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/chair42.pdf
. The Chair reviewed the votes taken by electronic mail since Midwinter
2008 and
asked for and received confirmation of the results.
Most of the votes related to RDA
(Resource Description and Access); some
authorized the JSC (Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA)
liaison,
John Attig, to make responses to RDA
drafts and issues on the CC:DA’s behalf.
Among those responses was one to LC/12, a document from the Library of
Congress proposing changes to the draft rules for recording titles and
creating access points for musical works in RDA chapters 6, 17,
and 18. I helped author the response at John's request; I had
previously helped author ALA's response to those chapters of the RDA draft itself.
Another vote authorized the creation of a task force to review drafts
of Descriptive
Cataloging of Rare Materials (Serials), or DCRM(S). Cheri
also reported on the establishment of a public CC:DA read-only e-mail
list to allow wider readership of CC:DA discussions. The list has over
300 subscribers. (To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail to sympa@ala.org with the
phrase "subscribe rules" in the subject line and the body of the
message blank.) Finally, CC:DA has been asked to make a high-level
assessment of the RDA product, independent of ALA's constituency
response to the JSC. The result would be something akin to a top-10
list of strategic concerns. The report would be due by January 9, 2009.
Library of Congress (Barbara Tillett, LC liaison to
CC:DA). For a detailed report of LC
initiatives, visit: http://www.loc.gov/ala/an-2008-update.html
Barbara Tillett reviewed highlights from her report. Issues of particular interest to the music community include:
Chatham announced that the JSC had approved a change in the release schedule for RDA. ALA Publishing received more time to complete the functional specifications document; Chatham stressed the need for a complete document to avoid cost overruns from excessive change orders. This pushes the development schedule back about two months. He also addressed mounting sconcern over the availability of a print version of RDA. There will not be a print version of RDA available at the time the online product is released. Chatham claims that "print derivatives" have been what was promised, but admitted that a different impression might have been given--a statement punctuated by comments from the audience. He rationalized this by citing the huge changes in format and content that have come through the RDA development process, and the need to allay initial anxieties about moving to a Web-based product. Simply printing Web pages, he said, won't produce a usable product; only after the Web version is out can something suitable for print be derived, and its nature is still uncertain. Among the many questions and concerns raised: 1) Is RDA an e-book? Some sentiment for and against--the links to external content and social networking features would seem to argue for it, though others saw them as add-ons; 2) there is vocal demand for something that can be purchased, and general frustration over the lack of any information on pricing; 3) some of the metadata communities who are targets of RDA may balk at paying for standards; 4) some noted the tensions between ALA Publishing as a business and ALA as a service organization, particularly in how that plays out in pricing and format for less affluent and Third-World users; 5) questions about how long AACR2 would be available after RDA release went unanswered (it was on sale at the ALA store in the convention center, however). Don stressed that there would be a demo of the product at the IFLA meeting in August.
Joint Steering Committee (John Attig, ALA Representative).
The Joint Steering Committee met in Chicago from April 13-22, 2008; during the first week the Committee of Principals met there, too. For the "Outcomes" summary, see http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/0804out.html. In John's view, the "big stuff" is decided, and now the focus is on details, though the JSC is still working through comments from the first draft. A major change in structure is the replacement of "Required" and "Optional" designations for data elements with the definition of a set of "core elements." (Of interest to those who were concerned that Statement of Responsibility was proposed to be an optional element in RDA: the JSC agreed that it belonged in the set of "core elements.") This set of core elements might serve as the basis for a "concise RDA," which is the most likely form a print version of the code would take. Proposals to reorganize RDA along the lines of a data dictionary were rejected in favor of the current draft organization, judged to more closely mirror a cataloger's workflow. The table of contents will, however, reflect a more explicit distinction between attributes of FRBR entities and the relationships among them.
Among the decisions
coming from the responses to Chapters 5-6: 1) instructions are needed
for how to deal with naming a work when the creator is given different
names in different manifestations of the work; 2) the AACR2 use of
"Selections" will be carried over to access points in RDA (though
probably not as a "rule of three") [this was a major MLA objection to
the draft]. In Chapter 7, the music notation element will be a list of
controlled terms, with MLA helping to supply the terms and definitions.
A proposal to use the MARC21 list for field 048 for medium of
performance of expression was considered; the decision was to retain an
unstructured vocabulary for notes. In Chapter 8, the instructions have
been reworded to emphasize the task of differentiating persons as
opposed to creating unique access points. The element of Gender will be
retained, but "other" has been removed as a term; the instructions
allow for the use of terms other than "male" and "female" as needed.
The appendix of relationship designators has been expanded, though some
issues remain with ambiguities between work and expression roles for
moving image materials.
