BCC98/Auth/5

Authorities Subcommittee
Business Meeting Minutes
February 12, 1998
Boston, MA

The Business Meeting of the Authorities Subcommittee took place on Thursday February 12, 1998 in Boston. Present were Mark Scharff (chair), Mickey Koth, Suzanne Mudge, Ruth Inman, Joe Bartl (the new LC representative) and Ann Churukian (observer)

Mark asked if there were any questions about his ACIG report, and will funnel the document on to MOUG.

After many years as a committee member, Marilyn Craig resigned her position, as she has retired, so there is a vacancy on the committee. As of the business meeting, 6 people expressed interest in joining the committee. BCC will review all the applications for all the subcommittees, and make assignments during their business meeting later in the week.

Mark circulated portions of the BCC policies and procedures document pertinent to appointment and length of terms as committee members. BCC has formalized the term of office for both the chair and committee members.  Mark requested that when any message is sent out for comment that as committee members we sent a reply, even if the reply is only no comment.  That way he knows that we have received it electronically.

Suzanne Mudge put together a Website for the Authorities Subcommittee, which has been hung off of the parent site which Phil Scheur mounted for BCC. It includes a mission statement, current membership roster, current projects, and related Internet sites.

Cheryl Gowing was absent, so there was no report from her on the status of the automation document. There is however a document which was drafted by the Automation Committee, and without any input from Cheryl, it is difficult to know where those overlap.

Joy Pile presented the Position statement on authority control. She requests comments and revisions by April 15, so that she can draft a final version, and sent it along to the BCC board.

It was decided that all additions and changes to the Types of Composition document be funneled through Mickey. She will make those changes to the Web version, no more frequently than quarterly. The updates will also appear in MCB. A new paper edition will be available on an annual basis through the MLA Clearinghouse. There will be a note in the contents of each new ed. making note of the changes. The changes will also be announced on various discussion lists. The new terms will be thoroughly discussed by these groups before changes are made to the document.

The last ALA conference moved in many new directions for authorities. Martha Yee, Barbara Tillett and others have discussed changing from "authority control" to access control - which will allow for local practice in these records, and use of different forms varying according to native language. IFLA is in the process of developing guides for authority records to be shared internationally. Currently there are 10 different standards for MARC formats, and until these have been integrated it will be impossible to implement an internationally shared database. International representatives are identifying the essential elements for a shared authority file. For music, there is much to be solved in the differences in the way uniform titles are generated for music in the non-English speaking world. There are questions about sharing data across systems, but not compiling it, or cross-linking to other databases. MARBI in discussion paper #107 discussed the concept of using the 856 field in corporate bodies and providing a link to corporate web pages. Is there a way to use this linking concept in music authority records? Would the 856 be a form of scope note available to the public?

Submitted by Joy Pile

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Last updated February 7, 2000