BCC99/SAS/1
1999 ALA Midwinter Meeting
ALCTS CCS SUBJECT ANALYSIS COMMITTEE REPORT
January 31 and February 1, 1999
1. Update on MARBI
The MARBI liaison reported that the first part of proposal 98-16R (Nonfiling Characters in
All Formats) had been approved, which will enable the use of encircling control characters
to identify nonsorting characters throughout the various MARC formats. It was noted that
LCSH has adapted to the condition of not being able to use articles, however this proposal
will affect 600 where an initial article may be present in $t, and phrases which specify
historical periods in chronological subdivisions.
It was also announced that MARC21, the harmonization of USMARC and CANMARC, is to be
published in a single edition in 1999.
2. LC Report (Lynn El-Hoshy)
In November, LC established a Bicentennial Program Office to coordinate activities to take
place in the year 2000 as part of the celebration of the Library's Bicentennial. The
actual Bicentennial date will be April 24, 2000, when a commemorative stamp and two
commemorative coins will be issued. Staff have begun work on one of the projects, entitled
Local Legacies, a program in which citizens, librarians and folklorists from all parts of
the United States will work through their senators and representatives in highlighting
unique local traditions for possible inclusion in the American Folklife Center's
collections. Local Legacies teams in the districts and states will document chosen local
activities or events in photographs, written reports, sound and videorecordings, and other
materials.
LC unveiled a revamped home page at their web site on January 25. It has been streamlined
and features the Bicentennial logo. Some of the "minihome pages" linked directly
there also have new looks, such as THOMAS and American Memory. The Experimental Search
System interface to LC's catalogs has been taken down. It had not been maintained for over
a year and was out of date.
Beginning with the 1998 issue 4, Cataloger's Desktop will contain the electronic version
of AACR2, with the 1998 amendments. Extensive links are included between AACR2-e and about
a dozen cataloging tools, including the LC Rule Interpretations, the CONSER manual and the
Music Cataloging Decisions. Beta testing has been run on the web version of Cataloger's
Desktop. Responses will be evaluated and a final product is projected for Summer 1999.
Over the past six months, more than 300 LC staff have been working on the transition to
the new integrated library system, which LC is calling the LC ILS. LC expects to have all
portions of the system implemented by October 1999. Test loads have been run and a full
production load of
bibliographic and authority files is expected in May or June 1999. The tentative schedule
for LC staff using the ILS has cataloging going first in June, circulation and reference
in July, with acquisitions and serials check-in in October. LC will implement its web OPAC
soon after Cataloging Day One occurs in June. The catalog will contain all 12 million
bibliographic records comprising the Library's holdings as well as cross references and
scope notes from the 4.5 million name and subject authority
records. A temporary, public web page featuring news of the ILS implementation is
available at http://lcweb.loc.gov/ils/ .
As previously announced, LC plans to modify the structure of the LCCN after the year 2000.
The year portion will be expanded to four digits, the prefix reduced from three to two
characters, and supplement numbers will be eliminated. While the date of implementation is
not yet determined, it will be no earlier than 2000. In preparation for the restructure,
LC discontinued use of the LCCN suffix/alphabetic identifier and revision date on January
1, 1999. Now revision dates will only be found in field 005; Annotated Card records will
be noted "lcac" in field 042.
The revised Geographic Area Codes for the former Soviet republics and the changed code for
Hong Kong appearing in the 1998 edition of the USMARC Code List will not be used by LC
until after implementation of the new ILS.
A draft revision of Archival Moving Image Materials: A Cataloging Manual (AMIM) was made
available for comment and review at the CPSO home page at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso . Comments should
be received by March 15, 1999.
In November 1998, LC distributed advance copies of the Chinese romanization guidelines to
be followed in the conversion from Wade-Giles to pinyin. LC will begin to revise the
authority records for a closed list of Chinese place names representing provinces, major
cities and provincial
capitals of China, a full list of which will appear in CSB Number 83. When all authority
records have been revised, LC will change the associated bibliographic records.
All Cataloging Directorate divisions and the Serial Record Division implemented core level
cataloging in fall 1998. A document on core level cataloging implementation may be found
at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/corelev.html
.
LC was scheduled to begin coding of subfield $v for form subdivisions in bibliographic
records to identify form subdivisions in new subject authority records on February 16. A
project will also be undertaken to recode form subdivisions in existing authority records.
To aid in the coding and application of free-floating subdivisions, LC will begin to
create subdivision authority records using the new 18X fields as soon as they are added to
LC's subject authority file. LC will create two records for subdivisions which can
function as either form or topical subdivisions, such as --Periodicals. A document on
subdivision authority records is available at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/subauth.html
.
The 781 field for indicating the subdivision form of geographic headings is scheduled to
be included in new and revised subject authority records for geographic names late in
February. It is anticipated that this field will replace use of the subject usage notes
regarding geographic subdivisions in 667 fields of some jurisdictional name authority
records and the same information that has been added to scope notes in 680 fields of some
geographic subject authority records.
