The Program for Cooperative Cataloging

Colleen F. Hyslop

From Catalog to Gateway: Briefings from the CFFC Number 8. Originally published as a supplement to the ALCTS Newsletter, volume 7, number 4, 1996. Copyright 1996 by the American Library Association. All rights reserved except those which may be granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Permission to reproduce this article here on the PCC Web site granted by the American Library Association.

Colleen F. Hyslop is Assistant Director for Technical Services at the Michigan State University Libraries. She can be contacted at: Main Library, W110, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1048; (517) 353-4531; e-mail: 20676cfh@msu.edu. The author is indebted to the members of the PCC Executive Council, the Library of Congress Secretariat as author of many of the documents on which this article is based, and particularly to Carol A. Mandel, Columbia University, one of the key founders of the PCC.

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) has set an agenda to change the world of cataloging in fundamental ways. The purpose of this briefing paper is to provide an overview of the PCC, highlighting some of its newest initiatives as it carries forward a conceptual and practical revolution in bibliographic access. The PCC promotes a paradigm shift in cataloging in which timeliness becomes a key component in defining high-quality access. As an international cooperative effort, the PCC is seeking broad participation from the library community and developing innovative approaches to achieve efficient, timely cataloging.

To simplify reading, definitions of the acronyms used in this article are listed below:

History of the PCC

The program's direct predecessor is the Cooperative Cataloging Council (CCC). The idea of the CCC was born at a meeting of participants in cooperative library programs that was held at the Library of Congress in November 1992. This was a breakthrough meeting that envisioned a transformation of cooperative cataloging to streamlined, cost-efficient, and greatly enlarged programs.

Under the leadership of Sarah Thomas, CCC chair and LC's director for cataloging, the CCC began its work in 1993. Task groups were established to prepare extensive recommendations, and broad input was sought from the cataloging community. One task group was named "More, Better, Faster, Cheaper." This colorful yet serious aphorism captured the concepts driving the CCC and caught fire in the cataloging community. Throughout 1993 and 1994, the CCC worked to develop a new vision for international cooperative cataloging. The resulting program--the PCC--was officially initiated at the February 1995 Executive Council meeting, a historic meeting that marked the transition to an elected council.

The governance of the PCC is democratic and representative. The program is directed by an executive council, with seven members elected by participant libraries and eight institutional representatives. The council is aided by two operational advisers, who are catalogers able to provide technical expertise. LC coordinates the day-to-day work of the PCC and serves as secretariat.

Impact of Earlier Cooperative Cataloging Programs

CCC members had the benefit of experience with earlier cooperative cataloging programs. Lessons learned from previous endeavors helped shape the design of the PCC:

• Cut the high costs of cooperation so that participation is not a burden.
• Provide standards with cost-effective alternatives that allow libraries to decide what they will catalog and at what level.
• Simplify the earlier, cumbersome process of creating and contributing records, including the paper trail, documentation, and revision.
• Broaden membership so that participation is not exclusive to type or size of library.
• Share ownership, with direction set by the participants, including governance, training, and standards.
• Increase the efficiency of data transfer through technology.

Mission and Goals of the PCC [1]

In support of the need to provide access to materials in libraries' collections, the PCC seeks to increase the availability of unique records created under mutually acceptable standards, to facilitate the creation and use of these records, and to provide leadership in the information community. The goals of the PCC are listed below, followed by selected accomplishments:

Cooperatively increase the timely availability of bibliographic and authority records by cataloging more items, by producing cataloging that is widely available for sharing and use by others, and by cataloging in a more cost effective manner.

The newest developments 'include improvements in data transfer to make cataloging more widely available and more cost-effective for participants. In 1995, LC/OCLC/ RLG implemented FTP capabilities for the contribution of authority records. In addition, the PCC Executive Council has adopted a goal to ensure that the program utility partners (OCLC and RLG) implement agreements necessary for the timely exchange of program records between OCLC, RLG, and LC. This means that libraries could create PCC records on OCLC or RLIN, and the records would be shared across networks. This would be a breakthrough of major importance that would demonstrate the full commitment of the utilities to the success of PCC.
For details on significant increases in name and series authority records, subject headings, and number of PCC members, see the section in this article titled "Program Growth and Membership."

