BCC99/SDC/3

ANNUAL REPORT -- SUBCOMMITTEE ON DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGING

Members: Matthew Wise (Chair), Deta Davis, Brad Eden, Grace Fitzgerald, Laurie Phillips Gibson (out-going), Margaret Kaus, Nancy  Lorimer (in-coming)

As the MLA representative, Matthew Wise attended meetings of the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access during ALA conferences in Philadelphia and New Orleans. Topics of discussion included _The Logical Structure of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules_ (the "Delsey" report), _Archival Moving Image Materials: A Cataloging Manual_ (AMIM), International Standard Bibliographic Description for Electronic Resources_ (ISBD(ER)), and_Revising AACR2 to Accommodate Seriality_ (the "Hirons" report). Summaries of these
meetings may be found in the _Music Cataloging Bulletin_ and at the BCC website.

During the open meeting of the Subcommittee at the Los Angeles conference, Brad Eden presented a brief introduction to the major types of metadata, a sort of "Metadata for Dummies" session.  Described were the relationships between the MARC format, the Dublin Core, the Text-Encoding Initiative (TEI Header), the Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and the Global/Government Information Locator Service (GILS). As an experienced instructor of the OCLC Metadata Workshops, he encouraged everyone to attend.

Martha Yee, chair of the CC:DA Task Force on Rule 0.24, then spoke about recent thinking with regard to the "cardinal principle" and how AACR2 may need to be changed to take into account the "new formats." The six characteristics of a document, their relationship to the concept of "edition," and several proposed options for rule revisions and/or rearrangement were discussed.

The Bibliographic Control Committee of MLA and the Rare Books and Manuscripts section of ALA have formed a joint committee to prepare guidelines for the cataloging of early printed music
materials. These guidelines are to form a section in a revision of the RBMS publication, _Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books_ (DCRB), which is being expanded to include formats other than books. The revised publication will be renamed _Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials_ (DCRM). The early printed music committee is being led by Jain Fletcher (UCLA) and includes a mix of librarians and musicologists. Nancy Lorimer will serve as the committee's liaison
to MLA through the Descriptive Cataloging Subcommittee. Committee members are currently compiling preliminary drafts for specific sections as a basis for group discussion. The revision of DCRB is expected to take 2-3 years; the music committee intends to complete its work within 2 years.

Submitted by Matthew Wise

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Last updated April 18, 2000