LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE

Library of Congress Volume 9, no. 5 ISSN 1066-8829 April 2001

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CONTENTS

The Library of Congress announces that the following information has recently been posted on its pinyin home page //www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/pinyin.html [April 2001].

1. How bibliographic records converted to pinyin, a detailed explanation (see Outline of Pinyin Conversion, Bibliographic Records)

2. A brief summary of the reasons for the separation of syllables in pinyin romanization (see FAQ on romanization and syllables)

3. Romanization and conversion of the character de (di) in the FAQ section

4. Clarification of romanization practices for place names and personal names: a document that is intended to provide clear, consistent instructions for application of pinyin romanization guidelines within the framework of AACR2. This is a draft, and comments are welcome.

Questions and comments regarding these materials may be sent to Philip Melzer at [email protected].

Philip Melzer, coordinator of the Library of Congress' pinyin conversion project, provided a status report to the Technical Processing Committee of the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL). Name authority records and almost all LC bibliographic records except serials have been converted, loaded into the LC local database, and distributed to subscribers. Melzer also reported that almost all cleanup activities related to authority records have been completed. He presented certificates of appreciation from the Library to RLG and OCLC staff members who collaborated on the project and recognized the contributions of fourteen NACO members who have been reviewing and updating authority records for undifferentiated Chinese personal names.

At a meeting of the RLG CJK Users Group, Melzer outlined the Library's strategy for sorting and reviewing bibliographic records that have been marked for review.

The University of Chicago Library is the newest member of the Cooperative Online Serials (CONSER) Program. The library is one of America's largest and most comprehensive research collections, with special strengths in area studies, the classics, and the sciences. It is currently placing growing emphasis on collecting electronic resources. The university expects to contribute eventually in all subjects and in all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The University of Chicago is a veteran participant in cooperative cataloging, including NACO, BIBCO, and SACO as well as several other cooperative endeavors. Judith Nadler, associate library director, will be the University of Chicago's policy representative to the CONSER Program. E. Renette Davis, head of serials and digital resources cataloging, will be joining the CONSER Operations Committee.

The CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative passed a milestone in its two-year pilot project on Feb. 27 when OCLC loaded serials publication pattern data from Harvard University to 39,491 CONSER records for currently-issued serials in the OCLC database. Serials publication pattern data included in the load were captions (terms used to describe bibliographic parts of a serial such as volume and issue), publication patterns (publication frequency of serial issues), and holdings data (in this data load it was generally the first issue to display the caption and pattern of a particular serial). The "Harvard load," as participants in the project call it, carries the initiative closer to its core goals, which are to promote use of _MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data_ (MFHD) by libraries and system vendors and to advance the cooperative creation and sharing of serials publication pattern data. For the first time, a large body of records with MFHD-compliant pattern data is widely available that libraries can use in system implementations and which system developers can consult when designing and testing their serials check-in modules. For more details about the Harvard load and the CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative, see the initiative's home page at URL //www.loc.gov/acq/conser/patthold.html [April 2000]. Sample records with publication pattern data can also be viewed at this site. The CONSER Task Force on Publication Patterns and Holdings is interested in further large loads of pattern data. Other institutions with data to share should contact Jean Hirons [email protected].

In addition to the Harvard data, individual libraries participating in the pilot project are contributing pattern and holdings data to records they create or maintain in OCLC. They are developing the organizational and technical mechanisms to support this activity as a routine part of their workflow. Earlier this year, the task force set a goal of one thousand contributions from individual participants by the June 2001 ALA Annual Conference, roughly the first anniversary of the pilot project. Guidelines for inputting pattern and holdings data for the project have been documented by participants and a macro that helps create pattern fields from existing data in the bibliographic record was created at OCLC; both are available through the initiative's home page. A new SCCTP course on serial holdings, available from LC's Cataloging Distribution Service, has provided standards-compliant materials for institutions to use in training staff to record pattern and holdings data, for the pilot project or locally. Participants are also studying workflow challenges for sharing pattern data and are hoping to identify "best practices" for libraries of different sizes.

System vendors were sought as participants from the initiative's beginning and their interest is considered necessary for its success. One of the early activities of the group was to conduct a survey of vendors to determine their compliance with MFHD. Summary results of that survey are available through the initiative's home page. There is also interest in making information on MFHD-compliance for individual systems available. A subgroup is identifying and pursuing changes needed in MFHD.

Question-and-answer sessions for all interested in the initiative are tentatively planned for this June's NASIG and ALA annual conferences.