Develop and maintain mutually acceptable standards for records.

A major accomplishment is the development of the core record standard, which defines the minimum set of data elements essential to cooperative use of the catalog record. It offers a real alternative to full-level cataloging while addressing the recognized deficiencies of a minimal-level record and providing quality access. The core record will be described in the next CFFC briefing paper.
Simplification and standardization of rules and documentation are ongoing goals. As examples, the NACO Participants' Manual has been created, the revised and improved Subject Cataloging Manual will be published this year, and the updating and reissuance of the simplified LC Descriptive Cataloging Manual will be completed in 1996-97.

Promote the values of timely access and cost-effectiveness in cataloging, and expand the pool of catalogers who catalog to the mutually accepted standards.

The PCC has recently initiated "training-the-trainer" programs for NACO,-and BIBCO, and LC has instituted new group training programs for series authorities. For a discussion of cataloging values, see "Impact on Cataloging."

Increase the sharing and use of foreign bibliographic and authority records.

The PCC is fortunate to have full, active participation and record contribution by the British Library. The National Library of Canada is planning to contribute records at a later time. A number of important initiatives are under way, including:

• The Cataloguing Policy Convergence Agreement, which reduces different practices in the application of AACR2 between LC and the British Library,
• An action plan to achieve future alignment of USMARC, CANMARC, and UKMARC into a common MARC format, and
• Semiannual meetings of the Foreign MARC Coalition, a group that plans strategies for the cost-effective acquisition, conversion, and redistribution of MARC records from foreign national bibliographic agencies.

Activity in the international arena and exploration of relationships with other international agencies, including the National Library of New Zealand, Australian Bibliographic Network, National Library of Lithuania, and Deutsche Bibliothek, are under way. Thirteen international institutions currently are PCC members.

Provide for ongoing discussion, planning, and operations among participants in order to further the program's mission.

The PCC uses many vehicles for communication and input, including its new home page on the World Wide Web (address at the end of this article), the COOPCAT and AUTOCAT listservs, ALCTS Network News (AN2), and ALA meetings.

PCC Programs: NACO, SACO, BIBCO

To accomplish its mission, the PCC has formed both authority and bibliographic components. The authority component consists of the Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) for name and series authorities and the Subject Authority Cooperative Program (SACO) for subject headings and classification numbers. The Bibliographic Cooperative Program (BIBCO) is the bibliographic component. NACO and BIBCO are formal programs that require PCC membership and training. After training is complete and libraries are declared independent, there is no external review. SACO is a less formal program than NACO and BIBCO and does not require extensive training; a member of the LC cooperative cataloging team is assigned to assist new SACO members. PCC authority and bibliographic records carry the same authority as LC records.

NACO participants create and contribute name authority records to the National Authority File. New name headings are contributed, and additions or corrections may be made to established headings. This project reduces the costs of the single most expensive task in cataloging, the creation of authority records. NACO, which is the first and largest of the PCC programs, officially began in 1977. Libraries that were NACO members before the PCC existed were grandparented into NACO and the PCC. In fiscal year 1995, NACO libraries contributed 44 percent of the records added to the National Authority File. NACO libraries may choose to receive additional training to contribute series authority records. Full voting membership in the PCC is based on NACO participation.

SACO participants contribute subject authority records to Library of Congress Subject Headings. SACO evolved from the Cooperative Subject Cataloging Projects (CSCP), which was established in 1983. CSCP libraries were grandparented into SACO. All libraries are welcome to submit subject heading proposals to LC using the SACO paper form or new electronic form available on LC Marvel. The editorial process for handling subject heading proposals at LC has been streamlined. Many NACO libraries also contribute to SACO. Members who participate only in SACO are associate members of the PCC.

