Representation of SACO-Only Institutions on the PCC Policy Committee (PoCo)

BACKGROUND:

At the November 2003 annual Policy Committee (PoCo) meeting of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), members were asked to affirm the work of the PCC Task Group on SACO Program Development in approving the creation of a SACO Program with parameters and guidelines for membership. The vote on the TG recommendation to proceed with the implementation of an "official" SACO Program was affirmed.

At the January 2004 meeting of the PCC Steering Committee the following SACO Program structure was approved.

1. The SACO Program will be open to the membership of the PCC, and any institution that participates in the PCC's component programs (BIBCO/CONSER/NACO) may submit subject proposals via the SACO Web form, provided they have met the SACO requirements. This structure will assure that the workflow of timely processing of subject heading proposals will benefit those members that have contributed to the cooperative cataloging process in other ways.
2. An invitation will be issued to those institutions currently contributing only subject proposals to join the newly formed official program. The application process will consist of filling in an application/information form with an agreement/commitment to an annual numerical contribution goal of 10-12 proposals. This numerical goal would include a combination of new or changed LCSH heading and/or new or changed LC Classification numbers.

It was hoped that this new SACO Program guideline would become the impetus needed for current SACO contributors to join the PCC and would encourage the development of regional SACO funnel projects. The PCC Governance was amended to reflect the change in status of SACO to a full-fledged PCC program.

It was decided by the PCC Steering Committee at that time that there would not be any immediate changes made to the current SACO PoCo representation; but that this decision would be revisited when a sufficient number of institutions had begun to actively participate in this newly-structured component of the PCC.

PROPOSAL:

It is now time to revisit this decision that will allow SACO-Only representation on the Policy Committee. SACO-Only membership is growing continually. The number of institutions that have expressed interest in participating in the fully-fledged program increases at a rate of one new member each week; and several of the members have indeed gone on to become members of other PCC programs. Most impressive is the number of international participants who have joined the SACO-Only Program; current statistics demonstrate that 1/3 of new members have come from outside the U.S., including the Australian Defence Organisation, Halifax Public Library, McGill University (Montréal), Vancouver Public Library, and most recently, the National Library of Sweden, to name but a few. This growth is clearly in compliance with one of the goals of the PCC, as outlined in the Strategic and Tactical Plan, which is to develop a diverse membership, including international involvement, thus ensuring the broadest possible resource coverage. It also supports several of the final recommendations made by the Joint Task Group on International Participation in the PCC, which should encourage more participation from outside the U.S. and appointment of representatives from among those institutions, and their creation of funnel-based programs.

The number of SACO funnel projects has increased as well, and reflects growth in new discipline-specific funnels (i.e., Arabic) and geographic-based subject funnels (i.e., South Dakota, Massachusetts, etc.). These subject funnel projects illustrate further need for a voice in PCC governance issues.

As SACO Coordinator, I do feel that the time is ripe for the PCC Steering Committee to take a proactive approach to this positive SACO-Only program growth and provide guidelines that could also be incorporated in future PCC strategic planning goals.

IMPACTS:

The following areas are those which I have identified which need to be addressed with these possible changes:

1. Restructuring of the PCC Governance Document if PoCo Membership is to include representation from SACO-Only institutions
2. Inclusion of SACO-Only representatives in the PCC elections
3. Resolving a possible issue: If a SACO-Only institution changes status to become involved with other PCC programs, would its SACO-Only representative to the PoCo need to vacate the seat for another representative from a SACO-Only institution?

John N. Mitchell
SACO Coordinator
January 13, 2006