PCC ANNUAL REPORT

Fiscal Year 2000

Under successive chairs Michael Kaplan and Marjorie Bloss, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging continued to deepen its membership in existing component programs, while expanding into both new activities and new continents.

BIBCO

Ongoing work on series issues was resolved with two Policy Committee recommendations that (1) produced a model letter for members to send vendors advocating changes in their treatment of variations in series numbering and (2) a request to the Joint Steering Committee of AACR2 for changes in the treatment of variations in numbering designations. A FAQ on series tracing decisions and the national default treatment was mounted on the PCC website.

Two new task groups were formed under the auspices of the Standing Committee on Standards as a result of joint meetings in May with the CONSER Operations Committee: a Task Group on Multiple Manifestations of Electronic Resources, which will analyze the manifestations available and treatments best suited for each; and a Task Group on the 042 Code for bibliographic records with AACR2 access points but with pre-AACR2 description.

In FY00 BIBCO libraries contributed 62,423 new bibliographic records, of which 21,156 were core records, to the pool of shared cataloging available for use by the global library community. This is a 6% increase over FY99, in addition, there has been an 8% increase in core record contribution One new trend was the growing acceptance of Core-level cataloging, which amounted to nearly 35 per cent of the total output.

CONSER

During 1999/2000, CONSER and its affiliate programs continued to grow and flourish. The success of the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Cataloging Program (SCCTP) and the initiative to add publication patterns to CONSER records raised awareness of and interest in CONSER both at home and abroad. The CONSER Operations Committee held its annual meeting May 11-12, 2000 at the Library of Congress with opening and closing sessions held in conjunction with BIBCO. CONSER at large meetings were held at both mid-winter and annual ALA meetings. Jean Hirons continued as CONSER Coordinator. During the year Eniko Basa and Les Hawkins were detailed to the CONSER Specialist position at the Library of Congress.

CONSER membership grew to 38 members with the addition of five institutions at the full, associate and affiliate levels. Brown University, Northwestern University, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology joined as full members; Cleveland Public Library and the National Library of Wales joined as associate members, and R.R. Bowker became an affiliate member. Both Brown and Cleveland Public joined as a result of participation in SCCTP. Bowker's membership is somewhat unique in that a Bowker employee will be located in the National Serials Data Program (NSDP). The CONSER database grew to 904,198 records with the addition of 17,736 new records.

Highlights of the year include the completion of rule revisions for AACR2, chapter 12 and associated efforts towards international MARC harmonization, the start of the initiative to input publication patterns into CONSER records, and the development of new courses for SCCTP. New problems arose with electronic resources and several groups were established to recommend CONSER policies and practices. One, a Task Group on Multiple Manifestations of Electronic Resources, which will analyze the manifestations available and treatments best suited for each, became a joint group with BIBCO under the auspices of the Standing Committee on Standards.

FY 2000 was particularly noteworthy for the increased level of international activities. The first non-North American institutions joined CONSER (National Library of Wales and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and SCCTP training and CONSER practices were translated as necessary and brought to Taiwan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

NACO

Authority record contribution totaled 128,074 new name authorities, with 36,426 revisions to existing records, and 8,914 new series authorities records.

Other developments in NACO involved possible membership of vendors, and a tentative expansion of training activities into workshops on the general values and applications of authority control.

SACO

Communication and training among participants was advanced with the opening of a PCC- SACO list. Staff of participating PCC members continued to offer SACO workshops at convenient venues. Collaboration among members of the BIBCO Operations Committee aimed at writing a SACO participants manual resulted in delivery of an editorial draft at the end of the fiscal year.

BIBCO members realized efficiencies in SACO production when they began contributing their new subject proposals through an interactive site available on the Internet. Cooperative Cataloging Team efforts at better handling of proposals from member institutions resulted in a reduction of throughput times from receipt of proposals to their appearance on a weekly list to four to six weeks.

SACO production totaled 2,681 new subject headings, with 621 revisions to existing headings from 122 contributing libraries. There were also 979 LC classification numbers produced, and 55 changes to classification numbers.

PCC Standing Committees

Standing Committee on Automation

Under chair Karen Calhoun, the Standing Committee on Automation renewed earlier work on aggregator databases, and began new on automated classification.