BIBCO libraries contribute bibliographic records, both full and core level, to the national utilities with all headings under authority control. These records are of the same high quality and equivalent authority as LC records. BIBCO is the newest of the PCC programs, inaugurated in late 1995 as fifteen PCC librarians completed the BIBCO training-the trainer course at LC. All BIBCO participants are first trained in NACO and later receive complete BIBCO training. BIBCO evolved from the National Coordinated Cataloging Program (NCCP), which became operational in 1988.

The PCC also sponsors funnel projects as an alternative way for a library to participate in the program. Funnels are multilibrary projects in which institutions band together under a project leader to contribute records in areas of mutual interest. Current funnel projects include Music, Hebraica, North Dakota State, ArtNACO, Africana SACO, Dance Heritage Coalition, Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC), American Theological Library Association (ATLA), Detroit Area Library Network (DALNET), and the OCLC Fiction Project. Discussions are under way to initiate NACO funnel projects for law libraries and archival materials.

The PCC's strategic plan is undergoing revision and updating, and efforts are under way to identify new objectives and initiatives. The program's goals for annual production by the year 2000 are 60,000-80,000 bibliographic records and 150,000 authority records. Membership goals call for training ten new BIBCO participants and twenty new NACO members annually.

The statistics in tables 1 and 2 show overwhelming growth for all phases of the program, a clear sign of both its success and potential.

Table 1. Program Growth [2]
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                                        FY1992              FY1995
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NACO participants                           91                 203
Name authority records added            66,318              92,179
Series authority records added           1,427               4,476
Subject authority records added            678               1,954

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     Table 2. Current Membership by Type of Library (%) [3]

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Special libraries                       43
Academic libraries                      37
International                            6
Public                                   4
State                                    4
U.S. government                          3
Other                                    3

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Standing Committees on Automation, Standards, and Training, and Task Groups

Recognizing the critical importance of automation, standards, and training to its success and cost-effectiveness, the PCC has established a standing committee for each area. The standing committees have accomplished much key work to establish the PCC and frequently work together on related issues.

The Standing Committee on Automation identifies automation issues to be resolved in order to implement the program's mission and formulates plans to present PCC requirements to vendors and arrange for LC, OCLC, and RLG to work together on PCC automation requirements. An early and ongoing focus of the committee is promoting the development and widespread application of technical services workstations. These efforts have included supporting regional institutes sponsored by ALCTS, creating an ARL SPEC Kit, and working with vendors. The committee worked with others for efficient PCC record transmission and is leading the way in linking bibliographic and authority records and in development of other technological tools to assist catalogers.

The Standing Committee on Standards develops standards that support wide use of records in a cost-effective manner and evaluates the need for quality standards. This committee has been intensely involved in development of core standards, working closely with the cataloging communities for different formats. Core records for five -formats have been approved and others are in development. The committee is now working on a survey and template for core records.

The Standing Committee on Training identifies cataloger training needs and develops programs and easy-to-use documentation that support the program goals. A new, decentralized approach to training emphasizes training-the-trainer techniques. Recently, the committee has been actively involved with implementation of the first BIBCO training-the-trainer program. The committee is spearheading valuing catalogers' judgment and decision-making abilities and leading catalogers away from the mentality of revision and a "perfect record for catalogers."

Task groups are frequently formed to deal with specific charges. An example is the Task Group on AACR2R Code Revision, charged with expediting code revisions to address inadequacies in AACR2R.

Impact on Cataloging

In a 1991 article in Library Journal, Dorothy Gregor and Carol Mandel stated, "Cataloging must change!" The job must be done within current resources-that means doing the job differently." [4] There has been a groundswell of support for change since this article appeared. The PCC is taking a leadership role in responding to this call for change with a response that involves both reinforcement of the importance of bibliographic access and reconceptualization of cataloging. As the creator of bibliographic and authority records, the cataloger is at the heart of the program's goals. The PCC advocates and champions the value of cataloging and catalogers while promoting a redefinition of catalogers' values.

