When applying to join BIBCO, institutions agree to a set of membership and record contribution requirements.
To maintain BIBCO membership requirements thoughout their participation in the program, member institutions must continue to:
- Be active, independent NACO contributors
- Be proficient in following descriptive instructions, procedures, and guidelines contained in RDA, LC-PCC Policy Statements, MARC 21 Bibliographic Format, and MARC 21 Authority Format
- Be proficient in applying established subject and classification systems (i.e. LCSH, MeSH, LCC, etc., and their supporting documentation)
- Have access to the online bibliographic and authority files, including the Library of Congress name and subject authority files
To meet BIBCO record contribution requirements, member institutions must:
- Designate their BIBCO records with MARC field “042 pcc,” but are not required to designate all of their cataloging as BIBCO records.
- Meet BIBCO production expectations as specified in the PCC Governance Document, sections II.A and II.C:
- Full-level institutions are expected to contribute a minimum of 12 transactions per active cataloger per year (either by newly authenticating records or by updating already-authenticated records). New full-level institutions have reduced production expectations for their first two years: one-third for the first year and two-thirds for the second year.
- Funnel-level members are exempt from production expectations.
- Make their BIBCO records available in a timely manner
- Support all access points on BIBCO records with authority records. (Note: controlling series access points is a local option.)
- Use the following documentation:
- RDA Toolkit
- LC-PCC PSs
- PCC RDA BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) Metadata Application Profile
- MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data
- ALA-LC Romanization tables
- Assign at least one or two subject headings (at the appropriate level of specificity) from an established thesaurus or subject heading system recognized by the MARC 21 Format on BIBCO records e.g., ATT, MeSH, LCSH
- If using LCSH, follow current LC documentation (Note: Certain topics may require multiple headings; 10 is the maximum, cf. Subject Headings Manual H 180)
- Assign a classification number from an established classification system supported by the MARC 21 format (e.g. Dewey, LCC, etc.) for those formats of material which require it according to the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) RDA Metadata Application Profile (i.e. textual materials, cartographic materials, notated music, computer files)
- If using LC Classification, follow current documentation issued by LC or in commercially available versions of the schedules
- If not tracing series, are exempt from creating series authority records for unestablished series and may code these series as MARC field 490 first indicator 0 on BIBCO records
- If tracing series on BIBCO records, follow the series policies and procedures as stated in the LC Descriptive Cataloging Manual Z1 supplement to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data and the LC-PCC PSs
For more information contact the BIBCO Coordinator.
Last updated: Oct. 24, 2024