On August 1, 1998, LC began establishing headings for individual works of art in the name
authority file rather than the subject authority file.
Use of the separate list of subdivisions under literary authors (H 1155.4) has been
discontinued. Free-floating subdivisions authorized for use under names of individual
literary authors is now included in the revised list of subdivisions used under names of
persons (H 1110) and Shakespeare no longer serves as a pattern heading. H 1110 now
includes free-floating subdivisions used under name of individual persons in general as
well as subdivisions for use with persons belonging to specific categories of persons,
such as literary authors and composers.
The following new classification schedules have been readied for publication: A, KD, L, M,
PR-PS, PZ and the P tables. Publication of K, KE, KF, and K tables are anticipated soon.
A, M and KD will be in the issue of Classification Plus that will be available in March or
April. Subclass HM (Sociology) is undergoing revision. Existing numbers HM1-299,
will be entirely replaced.
3. SAC Subcommittee on Metadata and Classification
The subcommittee was charged to study the application of classificatory frameworks, such
as DDC, LCC and NLM Classification, as metadata for digital resources, and to develop a
plan to promote the use of classificatory frameworks in this manner to indexing and
cataloging agencies.
The subcommittee had decided to evaluate sites which were listed on Beyond Bookmarks which
use library classification systems to organize and provide access to internet resources. A
set of evaluation questions was devised, tested and revised. The subcommittee plans to
present a final report at ALA in New Orleans. The report will likely comprise a narrative
concerning the functions of classification, especially as related to organizing and
accessing electronic resources, with mention of sites most successful in implementing one
or more aspects.
4. Dewey report
Dewey for Windows Version 1.20 has been released. It includes revised area tables for
Great Britain and the Republic of South Africa. Peter J. Paulson, executive director of
Forest Press since 1985, retired. Joan S. Mitchell, editor of the DDC since 1993, has been
appointed as his successor. Gregory New, assistant editor of the DDC, was honored at a
ceremony at LC to recognize his fifty years of service.
5. Report of the SAC Subcommittee on Form Headings/Subdivisions Implementation
The subcommittee held an educational forum, on the use of subfield v (form subdivisions),
on Friday night. Attendance was strong, with over 120 present. The exercises used in the
forum grew out of work that the MLA Subject Access Subcommittee had undertaken earlier.
Documents from the forum will be put on Arlene Taylor's web site, at http://www.pitt.edu/~agtaylor/ala/subfldv.htm
.
6. Report of IFLA liaison
Lois Mai Chan reported that a new working group had been appointed on metadata. The first
task of the new working group would be to survey the environment, to discover what
metadata schemes exist and how they are used. Edward Swanson's detailed report on the
Section on Classification and Indexing is also available on the IFLA web site: http://www.ifla.org/VII/s29/sci.htm
7. Report of the SAC Subcommittee on Metadata and Subject Analysis
The major topic of the subcommittee's Midwinter meeting was potential recommendations for
defining the Subject element in the Dublin Core (DC). At the 1998 Annual Conference,
Lois Mai Chan outlined issues to be considered in this area. She will head a working group
to provide a summary of the issues for continuing discussion at the Annual Conference in
New Orleans. The subcommittee will work toward formulating recommendations, with a
supporting background paper. Possible recommendations include flexibility, simplified
syntax, balancing the subject element with subject expressions in other DC fields and
system design. Stuart Weibel will be asked if this subcommittee could serve as a working
group to define the Subject element, since no other group seems to have stepped forward to
perform this function.
8. Report of the SAC Subcommittee on the Revision of the Fiction Guidelines
Some revisions and changes were incorporated into the final manuscript. The
committee voted to refer the manuscript to the Cataloging and Classification Section.
9. Report of the SAC Subcommittee to Promote Subject Relationships/Reference
Structures
The subcommittee held a discussion forum, on the structure of LCSH as implemented in
OPACs. Gregory Wool reviewed his work on the extent to which subject referencing is being
supported in different catalogs. Stephen Hearn followed with a visual presentation
of work being done in this area. Martin Kurth, a member of the RUSA Catalog Use Committee,
spoke on the subject from a public services perspective.
The subcommittee continues to gather information from vendors and is working on a program
for the Annual Meeting.
10. SAC Subcommittee to review OPAC guidelines
A subcommittee was appointed to review the draft of "Guidelines for OPAC
Displays," drawn up by Martha Yee with input from the IFLA Task Force on Guidelines
for OPAC Displays. The document is available at http://www.ifla.org/ifla/VII/s13/guide/opac.htm
. The review period will end
on April 30, 1999.
Submitted by Michael Colby
Return to
Subject Access Subcommittee Home Page
Return to
BCC 1999 Documents Menu
Return
to BCC Historical Documents Menu
Return to BCC Home Page
Last updated April 18, 2000