Annual Report of the Standing Committee on Training

September 03, 2003

The Standing Committee on Training (SCT) continues to identify the need for training programs, workshops, and institutes aimed at developing cataloging skills that support the Program goals for both new participants and for continuing education and to develop (as necessary) and promote the distribution of easy-to-use documentation in support of Program goals.

Outgoing members of the Standing Committee on Training are: Bill Garrison and Louise Rees. Continuing members include: David Banush (Chair), Frieda Rosenberg, Heather Rosie, Adam Schiff, and Rachel Wadham. Liaisons include: Ed Glazier, RLG Liaison, Glenn Patton, OCLC Liaison, and Ana Cristán, BIBCO Liaison. Wadham was appointed in fiscal year 2002/2003. Greta de Groat (Stanford) and Becky Uhl (Arizona State) will join the committee on October 1.

Integrating Resources Manual

Diane Boehr and Alice Jacobs of NLM, with assistance from colleagues at the Stanford Law Library, prepared new documentation on the cataloging of Integrating Resources. The SCT reviewed the content, and Banush and Cristán (along with John Mitchell of the LC Coop Team) served as final editors. The document has been added as an appendix to the BIBCO Participants' Manual (itself revised to reflect the new procedures) and is available at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/irman.pdf

The document will also be included in the CONSER documentation.

Identification and Authentication of Program Records

Banush, with Kay Guiles (LC), Paul Weiss (Standing Committee on Standards), worked to revise a document on identification and authentication of program records as a reference tool for participants. The revised charts are available on the BIBCO homepage at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/pccrecid.html

The chart was reviewed by the OpCo at its May 2003 meeting, and again by SCT in June 2003. It is anticipated that the chart will be incorporated into BIBCO training and participants' documentation in the coming months.

Joint PCC/ALCTS Training Efforts

The joint SCT/SAC effort to develop training materials on the use of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) continued to make great progress. The group previewed one module of the course content at ALA in Toronto. Further editing of the content is expected, and a "dry run" practice session at Midwinter 2004 is being planned.

In January 2003, Banush secured the permission of the ALCTS CCS Executive Committee to have SCT become a partner in an ALCTS group developing a course on authorities. The group includes SCT members Cristán and Wadham, and is following the model of the SCT/SAC The group expects to have content in place in the next year, with a course ready for deployment by 2005.

The PCC Policy Committee and the Executive Director of ALCTS have agreed to share the content of jointly developed training efforts and to distribute documentation and set pricing for training according to their own preferred methods. The two groups have also agreed not to compete directly against one another in offering jointly developed training courses. Further details about the maintenance of documentation need to be addressed; Banush will raise these with the PoCo at the next meeting.

Task Groups

Two new task groups were formed this year. The first, jointly sponsored by SCT and the Standards Committee, has been charged with investigating the obstacles to broader international participation in the PCC from a standards and training perspective. The group's preliminary report is now available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/tgip_interrpt603.pdf. The final report is due September 30. SCT is represented on the group by Rosie.

A task group on PCC's role in providing training in the application of descriptive metadata is at work on its report. Garrison is the chair. The charge for the group is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/tgmetadata.htm1. The final report is due by October 15 to the SCT chair.

Respectfully submitted,
David Banush
Chair, Standing Committee on Training
September 3, 2003