PCC ANNUAL REPORT

Fiscal Year 1999

BIBCO

The BIBCO program celebrated a banner year in production and in increased membership. For the first time since the inception of the program, it met and exceeded it goal of increasing production of bibliographic records by 15,000. Indeed, 15 member libraries far exceeded their estimates for the year. This was in spite of production obstacles caused in many member institutions due to ILS implementations and staff transitions. Total contributions for FY99 were 58,848 bibliographic records, of which 16,526 were Core level records increases of 57% and of 36% respectively over FY98.

Membership increased by seven this past year: Arizona State University, New York University, Queens Borough Public Library, Tulane University, University of Florida, University of Pennsylvania, University of Madison Wisconsin, and an expanded participation at the University of Washington. This brought total membership to 37, with more training planned in new member institutions for FY2000.

Organizationally, BIBCO matured into a series of meetings held for members' benefit: BIBCO-at- Large sessions held at both ALA conventions in the calendar year 1999, and an Operations Committee meeting held to enable cross-fertilization at the same time and location as that of the CONSER Operations Committee.

The BIBCO Operations Committee continued its efforts to promote the use of the Core record standards produced by the Standing Committee on Standards. Presentations were made for members, and as outreach programs, on implementing these standards and on statistical reporting of their use.

Plans for a three day session of Training the BIBCO Trainer in the next fiscal year had an additional benefit to recruiting new trainers and institutions to BIBCO. There was a full revamping of documentation and BIBCO training binders.

Special working groups formed during the year as a response to practical concerns voiced during BIBCO meetings. A Working Group on Statistics developed reporting conventions for types of cataloging work involving PCC-contributed records. Issues involving series also absorbed BIBCO's energies. One Working Group was formed to study bibliographic treatment relating to series numbering. The BIBCO Operations Committee authorized the distribution of a survey, the results of which are due for the November 1999 Policy Committee meeting, on issues related to the addition of a national-level analysis and classification practice to series authority records.

Major accomplishments for the year include mounting a BIBCO FAQ on the BIBCO homepage; and a BIBCO information packet specially designed for library administrators and department heads who are considering joining BIBCO.

Visit the BIBCO home page for a complete report of the Fy99 BIBCO activities.

CONSER

The fiscal year 1999 was a year of significant achievement for CONSER with the launching of a new training program and explorations into more involvement in the serials control area. Membership grew to 35, with the University of Oregon joining as an enhance member and the Faxon Company as an affiliate. The CONSER database grew with the addition of nearly 30,000 new records to 886,462 records.

In addition to its own work, CONSER also adjusted its Operations Committee meeting to a joint schedule with that of the BIBCO Operations Committee to allow for joint sessions and cross- fertilization of ideas among members.

Highlights of the year's activity were (1) the design and implementation of the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP). The SCCTP was inaugurated in spring 1999, with two Training the Trainer sessions for 36 trainers from the U.S. and Canada. As of late September, 13 workshops were scheduled, and another seven were in the planning stages. (2) Four review groups of CONSER members continued work on the revision of AACR2 to accommodate seriality. These culminated in a final report to the Joint Steering Committee on the Revision of AACR2, now posted on the JSC website for worldwide review. (3) A CONSER working group developed interim guidelines for use of the single record option for electronic versions of serials which, at the latest CONSER at Large meeting of the year, became permanent guidelines incorporated into Module 31 of the CONSER cataloging manual. (4)A short-term Task Group began deliberations on including publication patterns and holdings data in CONSER records for a report during 1999. When it became apparent that this would become a long-term project, a revised charge was issued and a new group formed for future work in this area.

Visit the CONSER homepage for a complete report of Fy99 CONSER activities.

NACO

The Name Authority Cooperative saw further national as well as international, expansion, including the active recruitment and training of members of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, along with new members in Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. In all, 20 libraries joined the NACO program and received training or extension training to facilitate expanded NACO participation among their staffs.

Members new and old together produced a total of 133,011 new name authorities, with 39,355 revisions to existing records, and 10,617 new series authorities records. These numbers, while down from the record numbers of the prior fiscal year, represent the product of member institutions' regular work flows, while last year's statistics were significantly boosted by special projects and large database loads.

SACO

The Subject Authorities Cooperative received a great deal of attention from BIBCO membership due to members' supplying of subject headings on PCC bibliographic records. SACO work is to be better incorporated into BIBCO training, while members of the BIBCO Operations Committee are collaborating in writing a SACO participants manual.

A SACO FAQ was added to the homepage along with a FAQ on SACO funnels.

Special outreach efforts to the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and to Historically Black Colleges and Universities produced initiatory work in organizing a SACO funnel project for African-American subject headings.

Cooperative Cataloging Team members worked at better handling of proposals from member institutions with the introduction of centralized e-mail addresses to which all proposals could be sent and tracked for statistical purposes; work has begun on an experimental, interactive site which allows members to input SACO proposals through the Internet.

SACO production in FY99 totaled 2,027 new subject headings, with 393 revisions to existing headings. There were also 1,135 LC classification numbers produced, and 43 changes to classification numbers.

PCC Standing Committees

Karen Calhoun, Cornell University, assumed the chair in place of Michael Kaplan of Indiana University upon his election to PCC chair.

In the first of a series of special focus presentations at PCC Membership Meetings at ALA, Automation Committee members gave a set of talks on their current projects and results. A Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases is addressing automation aspects of a task group begun under CONSER. A Task Group on OCLC Batchloading produced its final report, with recommendations for OCLC implementation of PCC core record coding and general utility treatment of PCC core records. The question of real time uploading of bibliographic records into the utilities has been resolved with the release of OCLC Cataloging MicroEnhancer and a similar process in RLIN, but that of real time uploading of authorities records remain unresolved. A Task Group is in process of formation on automated methods that will streamline assignment of Library of Congress classification to items. Finally, the Standing Committee on Automation has taken an active role in finding and publicizing new automated techniques to ease catalogers' workload in producing online bibliographic and authorities work.

Standing Committee on Standards

Under chair Joan Schuitema of Loyola University Chicago, the Standing Committee on Standards issued a Classification FAQ; a Core record standard for computer files; and a Core record standard for rare books during the past year. Work on Core records for audiovisual materials and for collections continues.

The Standing Committee carries out the commitment of the PCC to quality bibliographic records in its ongoing work at the evaluation of PCC records. It has produced models for use in studying the impact of PCC records on cataloging workflows and production. Task Groups continue their charges to develop the means to collect and review data from PCC bibliographic work.

Standing Committee on Training

Joan Swanekamp of Yale ended her tenure of the chair of this Standing Committee with the fiscal year. Her work was taken up by Carol Hixson of the University of California, Los Angeles. The Standing Committee on Training focused on PCC training initiatives and outreach activities designed to heighten awareness of the PCC.

Committee members reviewed the "values" component of the BIBCO training manual in preparation for the BIBCO Training-the-Trainer sessions to be held in October of 1999. A number of trainers worked with members of the BIBCO Operations Committee to update the whole of the manual.

Outreach efforts continued with presentation of a Cataloging Now Institute in Flushing, New York, for representative administrators, catalogers, and public services staff of interested libraries. Another Institute is planned for October, in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. A revamp of this program, in continuous use since July of 1998, is in consideration.

Conclusion

The second year of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging saw a stabilization in its programs, as members became accustomed to this new participant in the cataloging environment. It also saw elements pointing to a great opening up of members and activity, with memberships approved in Hong Kong and South Africa; and continued work in the revisions of AACR, in automation, in standards, and in training and outreach programs.