The charge of the Task Group on Automated Classification was approved in late 1999. They are investigating automation-based approaches to easing and streamlining the assignment of standard classification numbers to cataloging records.

The original Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases issued its final report in January 2000. At the Policy Committee's recommendation, the task group was reconstituted for two more years with a new charge. The group continues to lobby for vendor creation of sets of machine-derived records for major aggregations, to offer specifications for vendor-created sets, and to test the loading and maintenance of machine-derived sets of records.

Standing Committee on Standards

With the end of the fiscal year, Joan Schuitema of Loyola University Chicago completed her term as chair, succeeded by Ann Caldwell of Brown University.

The committee continued its work on core standards with the issuance of a core record standard for collections. A supplementary core standard for multiple character sets was completed and mounted on the PCC homepage. Work on standards for audiovisual materials continued with recommendations forwarded to the Policy Committee for action at its November meeting. A task group to formulate a core standard for cartographic materials began work with a final report due June 1, 2001. Significant progress has been made in standardizing and the terminology and formatting used in the core standards. A regular review cycle of core standards and procedures has been drafted.

The Standing Committee continues its ongoing work at the evaluation of PCC bibliographic records. It has produced models for use in studying the impact of PCC records on cataloging workflows and production. A task group on Model C, which gathers data on patron use of core records, is investigating the feasibility of fully developing this model. An interim report is currently posted on the PCC homepage.

Standing Committee on Training

Under chair Carol Hixson, the Standing Committee on Training continues to work to identify the need for training programs, workshops, and institutes aimed at developing cataloging skills that support the Program goals for both new participants and for continuing education and to identify, develop as necessary, and promote the distribution of easy-to-use documentation in support of Program goals.

To help the SCT fulfill its charge, four Task Groups were charged in 2000 to investigate different training issues.

The Task Group on Educational Needs of the Cataloging Community compiled a survey that was posted to Autocat and the PCCList. Some preliminary areas of need identified by the survey include training in: electronic resources and computer file cataloging, name and series authority, and subject cataloging and classification.

The Task Group on NACO Continuing Education has defined its primary audience as being NACO contributors at participating institutions. Secondary audiences include former NACO participants who have moved on to non-PCC libraries and the cataloging community in general. The group has decided that the CONSER Cataloging Manual is a good model and members have chosen particular NACO modules to begin working on.

The Task Group on Web-Based Training and Distance Education has looked at some of the issues surrounding distance education and have found that copyright of content presents special problems. They have recommended that the PCC play a leadership role in maintaining and promoting distance learning by developing the PCC Web site further.

The Task Group on PCC Participant and Training Documentation has evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of different delivery mechanisms, including print, the Web, Cataloger's Desktop, email, Powerpoint, and downloadable files. They are now working on a model of documentation delivery and pricing to recommend.

The SCT members discussed at ALA Annual in July 2000 the need for developing more partnerships with other groups to share resources and to reduce duplication of effort in training. The explorations have focused on two groups: OCLC network training coordinators and ALCTS. A concern is how to ensure that such training efforts include RLG and RLIN users as well.

At ALA Annual in July 2000, members of the SCT discussed the desired model for BIBCO Documentation. While CONSER documentation is a model that many members would like to follow, it was noted that there would be some difficulty of applying the CONSER model to BIBCO because the two programs are fundamentally different in several ways. Considerable work remains to be done in this area.

Adam Schiff has completed a final draft of the SACO Participants' Manual, after receiving feedback from SCT members and the LC Coop Team. He is to be commended for his extraordinary effort and for developing a very useful manual.

Of Special Note

Two significant areas of activity in the past year must be singled out for special note.

One is the extraordinary efforts by the CONSER coordinator and her co-workers in revision of AACR2, chapter 12, and pertinent cataloging paradigms to deal with the digital world. This work is ongoing, but already proves itself to be profitable activity.

The second is the sudden burst in PCC membership outside North America. In the English- speaking world, 18 libraries in the Union of South Africa formed two NACO funnels. The National Library of New Zealand joined the PCC and has received NACO training. In the non- English world, the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, was joined in NACO activity by the Universidade San Andres, Argentina. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology completed NACO and CONSER training, and participated in the pinyin conversion project.

Complete annual reports for each program are available on their respective web sites.