LC-Cooperative Cataloging Discussion Group Meeting

ALA Midwinter Meeting, San Antonio, Texas

Sunday, January 21, 1996

The LC-Cooperative Cataloging Discussion Group Meeting was held Sunday, January 21, 1996. Sarah Thomas, Chair of the Executive Council of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) welcomed the group and proceeded by providing an update on the PCC. She stated that one of the Program's biggest achievements is the BIBCO training class held in September of 1995. She also announced that the following representatives were elected to the Executive Council by the membership of the PCC:

• Barry Baker, University of Georgia
• Jennifer Bowen, Eastman School of Music
• Pat Thomas, Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library

Dr. Thomas reported that the Executive Council had been working to revise the PCC Strategic Plan and was devising a new Tactical Plan incorporating more specificity to cover the next 18-24 month period. She thanked participants for their past contributions and encouraged them to continue to contribute at increased rate wherever possible. She also asked participants to talk about the Program with colleagues and seek new members to join the PCC. Many NACO libraries may be able to expand contributions by recruiting other libraries within their universities or organizations, such as law libraries or medical libraries.

The next speaker was Eric Childress, Chair of the Task Group on the Core Bibliographic Record for Audiovisual Materials. He stated that the Task Group was formed in the summer of 1995 and was charged with defining the minimum set of data elements for audiovisual materials. In addition to Mr. Childress, the Task Force members include Diane Boehr, Nancy Erickson, Jane Magree, Roger Minier and Glenn Patton. Joan Schuitema serves as the PCC Standards Committee liaison. The task group has issued the first draft core level guidelines for moving images as well as the first draft core level guidelines for graphics. These draft documents were issued with surveys to experts, organizations, Internet lists, and the cataloging community with comments and questions to be returned by January 31, 1996.

Joan Schuitema, Northwestern University, then discussed the PCC Home Page and explained that it had been developed at the request of PCC members. She indicated that it was not designed to include cataloging tools. She provided the new World Wide Web address for the PCC Home Page (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc). David Williamson provided an on-line demonstration of the PCC Home Page and encouraged participants to let PCC know about interim and final reports that could be posted and linked. David encouraged any suggestions and changes be forwarded to the WWW address.

Ann Della Porta reported for LC's Cooperative Cataloging Team. The statistics for FY95 demonstrate overwhelming growth for all phases of the program. NACO participants added 92,108 new name authority records, an increase of nearly 18%. Series authority record contributions expanded at an even greater rate, due in large part to the successful Series Institutes held at LC. 4,476 new series authority records were contributed, an increase of 43% over that of FY94. Subject Authority Cooperative Program (SACO) participants added 1,954 new subject headings to LCSH, an 113% increase over FY94 contributions. At the close of FY95 the NCCP libraries became the first participants in BIBCO, the PCC program for the contribution of bibliographic records.

Sue Phillips, University of Texas, next gave the CONSER report. She said that CONSER has been conducting a thorough review of their membership and governance structure and reported that Brian Schottlaender, UCLA, is the chair-elect of the CONSER Policy Committee. She also welcomed two new CONSER participants; namely, the University of Maryland, College Park which will be contributing many records in Japanese, and the St. Louis University Law Library. Ms. Phillips announced that the next update to the CONSER guide will include core record formats for non-print materials and electronic serials. Additionally, CONSER is experimenting with batch loading of records.

Bill Garrison, University of Colorado, reported on his experience as a new NACO trainer at the University of Kansas. Mr. Garrison felt that preparing for the training was vital because questions from trainees cover all aspects of authority work. He said the experience was very rewarding. He regards the NACO Manual as an exemplary teaching tool and complemented the work of the Library of Congress Cooperative Cataloging Team and the Cataloging Policy and Support Office for its development. He encouraged further participation by the regional NACO trainers in fulfilling their commitment.

Joan Swanekamp, Columbia University, discussed the BIBCO training, held at LC in September 1995. She complimented Penny Mattern, OCLC, for the development of the manual used in the "Training the BIBCO Trainer" held in September 1995. She emphasized that the BIBCO training approaches cataloging and the core record from two basic "values" components; namely, 1) timely access and cost-effectiveness, and 2) judgment and cataloger's decision-making skills that incorporate a library's cultural and operational values.

Willy Cromwell-Kessler, Stanford University, continued the discussion about BIBCO and the Core Record. She covered the development of the core record and how the values of the PCC BIBCO Training complement the core record, which defines the minimum set of data elements used in the description of an item for purposes of PCC program records. She referred to the core record as "custom cataloging."

John D. Byrum then proceeded to outline the Library of Congress' plans for creation and use of core records. He listed the following six points:

1. LC is eager to show support for the core record
2. LC's Catalog Management Team has approved an experiment to evaluate the cost/benefits of the core record
3. A group of cataloging staff has been appointed to develop the experiment. They will do this by:
   • developing documentation
   • using the established model to collect data for evaluating the effectiveness of the experiment
   • considering the full range of implementation problems and proposing solutions to those problems
4. The initial experiment will focus on items slated for Minimal Level Cataloging (MLC)
5. Participating teams will work with selection and reference staff to develop understanding of items eligible for core record treatment in order to identify additional categories where core records might serve in place of full-level records
6. Planning is to be completed in February; the six-month experiment is expected to start in March 1996

Ed Glazier asked if an appendix to the US MARC Bibliographic Format would be created for the core record. Dr. Thomas replied that an appendix will be created for the core level record.

She also announced that the PCC/NACO liaison list is now available on LC MARVEL.

The meeting adjourned at about 8:30 p.m.