PCC Participants Group Meeting

ALA Midwinter, New Orleans, La.
January 11, 1998

Report of Highlights

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Participants Group Meeting was held on Sunday, January 11, 1998. Brian Schottlaender, chair, PCC Policy Committee (UCLA) opened the meeting and announced that the unified strategic plan had been approved at the inaugural meeting of the consolidated PCC. That meeting was held at LC on November 13-14, 1997. He thanked OCLC for providing a facilitator who was immensely helpful in moving the meeting through a day long agenda of planning and goal setting. He then presented the reworded mission statement which seeks to be more inclusive:

"In support of the need to provide access to information resources the program will seek to cooperatively increase the timely availability of authoritative records created and maintained under accepted standards, to facilitate the cost- effective creation and use of these records, and to provide leadership in the national and international information community."

Schottlaender then presented an overview of the organizational structure which includes a Steering Committee composed of five permanent members, a nineteen member Policy Committee (PoCo) composed of the Steering Committee members, and rotating members elected to represent the NACO, BIBCO, and CONSER program participants. Also among the membership of the PoCo will be six non-voting members: the three Standing Committee Chairs, the BIBCO Coordinator, the CONSER Coordinator and the Secretariat Representative from LC. The complete text of the strategic plan document and the roster of members of these Committees are available on the PCC homepage at: URL:http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc.

Schottlaender also announced that the PCC Task Group on Budget and Finance had delivered its report to the Steering Committee. He announced the formation of the PCC Nominating Committee composed of Jennifer Bowen (Eastman School of Music), Ingrid Parent (National Library of Canada), and Roxanne Sellberg (Northwestern University). A slate of candidates is expected to be finalized by the end of February.

He next announced that Sally Sinn (National Agricultural Library) had been elected as Chair-Elect of the PCC Policy Committee to succeed him in October. Michael Kaplan will remain Chair of the PCC Standing Committee on Automation until Oct. 1998 and Joan Swanekamp will remain Chair of the PCC Standing Committee on Training until Oct. 1999. Joan Schuitema, the new Chair of the PCC Standing Committee on Standards will serve until the year 2000. At the top of this Committee's list of tasks is finalizing the core- record standard for computer files, as well as continuing review of core-record standards. The Committee is also to look at collection level record usage and at methods for the evaluation of the PCC core-level record vs. copy-cataloging.

Schottlaender then proceeded to give a brief update on the International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR, held last October. He noted that the papers read at the conference resulted in nine focus groups that produced recommendations as follow:

1. Streamlining and speeding up the rule revision process.
2. More internationalization of the rules.
3. Removing the case-based rules.
4. Redefinition and consolidation of terms.
5. Issues relating to seriality.
6. Developing an entity-relationship modeling exercise.
7. Dealing with the "content vs carrier" issue.
8. Administrative issues such as making explicit all the principles and intent that underlie AACR2.
9. The issue of review for AACR2 so that non-author countries can submit proposals for rule revision.

Issues relating to seriality will have the most immediate impact on the PCC. The principles in the paper that Jean Hirons (LC) and Crystal Graham (U.C. San Diego) prepared are to be formalized into rule revision proposals and brought to CC:DA by ALA Annual in June. Hirons, together with the CONSER AACR Review Task Force, will coordinate the effort. Schottlaender noted that the PCC would be petitioning CC:DA for formal PCC representation.

Ann Della Porta (LC) began the Coop Report by announcing that LC has delayed the implementation of the use of second indicator value 1 for multiple surnames until the installation of the ILS (Oct. 1999). However, there are to be two exceptions: records from the British Library and the Dance Heritage Coalition. This decision will impact NACO procedures by creating a split in bibliographic records and the authority file but she reminded all that it is important to remember to be consistent within a record. For the full text of this announcement please visit the CPSO homepage at: URL: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso.

She announced the new BIBCO and NACO libraries that have joined the program during the past twelve months. New NACO members are: The Donohue Group, Inc.; Georgetown University; Graduate Theological Union; Louisiana State University Law Library; National Library of Scotland; Nevada State Library and Archives; Northwestern University Law Library; Seattle University Law Library; Smithsonian Instiution Libraries; Stetson University Law Library; Texas A&M University; Trinity University (San Antonio, Tex.); Tulane University; University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Law Library; University of California, Los Angeles, Law Library; University of California, Berkeley, Law Library; University of Cambridge; University of Connecticut Law Library; University of Houston Law Library; University of Minnesota Law Library; University of Pennsylvania Law Library; University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Law Library; University of Texas at Austin, Law Library; U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Washburn University Law Library; WLN; and two funnel projects: the Arabic Funnel Project and the OLAC Funnel Project.

The seven new BIBCO libraries added to the program in the past twelve months are: Vanderbilt University; Indiana University- Indianapolis, School of Law; Brigham Young University; California Academy of Sciences; University of Washington; Oklahoma State University; and Stanford University, bringing the total of BIBCO libraries to 24.

