About PCC Statistics
June 26, 2009

About PCC Statistics

LC’s Cooperative Programs Section plans to revise the statistical pages in the near future.  In the meantime, these notes may clarify the content of the PCC statistical displays and their arrangement. Please address questions about statistics to the LC Cooperative Programs Section (coop@loc.gov), using “STATISTICS” in the subject line..

Links on the Statistics page (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/stats/stats.html) package the record production figures of Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) members in various configurations:

Annual Column:  

• The Summary FYXX—displays on one page the totals for each type of record, compared to the number of records contributed in the previous year.
• The All Libraries FYXX—displays in a multi-page report every PCC institution’s MARC code and name, grouped according to program, and its record contributions.

Monthly Column:

• MONTH XXXX—displays every PCC institution’s MARC code and name, grouped according to program, and its record contributions for the month.
• BIBCO/CONSER—displays in single screens the monthly and year-to-date BIBCO record contributions of each BIBCO library, CONSER record contributions of every CONSER library, and monthly and year-to-date contributions for these two programs.

Funnel Project Summaries Column:

• By Project FYXXXX—displays the name of every PCC funnel and one set of record totals for the year or midyear; expresses composite funnel totals as a percentage of all PCC contributions.
• By Library for All Projects—displays a report for each project, showing each project member’s MARC code, institution name, and record contributions; expresses each project’s totals as a percentage of all PCC contributions.

International Partners Column:

• FYXXXX—displays the MARC code, name, and record contributions of all non-US PCC member institutions; expresses totals as a percentage of all PCC contributions.

What does it mean when libraries are “grouped according to program” in certain reports?

When the reports were being designed, PCC leadership wanted to sort member institutions by the types of records they produced and their levels of involvement in one or more of the PCC programs.  Within each grouping, the members are arranged alphabetically by institution name.  The reports use this arrangement:  Summary FYXXXX, All Libraries FYXXXX, and Month XXXX.

• BIBCO and CONSER libraries are the first group, presented prominently because generally they produce records for two or more programs.
• NACO Institutional members appear in the second group.
• NACO Funnel projects are in the third group, called “Multi-library NACO Projects”.
• SACO Institutional members appear in the fourth group.
• SACO Funnel projects are in the fifth group, called “Multi-library SACO Projects”.
• DLC Coop contributions show the records contributed by the Cooperative Programs Section and other designated LC staff in support of the PCC.

What record categories for each program appear in the reports?

NACO categories (basic level):

• New Names—name authority records added to the LC/NACO authority file
• Chg Names—changes/modifications to existing name authority records

NACO categories (advanced level):

• New Series—new series authority records
• Chg Series—changes/modifications to existing series authority records

BIBCO category

• new monographic bibliographic records for books, cartographic material, sound recordings, etc.

CONSER categories for serials (journals, newspapers, etc.):

• CONSER Auth—new serial bibliographic record “Authentications”, added to the CONSER database in OCLC
• CONSER Maint—Maintenance, or changes to authenticated serial records already in the CONSER database

SACO categories:

• New Subject—New topical headings added to the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) list
• Chg Subject—Modifications to existing subject headings in LCSH
• New/Ch Cls. nos.—New alpha-numeric classifications and modifications to existing classifications in the Library of Congress Classification schedules.   Typically, contributions are modest, so the new and changed records are added together to save space on the spreadsheet.

What does a zero “0” mean?

In the current statistical displays, a zero “0” in any column may indicate one of two conditions:

1. The participant has not joined the program related to this column.
2. The participant is a current member in that program, but has sent no records in this category during the reporting period.

 LC’s Cooperative Programs Section is working to eliminate this ambiguity.

What comparisons appear in the PCC stats?

Many reports simply list PCC record production for the current and previous fiscal years, giving the current totals as a percentage of the previous year’s totals.

Reports for multiple-library projects, or funnels, present the totals of the specified project, the totals for the entire PCC membership, and the project’s records as a percentage of the total PCC records for the time period. 

Library of Congress is a PCC partner, where are their stats?

• CONSER serial record contributions by LC staff appear in the current displays.
• BIBCO, NACO, and SACO contributions by LC staff members are not included in the PCC statistics at this time.

Please address questions about statistics to the LC Cooperative Programs Section (coop@loc.gov), using “STATISTICS” in the subject line.