PCC Participants' Meeting summary

ALA Midwinter Conference January 11, 2004
San Diego, California

The semi-annual PCC Participants' Meeting was held in San Diego in conjunction with the 2004 ALA Midwinter meeting and was convened by newly-installed PCC Chair, Carlen Ruschoff from the University of Maryland.

She opened the evening by introducing PCC Chair-Elect, Roxanne Sellberg, Northwestern University, as well as the new CONSER Coordinator, Les Hawkins, Library of Congress, to the audience. Ruschoff stated that the focus of this meeting was to involve participation from PCC members and not to function merely as a reporting session. Consequently, PCC participants were given the appropriate URLs of the program annual reports that are available through the PCC Home Page and asked to inform themselves of the program's accomplishments and future directions.

These reports include the PCC annual report, the BIBCO annual report, the CONSER annual report, and the program statistics that are available via the PCC Web site.

Ruschoff provided a brief update regarding the work of the PCC Policy Committee (PoCo) and Steering Committees. Actions resulting from the work of these committees included adding a new position to the PCC Governance called the "Chair Emeritus", now held by Bob Wolven, Columbia University. In resolving an item [1.2.2] on the PCC Tactical Plan, LC and OCLC successfully identified an automated mechanism for streamlining reporting of bibliographic file maintenance (BFM). A document containing the guidelines for reporting BFM changes is to be found on the NACO Home Page. Ruschoff expressed her appreciation for the work carried out by both these PCC partners in bringing closure to this task and making NACO workflows less manual and therefore more efficient.

Other PoCo activities included establishing the Task Force on Continuing Resource Record Distribution; charging the BIBCO Coordinator to further develop a proposal to constitute SACO as a formal PCC program that will include the development of parameters for membership; reviewing the final report of the Joint Task Group on International Participation in the PCC; establishing the Monographs Aggregator Task Group; reviewing the PCC Strategic/Tactical Plan and endorsing a proposal to hold a 2004 CONSER Summit on Serials in the Digital Environment. More information can be found via the CONSER Home Page. Ruschoff summarized the highlights of the Steering Committee meeting held just prior to the Midwinter conference. She noted that the Steering Committee had approved encumbering funds for a proposal made by the Standing Committee on Training and a contribution in support of the CONSER summit.

She reported that the 1st Train-the-Series Trainer session had been held in October 2004 and 10 trainers now form the cadre of PCC trainers available to provide series training on demand. Ruschoff thanked the PCC partner institutions for their support of this training activity including: National Library of Medicine, the New York University Law Library, Saint Louis University Law Library, Tulane University, Yale University and the Library of Congress (LC). Judith Kuhagen, Cataloging and Policy Support (LC-CPSO) senior policy specialist, created the course documentation, and the Cooperative Cataloging Team will be making the training manuals, as well as additional training tools available to all PCC regional trainers via the PCC Web site.

Ruschoff then turned the podium over to the coordinators and standing committee chairs for current highlights and news of the ALA activities of their respective groups.

CONSER report

Les Hawkins announced that PoCo had approved CONSER's restructuring of the Enhance and Associate membership levels, which may provide opportunities for expanding membership. In 2003 SCCTP trainers gave two train-the-trainer workshops for the Basic Serials Cataloging workshop to involve more trainers in the program. During 2004, SCCTP will consider whether train-the-trainer workshops are needed for other SCCTP courses. SCCTP will also begin looking at delivery of Web-based training or at least supplemental material for SCCTP workshops. The question of how holdings information is used for electronic resources is of increased interest to the Publications Patterns Initiative. In the past year a task group of the Initiative did a survey of how holdings for e-journals are used by libraries. The Initiative will become involved with the evolving standards and systems for managing electronic resources. With the implementation of the aggregator-neutral record, Hawkins reported that cataloging guidelines are still being fine tuned by CONSER members.

BIBCO report

Ana Cristán, BIBCO Coordinator, provided a brief update on BIBCO program news. She thanked the PoCo for its support of the decision to require that minimum contribution levels for participation in the BIBCO program be set at 100 records per annum for all members.

She reported that the BIBCO-At-Large meeting at this conference featured Robert Ellett, Catalog Librarian, Joint Forces Staff College, who presented preliminary findings about how PCC records are used by non-PCC libraries. The preliminary findings of this study, conducted to satisfy dissertation requirements for his Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University, reveal that non-PCC libraries are unable to identify PCC records and that quite a bit of unnecessary editing of bibliographic records takes place. Cristán encouraged Ellett to consider publishing his findings in an article prior to finalizing his doctoral work. Cristán felt that this study and the associated findings would be of great interest to the PCC community.