The Serials Holdings Workshop, the second course from the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP), is now available from the Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS). Twenty- nine volunteers from the United States, Canada, and Mexico were trained as instructors for the new workshop in a two-day session held at LC before January's ALA Midwinter Meeting. The course provides the basic principles for creating holdings records and publication patterns, as well as the background on key standards including the importance of holdings data. The contents are compliant with _MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data_ and _ANSI/NISO Z39.71-1999_. There are exercises in creating formatted and free text holdings and publication patterns, as well as opportunities for discussing local implementation problems. The workshop allows flexibility for planners, with a choice of optional sessions, and may be adapted as a one-day or a one-and-a-half-day event. Course materials include an instructor manual, a trainee manual, and a set of PowerPoint presentation slides. These are available from CDS only in electronic form, distributed over the Internet for downloading and printing locally. See the SCCTP home page at URL //www.loc.gov/acq/conser/scctp/ [April 2001] for a description of the new course, a list of scheduled workshops, and information for potential workshop sponsors. Consult CDS for prices and ordering information.

An Advanced Serials Cataloging Workshop and an Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop are also currently in development by SCCTP. Train-the-trainer sessions for both are tentatively planned for New Orleans before the ALA 2002 Midwinter Meeting.

The MARC Code List for Organizations is now available online. The database of more than 29,000 valid MARC codes can be accessed from the MARC home page under "MARC Code Lists: Organizations" or directly at URL http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/organizations/ [April 2001]. The organization codes are in a SiteSearch system database at the Library of Congress. They are accessed using a Z39.50 (Information Retrieval) gateway.

The organization code file will be updated weekly with newly-assigned codes and other changes. It can be searched by organization name or MARC code. Both valid and invalid codes are indexed. Access through variant names is also provided. Names originally in a script other than the roman alphabet are represented in romanized form. The initial brief record display shows the valid MARC code and name of the organization to which it applies. A full display can also be viewed that includes the organization's address, variant, regional, and invalid codes, as well as other forms of name not shown in the brief display.

John Celli, chief of the Cataloging in Publication Division, demonstrated a model of a proposed program, known as the New Books Project, to publishers and librarians on Jan. 12 at a focus session held in conjunction with the 2001 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. The project is a Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate initiative designed to provide the library community and general public with access to a rich source of information about soon-to-be-published and just-published books.

The New Books Project builds on the Electronic CIP Program and the Electronic PCN Program. Publishers will submit applications in much the same manner as they now do for ECIP. Computer programs will automatically select certain elements to create the new books record and make it available through the Library of Congress home page. Meanwhile the application will also be processed as either an EPCN or ECIP application and CIP data or a preassigned Library of Congress control number will be provided to the publisher to be printed on the verso of the title page of the forthcoming book.

The keystone of the project is the new books record that (as currently defined) includes the author, title, place of publication, proposed date of publication, and ISBN, as well as an image of the book jacket, a summary, sample text, table of contents, information about the author, the author's email address, the publisher's home page, and the home page where the book can be purchased. The new books record will also include a link to access a Library of Congress catalog record if one has been created as well as a link to request the book at the user's local library if the local library participates in the Library of Congress Partnership Program being developed as part of this project.

The project is comprised of five parts: 1) a publishers' front-end used to submit applications; 2) a public access module comprising the database of new books records; 3) the Library of Congress Partnership Program allowing local libraries to contribute reviews, reading group guides, and related links to new books records; 4) an alert service supporting the collections development activities of Library of Congress staff by providing new books records for forthcoming titles which fit the profile of the individual staff member's area(s) of responsibility; 5) Cataloging Distribution Service products and services relating to the project.

The New Books Project is currently in the conceptual phase. A model has been developed to illustrate the functionality of the proposed system and to serve as a basis for discussions concerning the project. This model was demonstrated at the focus group and a lively discussion ensued. The response of both librarians and publisher representatives was generally positive.

Send comments to John Celli [email protected].

LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE (ISSN 1066-8829) is published irregularly by the Cataloging Directorate, Library Services, Library of Congress, and contains news of cataloging activities throughout the Library of Congress. Editorial Office: Cataloging Policy and Support Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540-4305. Editor, Robert M. Hiatt; Editorial Advisory Group: Victoria Behrens, John Byrum, Roselyne Chang, Jurij Dobczansky, Anthony Franks, Les Hawkins, Albert Kohlmeier, Susan Morris, Geraldine Ostrove, David Smith, David Williamson, and Roman Worobec. Address editorial inquiries to the editor at the above address or [email protected] (email), (202) 707-5831 (voice), or (202) 707-6629 (fax). Listowner: David Williamson. Address subscription inquiries to the listowner at [email protected].

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