manual (H 1913) has been drafted; it covers only headings for motion pictures, television, and video, but will serve as a pattern for other areas, including music. It can be seen as a PDF document at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/h1913dft.pdf; LC invites comment.  Some sample headings are listed in CDS’s announcement (http://www.loc.gov/cds/notices/genreform.pdf); distribution of these records will be no earlier than September 3 of 2007.
• 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.
• CDS customer service issues: Tillett has been acting head; continued regrets for problems; 40% of staff retired in 2006, and subsequent hiring freeze hampered efforts to improve.
• A card-catalog inventory project occurred in the Performing Arts Reading Room and the Special Materials Cataloging Division shelflist to determine priorities for future retrospective-conversion projects. Scores are the largest group of material with incomplete online access.
• LC has begun a pilot project to populate popular music sound recording bib records with metadata leased from All-Music Guide.
• A project has begun to create collection-level bibliographic records for musical theater sheet music (LC class M1508, per show title) in the Music Division.
• The move of collections from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA:  nearly 5.7 million items have been moved thus far, representing over 95% of the Library’s holdings. MBRS Division staff from D.C. and Dayton, Ohio have begun to relocate to Culpeper.
• Corollary to the MBRS move, Music and Sound Recordings Team 3 will be moving to Culpeper. Teams 1 and 2 will move from the Special Materials Cataloging Division to the Music Division in the future.
• Metasearch feature to allow searches across the LC Online Catalog, LC Web site, American Memory, Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, and THOMAS Legislative Information System is operable.  A search box can be found at the top of the Library’s home page, www.loc.gov.

ALA Publishing Services (Don Chatham, Associate Executive Director)

ALA Publishing continues to work toward publication of RDA. An RFP for developing the “editing environment” and “online environment” has been put forth, and three vendors selected for further consideration. A demo is scheduled for July 9; training on the chosen software would start in October; a prototype will be shown at IFLA’s August 2008 meeting, with spring 2009 as a general release date. A Marketing Advisory Group has been formed, with members representing many different types of libraries and other institutions. Don gave many statistics from user surveys; they revealed that users generally like online products, but that a significant minority will still prefer a print product.

Joint Steering Committee (Jennifer Bowen, ALA Representative). For the full report, see http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/jsc0705.pdf

JSC met in April 2007 in Ottawa, Canada; for the JSC’s “Outcomes” summary, see http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/0704out.html. John reported that RDA is taking shape; drafts exist for the entire document except the General Introduction and the appendices. In addition to continued consideration of detailed comments from Part A, the JSC has also done the higher-level examination of principles that ALA recommended. This has produced things like documents that map RDA elements to FRBR, to MARC21, to Dublin Core, and to the <indecs> Metadata Framework. These analyses are now informing the writing of RDA text. Internationalization issues continue to emerge. The operating assumption is now that data will be transcribed in the language and script of the original resource, with an option to substitute or add transliterated data.

The JSC also met with the Committee of Principals, which was also meeting in Ottawa. This group, responsible for the publication of AACR, includes the CEOs/Directors (or designates) of the three national associations (the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), and the Directors (or designates) of the Library of Congress, Library and Archives Canada, and the British Library. The CoP issued an invitation to the National Library of Australia to become a member.

John continued with further comments on specific areas of RDA. Highlights:

Based on the RDA/MARC21 mapping, new elements have been added for scale of cartographic materials (field 507), preferred citation of described material (field 510), and date/time and place of an event (field 518). There will be an element for mode of issuance. An alternative title will no longer be part of the title proper. New elements have been introduced for designation of roles and relationships.

Looking ahead to Part B, John reported that there is a growing willingness to make changes that could have major impact on current authority files. Choice of entry is also an open issue, though the winds seem to be blowing away from assigning a primary access point. Substantial changes to headings for the Bible aim to lessen, if not remove, the current code’s Protestant bias. The JSC is closely monitoring IFLA’s development of international cataloging principles; of particular interest to music is an emerging preference for using the language and script of the catalog, rather than the author’s original title, as the basis for a uniform title.

The JSC issued revised drafts of Chapter 3 and a portion of Chapter 4 in March; revised drafts of Chapters 6 and 7 came out a few days before the ALA Annual. Discussion of these drafts will be summarized below.

RDA Scope and Structure, first released in December 2006, was issued in a revised form just before ALA, prompted in part by comments from ALA.  The new document can be seen at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/docs/5rda-scoperev.pdf.

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 will meet October 15-19 in Chicago.

While not mentioned verbally in John’s report, one outcome of the April JSC meeting was the approval of CC:DA/MLA/2006/1/Rev. This was the MLA-proposed change to AACR2 Rule 5.5B1, Extent of item for notated music, and the accompanying redefinition of “score” in the Glossary. Minor editorial changes to the definition were referred back to MLA’s Descriptive Cataloging Subcommittee and dealt with.

CC:DA Task Force to Maintain “Differences Between, Changes Within” (Kevin Randall). The task force endured several rounds of back-and-forth with ALCTS on editing the draft, but has produced a document for which they hope for approval in early July.  [This has not happened as of early August].  It will be available on the CC:DA Web site eventually.  The Task Force will disband at 2008 Midwinter.

Task Force to Review the Draft Functional Requirements for Authority Data (Manon Theroux). The group generated 24 pages of comments (see http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/tf-frad3.pdf). The group will continue to examine the final version of the document.

