Standing Committee on Automation

Notes of SCA Meeting at ALA Midwinter

San Antonio, TX, Jan. 16, 2000
4:30-6:30 p.m., OCLC Red Suite

Present: Jeanne Baker, Kyle Banerjee, Matthew Beacom, Ruth Bogan, Karen Calhoun (chair), Ed Glazier, Ruth Haas, John Riemer, Gary Strawn, David Whitehair, David Williamson

Update on SCA Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases (John Riemer)

Karen gave a brief update on decisions made at the November PCC Policy Committee (PoCo) meeting regarding the task group's work and next steps. PoCo members recommended that the task group submit a final report on the work done under the initial charge, then be reconstituted with a new charge. John Riemer is to continue as chair. John solicited the SCA's comments on the task group's draft final report, which had been distributed by John and Karen via e-mail in advance of the SCA meeting.

The SCA discussion resulted in SCA approval of the report, pending several revisions that John and Karen agreed to incorporate. Any additional comments from either SCA or task group members are due to John or Karen by January 29. The next steps are to submit the report to PoCo, disseminate it via the PCC Web site, and write a charge for the new task group. The new charge will be based on the "next steps" recommended in the current task group's final report. These include:

• Continuing to pursue creation of record sets for major aggregations
• Fully defining and testing maintenance arrangements
• Investigating the feasibility of sets for e-monographs
• Ascertaining more systematically what others are doing to provide access to journals in aggregations
• Continuing to raise awareness in the library community

SCA Task Group on Automated Classification (Gary Strawn)

Gary reported on the first meeting of the task group, which had taken place the previous day (Saturday, January 15). The task group is charged with investigating automation- based approaches to easing and streamlining the assignment of classification and call numbers to cataloging records. The task group's results should be applicable to as many classification schemes as possible. After exploring existing automation-based classification and call-number assignment techniques, the group will propose a minimum set of functional requirements that should exist in (1) local library systems and/or (2) cataloging utilities. At its first meeting, the group worked on defining its plan of work, dividing up tasks, and setting a preliminary timetable. An interim report is due August 15.

PCC Tactical Plan Items Assigned to the SCA (Calhoun)

1. CORC, metadata standards, and the PCC. With SCS, the SCA is charged with exploring alternatives to traditional cataloging for e-resources. SCA members discussed how to move forward with this assignment and came to no firm conclusions. We agreed to discuss the matter again at ALA Annual.
2. Real time upload of authorities to OCLC. The group thanked Ruth Bogan for her work to complete the survey of OCLC's PCC libraries to assess interest in changes to CatME to include an authority record generator and real time upload to the NAF. The survey results suggest that OCLC PCC libraries are interested in such enhancements. David Whitehair, the SCA OCLC liaison, had nothing new to report about forthcoming CatME enhancements, but he agreed to keep the group informed of developments.

BIBCO Working Group on Series Numbering (Calhoun)

This working group has need of some assistance from the SCA. First, they need a list of vendors to whom a letter regarding numerical sorting of series entries in OPACs should be sent. Karen agreed to alert the chair, Andrea Stamm, to the list of integrated library system vendors available via the NorthernLight.com Web site (click "Vendor Info" at http://www.ilsr.com then use the drop down list, or link to other vendor lists cited on this page). Second, the working group has asked for assistance in drafting a letter to MARBI and vendors, encouraging them to develop a mechanism for disregarding designations in series $v subfields. Gary Strawn agreed to contact the working group chair and offer his assistance with this.

New Business (All)

The last fifteen minutes of the meeting provided unstructured time for new ideas and discussion. Out of this part of the meeting came a new SCA initiative: to evaluate URL checking software products, both from the perspective of what they do, and from the perspective of what they should do. Kyle Banerjee indicated his willingness to work on this evaluation over the next 18 months, reporting back to the SCA at regular intervals.

Notes prepared by K. Calhoun, 1/25/00