She noted that Judith Kuhagen, LC-CPSO senior policy specialist, had also addressed the group to briefly summarize the AACR2 rule 1.6B1 revision to be published in the 2004 Update to AACR2; early implementation of the revised rule in the U.S. has been approved per LCRI 1.6B. Earlier at this conference, Kuhagen presented a "Series workshop for BIBCO catalogers" that will help to assure that BIBCO records continue to reflect the latest PCC series policies and practices.

Cristán thanked the two task groups working under the auspices of the BIBCO Operations Committee that submitted their final reports: the Task Group on SACO Program Development, chaired by Jimmie Lundgren (University of Florida), and the Task Group to Survey PCC Libraries on Cataloging of Remote Access Electronic Resources chaired by Jacqueline Byrd (Indiana University), whose Final report is now available. In addition, Cristán noted that the Survey on Cataloging of Remote Access Electronic Resources that is currently posted on the BIBCO home page had excluded some survey responses as a result of an e-mail glitch. She reassured respondees that results were being recompiled to include new responses and that the report would be reposted shortly.

Standing Committee on Automation (SCA) Gary Charbonneau, Chair (Indiana University)

Charbonneau announced that both Gary Strawn (Northwestern University) and Ruth Bogan (Rutgers University) were both reappointed to the SCA with terms to expire in October of 2006. Helen Kabala, private consultant, will continue to serve as the vendor liaison through October 2005. Charbonneau reported that the Journals on Aggregator Databases Task Group continues to carry out its charge, which was changed after CONSER adopted the aggregator neutral record, and that the Task Group developed the content required for those records. He announced that Robert Bremer, OCLC, is creating a macro to create an electronic record from print sources.

The Task Group on Linking Entries is also very active based on its assignment from the PCC Strategic/Tactical plan that focuses on the routine of uploading records into the utilities. This TG is planning to survey PCC libraries for what PCC vendors already have with regards to their capabilities to upload records. Both the Task Group on Automated Classification and the Task Group on Series Numbering have completed their charges; however, Charbonneau reported that a better mechanism for encouraging vendors to implement the endorsed SCA recommendations is needed. The SCA will seek advice from the Steering Committee.

Standing Committee on Standards (SCS) Paul J. Weiss, Chair (University of California, San Diego)

In his first ALA/PCC report as Chair of the SCS, Weiss stated that under his leadership he wants the SCS to be proactive and will be looking at other metadata standards and the role that the SCS has in promoting and applying non-PCC standards. Weiss announced that the Task Group on Conference Publications has completed its charge but that SCS recommendations are still forthcoming on implementation. The Task Group on the Function of the Authority File has completed its work as well and has made recommendations that the SCS still needs to consider for before forwarding to the Policy Committee for implementation. Weiss also announced that the final report of the Task Group on International Participation had been completed and is currently under study by the Steering Committee.

Weiss announced that the Standards Committee would be examining the rule interpretations for the cataloging of Archival and Moving Images. In addition, a new Task Group on e-books and an aggregator database for monographs is to be established.

Standing Committee on Training (SCT) David Banush, Chair (Cornell University)

Banush expressed appreciation to outgoing SCT members Bill Garrison (University of Rochester) and Louise Rees (University of Pennsylvania) for their contributions and efforts and welcomed new members Rebecca Uhl (Arizona State University) and Greta De Groat (Stanford University). Banush thanked the Joint Task Force on International Participation for completing its work and announced that the Task Force on Descriptive Metadata Training has produced a tentative report for the Midwinter meeting and will follow with a final report within one month.

Banush reported that the SCT had been successful in reviewing the Integrating Resources documentation, that it is completing the editing for the 3rd edition of the NACO Participant's Manual, and that it will oversee the revision of the BIBCO training materials in 2004. Banush also reported on other training initiatives, including the Joint ALCTS/PCC training program on both subject analysis as well as the training program under development on name authorities. Finally, Banush announced that the SCT had named Greta De Groat as the liaison to the Continuing Education Implementation Group (CEIG) established in support of the LC Action Plan on Bibliographic Control of Web Resources.

Building an operational plan for PCC Contributions: A Review Model conducted at the University of Maryland

Ruschoff provided an in-depth report on an undertaking at the University of Maryland (UMd) to examine its participation in PCC Programs. This study was done by the University of Maryland Libraries, Technical Services Division as part of a larger mandate to examine the Libraries' participation in all national and regional programs. The focus of the study is to answer the following questions: 1) What are the benefits of participation? 2) What are the drawbacks of participation? and 3) Is participation worth the investment, in terms of both financial and human resources?