Task Force on CC:DA’s Internal and External Communication (Laura Smart). Among the issues raised: can docunents be issued in a single format? Can John Attig’s index be supplemented by a search engine? In light of improvements to the ALA-sponsored CC:DA site, can external documents be moved there? On Laura’s recommendation, CC:DA voted to create the position of CC:DA Webmaster, a non-voting member with a three-year term. It was also decided to set up a CC:DA mailing list to which non-members could subscribe for read-only access. There will be announcements when this is ready for prime time.

Task Force on Rules for Technical Description of Digital Media ? discharged by the Chair, having made its recommendations for Chapter 3 of RDA.

Task Force to Review the Statement of International Cataloguing Principles (Everett Allgood). The group’s interim report is at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/tf-icp3.pdf . Of particular interest to music is the analysis of the issues surrounding the term “uniform title,” the proposition that what would be called “preferred titles” would be based on the language and script of the catalog, and whether or not such titles should be considered “indispensible” access points.

ALCTS Task Force on Non-English Access (Beth Picknally Camden). This task force is charged with monitoring efforts in ALCTS bodies to enable access to non-English library resources in all languages and scripts. RDA’s impact on cataloging such material is of interest to the TF. The JSC has looked at the TF’s reports and feels that it is compliance with the principles.

CC:DA Discussion of RDA Drafts

John Attig led the group in these discussions. For the draft of Chapters 3 and 4, CC:DA members had entered extensive comments on the committee wiki; the task here was to confirm consensus, and come to same for areas where the wiki showed differences of opinion, to assist John in drafting the ALA response.

Some specific issues: Punctuation within elements?are there cases where sub-elemcnts should be defined rather than using punctuation? Opinions were mixed, with calls for defining sub-elements countered by a charge of excessive complexity.

1. Square brackets?when to use them. Some sentiment to drop them when they enclose an entire element, and use a verbal equivalent. Less enthusiasm for dropping them for interpolations.
2. Abbreviations—JSC has stated a preference for not using them for non-transcribed data, except for units of measurement.  Some questioned whether this met RDA’s stated goal of being a principled code.  One member pointed out the extra keystrokes involved in spelling out what is currently abbreviated; but another saw any injunction one way or the other as being too controlling.
3. British vs. American spelling?what to do? Two different issues: spelling in the instructions vs. spelling in the examples and in lists of terms. Technology should be able to provide the appropriate view of instructions for Web users of RDA, and search engines should be able to search both. Not so clear about things like “coloured;” these sorts of things weren’t a problem when the concept was represented by an abbreviation.
4. The data element “Media Type” (3.2)?is this useful? There seemed to be some consensus to keep it, albeit with dissatisfaction with the “unmediated” category, so as to reclaim the concept from MARC21 coding.
5. Misplaced data elements?some in the moving image community see 3.12 (color), 3.17 (sound), and 3.18 (projection) as characteristics that belong in Chapter 4 rather than 3, to be regarded as content rather than carrier. There was general agreement with this notion for color; for sound, one member opined that the presence of sound was content, but all else was carrier. Projection characteristics were mixed, with a sense that some would move to content.
6. Recording content type (4.2.0.2)?question about whether the alternative (recording only 1) should be the rule. Consensus gathered around rewording the main instruction to require that one type be recorded, with cataloger option to record more.
7. Lists of terms?should they be closed or open lists? This generated a great deal of discussion, with an emerging nod toward open lists of controlled terms; new terms could enter, with eventual status of becoming a standard term.

The revised drafts of Chapters 6 and 7 had been released several days before ALA, so discussion was more generalized. Among the statements:

1. Most agreed that the new draft was a great improvement over the older versions. The new and corrected examples were also mentioned, though others commented that there were too many examples
2. Certain terms introduced in Chapter 6 discomforted some members?“originating body” was particularly mentioned as being a “main-entry concept.” There seemed to be some sentiment for collapsing originating bodies into the section on creators.
3. Initial reactions to Chapter 7 included some confusion over the term “primary relationships,” since no “secondary relationship” was defined.
4. One member was unhappy with the parenthetical alternatives to levels of relationship, e.g. 7.5.2, “Derivative Work (or Expression).” He would prefer that there always be an explicit manifestion/expression relationship; others supported doing so only when needed.
5. While there was an appreciation for the variety of ways to express relationships, some felt that RDA should identify a default choice of technique.
6. 7.2 is currently a placeholder; the list of designations of relationship is expected to be complete by late August, and will be analogous to the list of role designations being developed for Chapter 6.2.
7. IMPORTANT: Comments on these chapters should be sent to the MLA liaison by August 10.

Other

The Chair initiated a discussion as to whether CC:DA should be responding to LCRI change proposals. As mentioned above, CC:DA did draft comments on the proposed changes to LCRIs 22.1 and 24.1 to eliminate the concept of AACR2-compatible headings, but she sought some guidance for future use. The two principles that emerged were that CC:DA would comment/respond to those proposals where public input has been sought by LC, and then only when CC:DA had something of substance to offer.

The JSC decided that the list of specialist cataloging manuals, originally intended to be part of RDA, should instead be a separate document. ALA volunteered to form a CC:DA task force to revise and reorganize the list by December 31. Mark Scharff volunteered to chair this TF, and three other volunteers have been identified.

Among individuals awarded citations for meritorious service to CC:DA were MLA veterans Glenn Patton (OCLC) and Jennifer Bowen (University of Rochester).

Two new voting members joined CC:DA. Patricia Thurston (Assistant Department Head for the Catalog and Metadata Services, Yale University) replaces John Attig, who resigned his chair upon becoming the ALA representative to the JSC. Penny Welbourne (Rare Book Team, Sterling Library, Yale University) stepped up from an intern position. New interns are Alexandra Crosier (Columbia Universsity) and Daniel Joudrey (Simmons College).

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Last updated August 28, 2007