Standing Committee on Automation: Annual Report 2004

October 1, 2003-Sept. 30, 2004

Membership

The membership of the SCA remained relatively stable during the year. Continuing regular members are Gary Charbonneau (chair), Ruth Bogan, Katherine Kott, John Riemer, and Gary Strawn. Helen Gbala, formerly vendor liaison, remained on the committee as a regular member with a term to expire Sept. 30, 2005. Jane Grawemeyer was added to the committee as the new vendor liaison. The other liaisons are Robert Bremer (OCLC), Ed Glazier (RLG), John Levy (CONSER), and David Williamson (LC).

Meetings

The committee held its customary formal meetings at ALA Midwinter in San Diego and at ALA Annual in Orlando (minutes to be posted) in order to discuss current activities and future plans.

Task Groups

Most of the work of the committee during the year was delegated to various task groups.

3rd Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases

The 3rd Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases submitted its final report in August. Members of the task group were Adolfo R. Tarango (chair), Matthew Beacom, Ruth Haas, Les Hawkins, Jean Hirons (LC liaison), Oliver Pesch, John Riemer, Chris Roberts, and Jina Choi Wakimoto. The task group was charged with developing and testing a method by which electronic version serial records in OCLC could easily be cloned to create new records conforming to the "aggregator neutral single record" standard adopted by CONSER. The task group developed a set of data elements to be included in such cloned records; this data element set is included as an appendix to the task group's report. After developing this data element set, the task group asked Robert Bremer of OCLC to develop a macro that CONSER libraries could use to clone electronic version records for the purpose of adding aggregator neutral records to the OCLC and CONSER databases. After the macro was tested, the results were reported to and a demonstration was given at the May 2004 CONSER Operations Committee meeting. The task group held its final meeting at ALA in Orlando, where the macro was declared to be complete and where ownership of the macro was transferred to CONSER. Robert Bremer agreed to create a similar macro for the OCLC Connexion client and to similarly turn it over to CONSER upon completion.

Task Group on Linking Entry Displays

This task group has been on hold for much of the year. The chair of the task group had been promoted to a new position and consequently had not been able to find the time to draft the group's final report. That being the case, the chair of SCA (who also happens to be the husband of the task group chair) has added himself to the task group for the purpose of putting together the draft. Work on the draft began in August and is now moving forward. It is hoped that it can be completed in a few weeks. As required by a portion of their charge, the members of the task group had surveyed the major ILS vendors to determine how their systems currently handle linking entries. The question has been raised as to whether this work is now sufficiently old that it ought to be redone. If it is decided to recompile this survey information, it is possible that the results could be issued as a later supplement to the task group's final report rather than delay the report any further.

Monographic Aggregator Task Group

SCA has been asked by the PCC Policy Committee to build on the success of the 3rd Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases by establishing a Monographic Aggregator Task Group. This new task group is to be charged with developing a reference guide for data elements for machine created monographic records. PoCo suggested that the new task group should consist of no more than three members and that it should submit its final report by Mar. 15th, 2005. After negotiation between the incoming chair of PoCo and the chair of SCA, it was agreed that the new task group would submit an interim progress report by Mar. 15th, with the final report to be due in June. The chair of SCA is now in the process of organizing this task group.

Other Activities

The chair of SCA is in the process of compiling a list of official contacts at the major ILS vendors, so that the vendors can be made aware of recommendations from SCA/PCC regarding "best practices" for the utilization and display of MARC records. At this time, the specific focus is on making the vendors aware of the reports of the Task Group on Automated Classification and the Task Group on Series Numbering.

Report respectfully submitted, Gary Charbonneau, chair Standing Committee on Automation, Sept. 28, 2004