Among items coming from a subsequent teleconference: 1) The Type of recording element refers to playback, not original capture, and there are now two elements (playback and recording medium); 2) there is a new expression-level element for aspect of video or film; 3) the outcome of the meeting of music specialists (q.v.) was not decisive, so the original RDA draft for naming and creating access points for musical works is the operative document for the present. John invited Kathy and me to report on the meeting. We outlined those areas where we felt there was agreement or at least acceptance (cadenzas as separate but dependent works; librettos as textual works; the need to restore the use of "Selections" in preferred access points; the use of "distinctive'" and "non-distinctive" as terms to describe the title that forms the basis of the title portion of a preferred access point) and those where there is not (most notably, the language and form on non-distinctive titles, and certain issues related to terms for medium of performance.)
John pointed out that the many changes made are not reflected in the draft documents at the JSC Web site; they are "snapshots" and need to be regarded as such. It's expected that the full draft will be available by the end of October--in the outline format, at least to reviewing constituencies. During the review period, comments would be limited to issues of consistency across the instructions, and full-out review of portions previously unreleased. The review period would end in January; release would be sometime toward the end of summer 2009.
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.
John's full report may be found at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/jsc0806.pdf
The JSC will next
meet in Ottawa, Canada, Nov. 9-18, 2008.
CC:DA Task Force on
Specialist Cataloging Manuals (Mark Scharff). John
Attig reported that the ALA report to the JSC, which contained Standards, Manuals, and other
Resources for Use with RDA, a product of the Task Force,
has been accepted by the JSC and commended as a good example of an
ancillary document. Yet to be determined is how the JSC will act on the
Task Forces' recommendations as to access and maintenance. The Task
Force was discharged at this point.
Report from the Chair of the ALCTS Task Group on the LC Working Group Report (David Miller). This group was formed in January 2008 to formulate ALCTS's reponse to On the Record. It was also to identify ALCTS groups that would have input and to identify initiatives for the next 3-5 years. It seems certain that CC:DA will be approached.
Task Force to Review the
Statement of International Cataloging Principles (Everett
Allgood). The final report is available at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/docs/tf-icp4.pdf .
CC:DA accepted the report. Open question: to what extent will RDA be in
alignment with the document?
Task Force on CC:DA’s
Internal and External
Communication
(Laura Smart, and
including MLA members Jim Alberts and Matthew Wise). The TF had two
work items: developing an electronic contact list for external
communication for specific areas (e.g. CJK, maps, music), and assisting
with the migration of the CC:DA Web site from Penn State to the ALA
server. The contact list seemed weighted to groups dealing with area
studies and omitted others (such as MLA!). There was general agreement
that CC:DA liaison groups were "no-brainers" for the list, and it will
be revised accordingly. Migration activities were more fully covered in
the Webmaster's report (q.v.). In the wake of establishing the public
read-only CC:DA discussion list, the group considered various options
for public and private e-mail lists for CC:DA, mostly having to do with
the ability to archive sent messages. The Task Force's report was
accepted and the group discharged.
CC:DA Webmaster
(Patricia Hatch). Patricia
has been trained on Collage, ALA's Web management system. The Penn
State site continues to be updated, with much help from John Attig. The
ALA site is up, but for the immediate future (by or after Midwinter)
will contain only about 20 pages of current interest, with links back
to PSU for historical stuff. Migration of existing CC:DA pages requires
that they be converted into a particular flavor of XML; it's uncertain
whether this can be done in a batch process, and it will almost
certainly require cleanup. A new Task Force will be appointed to assist
with the migration.
ALA Representative to NISO (Cindy Hepfer). Cindy reported on several initiatives, none
of particular relevance to music.
RDA
Implementation Task
Force
(Cheri Folkner in lieu of Shawne Miksa). Reactions
to the Task Force-sponsored RDA
Update Forum noted the large attendance but lack of questions from the
audience. Some attendees reported that the forum was too much "canned
stuff," and that there was not enough "nuts and bolts," that is,
information on how to actually prepare for using RDA. Two future
activities for the Task Force will be to create a clearinghouse on the
ALA Web site for training materials, and to begin developing workflows.
A 2009 preconference is likely. People around the table noted the
challenges of implementing a content-only standard and said it was past
time to get serious about making the decisions and developing the
training materials. It was mentioned that FRBR training could be done
now.
In personnel matters, outgoing voting members are Betsy Mangan, Patricia Thurston, and chair Cheri Folkner by rotation off the committee; Laura Smart and intern Daniel Joudray by resignation. New members will be Lori Robare, Kathy Winzer, Sylvia Hall Ellis, and Kevin Randall (filling Laura's term); Nancy Coleman will be the new intern. John Myers (Union College) will be the new CC:DA chair.
CC:DA will meet at
least twice at ALA Midwinter in Denver--Saturday afternoon and Monday
morning. The Friday afternoon meeting will be held if the
agenda warrants.
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Last updated September 3, 2008