In response to the request, the Original Catalogers held a series of meetings to discuss issues and strategies for addressing UMd's participation in the PCC. She distributed a PCC Contribution Review Model document that outlined the topics of discussion for each of the meetings that have been held thus far. As background, a statistical data reflecting the current pattern of contributions were gathered and distributed. The catalogers identified expected outcomes for their work. They include: a vision for UMd's participation in the PCC and an operational plan for making systematic contributions to PCC. It was agreed that the guiding principle in articulating a contribution plan would be that "UMd Catalogers make meaningful contributions to the PCC Programs." The criteria developed for the plan has five elements:

• the contributions must have impact: value to the UMd Libraries and value to libraries using PCC records;
• the contributions must be tied to UMd work priorities and cataloger's areas of expertise;
• the contribution plan must build on local strengths;
• the plan must keep workflow as simple as possible; and
• the plan must be achievable.

The Catalogers also looked at the PCC Strategic/Tactical Plan and decided which of the goals and objectives UMd Catalogers could incorporate into the plan. The specific goals adopted center around increasing contributions, focusing on under represented subjects and languages, enhancing international records, providing training in house, and monitoring standards for record input.

The proposed plan that resulted from this work has three basic elements: First, identify subject areas in which the Libraries collections are strong. Second, agree to contribute bibliographic, name and series authority records for these materials. And third, pull these materials out of the routine search queue and catalog them earlier in the process.

The Head of Cataloging and the Director of Technical Services met with Public Services and Collection Services leaders to present the background information and the proposal for a pilot contribution plan. Suggestions for subject areas in which to contribute yielded the topics of agriculture, Marylandia, piano scores and piano recordings.

Ruschoff explained that the meeting with Public Services took place just before the holidays. The "next steps" include debriefing catalogers on the meeting with Public Services and Collection Services Leaders, deciding on what is needed to implement the pilot with regards to training needs, any procedural, i.e., workflow changes, and reviewing of job responsibilities, committee work, university service, and the like. Ultimately, a timetable for the pilot must be determined. Naturally, an evaluation will be developed and potential expansion for this pilot will be determined. One additional future task will be to review the data gathered by Northwestern University in its assessment study for decision-making in the UMd study, including search intervals, languages and subject areas in which to expand, and other implications related to workflow and contributions.

Ruschoff then turned the meeting over to Sellberg, who presented data gathered for PCC's Task Group on Assessment.

Sellberg reported on the Task Group on Assessment. The group has been charged with identifying data that would be useful to the PoCo in assessing the effectiveness of the Program in meeting the needs of libraries for cataloging records and authoritative headings. Sellberg conducted an initial study at her institution with the assistance her IT colleague, Strawn, and gathered a great deal of statistical data for a limited 6-month period of time from January through June of 2001 and compared those statistics with data obtained from the period from January through June of 2002. The data, which was collected, reflected use of copy from both PCC as well as non-PCC institutions, the production of original cataloging performed, and the timeliness of cataloging efforts in three-month increments. She correlated this data with the language of publication as well as the date of publications for the monograph records. Findings pointed to an overall increase in Northwestern's cataloging arrearage and solicited volunteers of other PCC members to conduct similar similar statistical studies for use by the Task Group. Sellberg yielded the evening's proceedings back to Ruschoff, who thanked Sellberg for her presentation.

Ruschoff expressed her wish that the audience participate and provide feedback on the review model conducted at the University of Maryland. Ruschoff presented three discussion questions on which members could comment and voice concerns and ideas, including:

1. Would a process similar to this one serve as a catalyst for evaluating your library's contributions?
2. What are the obstacles to contributing PCC records? and
3. What changes could be made that would encourage catalogers to contribute more records to the PCC?

Comments made by several members of the audience expressed sincere interest in being able to use such a model to assess individual institutional contributions to the PCC. One question raised by Paul Weiss (UC, San Diego) was to ascertain what incentives or motivation there was to contribute and what factors determined if a cataloger could or would contribute. Judith Nadler (University of Chicago) identified that her institution expected that each cataloger contribute records to the Program. Adam L. Schiff (University of Washington) surprised some audience members by stating that non-professionals also contributed authority headings. Finally, one CJK cataloger expressed frustration at the dearth of PCC records contributed in CJK languages and pondered if additional training could be made available to those staff members involved in cataloging of those materials. Ruschoff assured the cataloger that his concerns would be taken back to the Steering Committee and the PoCo.

In closing Ruschoff drew attention to a streaming video featuring PCC Secretariat and Chief of the Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division at LC, John D. Byrum, Jr., where he speaks to the benefits of PCC membership and cooperative cataloging that serves as the inspiration to all PCC members.

Ruschoff then thanked audience members for their active participation and involvement, and urged participants to enjoy dinner and the beautiful San Diego weather.