Present: Julianne Beall (Library of Congress), Joseph Caruso (Columbia), Andrew deHeer (Schomburg Center), Karen Fung (Stanford Univ.), Miki Goral (UCLA), Beverly Gray (Library of Congress), David Hogarth, Joseph Lauer (Michigan State Univ.), Deborah M. LaFond (SUNY Albany), Robert Lesh (Northwestern Univ.), Ken Lohrentz (Univ. of Kansas), Wonki Nam (Central State Univ), Razia Nanji (Univ. of Florida), Lauris Olson (Univ. of Pennsylvania), Loumona Petroff (Boston Univ.), Elizabeth Plantz (Northwestern), Janet Stanley (National Museum of African Art), Ruth Thomas (Library of Congress, Nairobi), Gretchen Walsh (Boston Univ.), Dorothy Woodson (SUNY-Buffalo/Yale), Joanne Zellers (Library of Congress).
1. Introductions and announcements: Chair Plantz opened the meeting at 2:08pm, with Lauer filling in for Sinnottt as secretary.
2. Approval of the minutes of the Spring meeting (April 30, 1999; at LC) as distributed by email on May 11,1999, without change.
3. Africana Subject Funnel (Plantz)
The Fall 1999 report lists 10 new subject headings plus 7 changes proposed since the Spring 1999 update. (LC reports that for FY99 (10/98-9/99) there were 22 new subject headings.) The new procedure of circulating new proposals to the participants as well as catalogers with subject expertise has been very useful in avoiding mistakes and improving content. Plantz will continue as funnel coordinator and will ask at the ALC Business Meeting if others want to see new proposals before they are forwarded.
Tracking the progress of the proposals at LC is still a problem. Due to the implementation of the new system at LC, a large backlog of proposals has developed. Recently the SACO web site stated that 6 weeks is the normal time for approved headings to appear in the utilities (OLCL, RLIN).
Proposed headings in BIBCO records are assumed to be pre-approved unless LC notifies us of changes. Most editorial changes affect the reference structure rather than the 1xx. We are expected to update a BIBCO record if the heading changes.
July work done on the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) home page has increased our visibility. In addition to contact information, there is a link to our web site. Ana Christian consulted with Plantz on the content of a FAQ (frequently asked questions) statement about funnel projects. See: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/funnelfaq.html. See also a FAQ about SACO at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/sacofaq.html.
A proposal from the floor about setting up a funnel for name headings was discouraged. Most institutions already participate in NACO and training to participate is more difficult than SACO.
African American Subject Funnel: Dorothy Washington reported to Plantz on the work in the African American Studies Librarians Section (AFAS) of ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries). Its members are being surveyed about their interest.
4. African Language Materials Cataloging
On Oct. 1, 1999, Walsh sent a message to the AFLIB-L listserv, requesting volunteers to assist catalogers in identifying languages, translating title page information and providing short descriptions of the contents of works in African languages. There were 9 volunteers, mostly from southern Africa.
Discussion followed as to how to broaden the list (e.g., contact library associations and schools in Africa, contact linguists attending the ACAL (Annual Conference on African Linguistics) in Boston, etc.) and how others deal with African languages. DeHeer has recruited Africans living in New York. Caruso contacts teachers of African languages. Plantz will follow up on this.
5. ALC Web page
Discussion on the issue of how long to keep the minutes on the web was resumed. There has been no effort to load past (pre-1998) minutes, though funnel reports from 1995 were already on the web. There was little desire to add older minutes, and the issue of how long to keep 1998+ minutes on web would be revisited in 2001.
6. Other Business:
Lauer distributed a list of some recently changed and added language codes in the USMARC Code List for Languages. For example, Shona is now sna, not sho; Geez (Ethiopia) changed from eth to gez. The new list of codes makes no mention of superseded codes. Plantz learned the changes were made to bring codes in conformity with international standards. As far as we know it is not possible to make global changes at this time to bring records together but perhaps in a year or more this capability may become available. Users will need to be aware that a search by language code may not bring up all possible records.
There was no interest in a list of recent changes in LC classification.
7. LC Reports:
Beall reported that Dewey has changed the entries for Ndebele (South Africa). They will begin work on revising Table 5 (Racial, ethnic and national groups) and Table 6 (Languages). They will also be working on the ethnology section of the anthropology schedule. If anyone has any concerns they should contact Beall.
Zellers, reporting for Ruta Penkiunas (team leader for Cooperative Cataloging), noted the expansion of NACO and SACO activities during FY99.
8. ALA CC:AAM Report (Dawn Williams): At the New Orleans meeting in June, a proposal by James Agenbroad to change certain rules in chapters 22-26 of AACR2 was considered. This proposal would allow the addition of non-romanized headings and references as optional additional access points in bibliographic and authority records. The proposal was reviewed by Non-Roman Access Point Subcommittee (NAPS). It was tabled at the meeting, but the new CC:AAM chair, Hideyuki Morimoto, decided afterwards that it would be better to forward a written report to CC:DA. An interim report will be prepared for review at the next meeting and comments from all of CC:AAM members will be incorporated into a final report for CC:DA.
9. Members passed a vote of thanks to Elizabeth Plantz for her years of work as chair of the Committee. (Lauer will chair the Committee, starting at the Spring meeting.)
The meeting was adjourned at 3:40pm.