PCC training approaches cataloging from a set of basic values: timely access, cost-effectiveness, and the cataloger's judgment and decision-making skills. PCC catalogers learn these values, which represent a transformation in how people catalog. The program redefines high-quality cataloging with a focus on user needs for timely and useful access. The training emphasizes the need to balance "more, better, faster, cheaper" as goals in the daily production of catalog records. Quality and timeliness are not opposing concepts.

Providing sufficient quality training to expand the program widely is a challenge that cannot be met by a single institution. The PCC and LC turned the need for training into an opportunity for an enlarged role for catalogers from participant libraries; ten catalogers were trained to become the PCC's first regional trainers in the new "Training the NACO Trainer" course. While LC will continue to administer this decentralized training program, most future NACO training will be provided by regional NACO trainers. This will reduce the training and startup costs for new members by taking advantage of nearby expertise. Once trained and declared independent, libraries are responsible for maintaining standards without expensive and time-consuming outside revision. This approach demonstrates the emphasis on the importance of the cataloger's role and the sharing of responsibility and expertise that are characteristic of the PCC.

Impact on the User

The PCC has officially been in operation for only a year, and BIBCO in particular is just getting under way. For now, we can only see the beginning of the very positive effect of the PCC on the end user. With timely access to more materials, the user will be the beneficiary of the program's success.

It is now common for libraries to hold unique or complex research materials in backlogs or uncataloged collections in the hope that another library will catalog them or until original catalogers have time to provide full-level records. Even in libraries with relatively small backlogs, it is not uncommon to have some materials waiting a decade or more for access. Uncataloged collections frequently have been without access for many decades. Libraries' participation in earlier cooperative programs sometimes placed their constituencies at a disadvantage. The PCC strives to enable libraries to provide national access, at core record level if chosen by the library, without placing the needs of their constituencies second to those of the broader library community. Cutting cataloging costs will help libraries provide access in a timely manner and without the need to relegate materials to backlogs or uncataloged collections.

In cooperative cataloging programs there has, in the past, been confusion between goals to provide access to unique titles versus goals to increase the number of records likely to be used by others for copy cataloging. The PCC supports both goals, allows each participating library to decide what will be cataloged, and provides a cost-effective means for doing so. Whether or not another library will use a given PCC record for copy, this approach will increase the body of materials accessible to all users. If the PCC succeeds in defining high-quality access to include timeliness as a key component and reducing the number of items in backlogs, the user will be the winner!

Invitation to Become a PCC Participant

The ambitious goals of the PCC can only be achieved through wide participation in the program. Library administrators and technical services librarians are invited to explore the PCC and consider becoming members. The PCC is eager to recruit new participants from among the various library communities, including academic, public, special libraries, museums, and archives.

The PCC goal is that participation should not cost contributors any more than what a library normally would spend for its cataloging, or only a tiny bit more. [5] The PCC believes that libraries will choose to participate if they know how the program works and realize that it does not cost more and that it supports rather than interferes with catalogers' work and priorities.

Institutions interested in learning more about participating in the PCC should contact the PCC Secretariat: Ann Della Porta, Cooperative Cataloging Team Leader, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4383; (202) 707-7920; e-mail: dellapor@mail.loc.gov.

Learn more about the PCC on the World Wide Web at the PCC home page at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc or on LC MARVEL, the LC gopher server: telnet to marvel.loc.gov.

References

1. "The Program for Cooperative Cataloging Five-Year Strategic Plan, 1994-1999" (gopher://marvel.loc.gov/00/services/cataloging/coop/coop-cnci/strategic.pln)
2. "The Program for Cooperative Cataloging" (gopher://marvel.loc.gov/00/services/cataloging/coop/coop-cncl/coop-ccl)
3. Private electronic message from Patricia Myers-Hayer, facilitator, Program for Cooperative Cataloging, Library of Congress, Apr. 30, 1996.
4. Dorothy Gregor and Carol Mandel, "Cataloging Must Change!" Library journal 116, no. 6 (Apr. 1, 1991):42-47.
5. Private electronic message from Carol Mandel, Jan. 16, 1996.

The next CFFC briefing paper will discuss the core record standard and other selected highlights of the PCC.