Della Porta reported that the composition of the BIBCO Operations Committee had been announced: Margaret Shen (Cleveland Public Library), Kate Harcourt (Columbia University), Karen Calhoun (Cornell University), Jain Fletcher (University of California, Los Angeles), John Schalow (University of Maryland), Bill Garrison (University of Colorado), Adam Schiff (University of Washington), Pete Wilson (Vanderbilt University), and Joan Swanekamp (Yale University). Representatives from RLG and OCLC will be included. Della Porta serves as BIBCO Coordinator. The chairs of the three Standing Committees also sit on this committee in order to assure continuity in the organizational structure.

Next she publicized that there will be an expanded SACO workshop held at ALA Annual in Washington, DC. It is envisioned that the morning session will be devoted to the basics of subject heading proposal creation with a more advanced session in the afternoon. The date of this workshop will be announced soon.

The next Series Institute is planned for April 29-May 1, 1998. All independent NACO contributors are welcome to register for the course and should contact their NACO liaison for more information on either of these workshops. Della Porta reminded everyone that if they had not subscribed to the PCCLIST they should do so by writing to David Williamson (LC) at: dawi@loc.gov

The CONSER report given by Jean Hirons followed. She announced that Kim Dobbs has retired as Chief of the Serial Record Division (SRD). She also announced that the newly appointed Assistant Chief of SRD, Maureen Landry, has been appointed Acting Chief of SRD with Kim's departure. Hirons then noted that 1998 marks the 25th anniversary of the CONSER Program and that the PCC Participants meeting at ALA this summer will focus on CONSER. In recognition of CONSER's achievements, CONSER is "spearheading" an ongoing program for serials cataloging instruction. Hirons is currently working with ALCTS and the Serials Section Education Committee to develop a training needs survey that will be distributed to various type of libraries in the coming months.

The focus of Hirons' report was on the the process of formulating rule revision proposals for serials as follow-up to the AACR Conference. The Joint Steering Committee has charged Hirons and the CONSER AACR Review Task Force to propose rule revisions in support of the recommendations in the Hirons/Graham paper, "Issues Related to Seriality." In order to do this, four working groups are being established that will consist of participants and consultants. The primary focus of the groups are:

1. The definition of serial and conventions for handling changes in entry.
2. The descriptions of serials, including sources of information, accommodating changes in entry.
3. The description of electronic serials.
4. Issues related to access, including the definition of a title change, and the use of uniform and key titles.

Initial proposals are expected this summer and the groups hope to complete their work by summer 1999.

Schottlaender then introduced John Byrum, Chief of the Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division (LC), who presented an overview of a list of activities to support the PCC Strategic Plan that had resulted from the PCC November meeting. This list has is still in development and subject to review and comments of the Policy Committee as well as the Standing and Operations Committees.

In the area of database development possible activities include:

1. Increasing BIBCO output by 15,000 records annually to reach a goal of 90,000 by 2002.
2. Increasing NACO contributions to 200,000 records annually by 2002.
3. Maintaining CONSER contributions, including maintenance.
4. With OCLC and RLG developing further automated capabilities for record contribution.
5. Encouraging ILS vendors to develop automated authority generators and the means for their real-time upload to utilities.
6. Encouraging bibliographic utilities to implement agreements necessary for the timely exchange of Program records.
7. Expanding the availability of records from international sources.

Under Standards development proposed activities include:

1. Developing, evaluating, and updating Core record standards, including a FAQ to facilitate interpretation.
2. Investigating the streamlining rules for cross-references on name authority records.
3. Exploring alternatives to traditional cataloging (e.g. Dublin Core) for electronic resources and follow-up on ALCTS MetaData Access Committee recommendations.
4. Participating in development of rule revision proposals regarding seriality.
5. Issuing new CCM modules for legal serials and rare serials.
6. Developing a BIBCO participants' manual.
7. Preparing the 3rd edition of the NACO Participants' Manual.
8. Expanding Web-based documentation.
9. Developing mechanisms for evaluating PCC database coverage.

In the area of leadership activities under consideration include:

1. Providing continuing education programs for the library community.
2. Developing serials cataloging training.
3. Exploring Web-based training.
4. Making presentations to library science and information programs.
5. Assessing usefulness of PCC records to catalogers.
6. Evaluating end-users satisfaction with catalog records.
7. Encouraging development of "funnel projects".
8. Encouraging international library participation in authority file contribution.
9. Expanding CONSER Enhance.
10. Drawing upon membership to form task forces when needed to accomplish program activities or perform special tasks.

And lastly examples of activities that support the goals of the governance and operations include:

1. Monitoring the Strategic Plan and update Action Plan.
2. Collecting statistics online.
3. Monitoring the implementation of the consolidation.

The final presentation of the evening was made by Joan Swanekamp (Yale), Chair of the PCC's Standing Committee on Training. She announced that ALCTS and RUSA will be jointly sponsoring workshops to promote the new cataloging values as defined by the PCC. These workshops will be called Cataloging Now! They will feature a facilitated presentation of traditional and contemporary work-place scenarios leading the audience to come to their own awareness of the need for streamlining cataloging processes and how the newly defined core-record standards might be applied in those procedures. These workshops are not meant to be a substitute for BIBCO training but more a precursor for that training and a public relations tool for recruiting new members to the PCC's component programs. The present planning calls for a communal morning session with three breakout sessions in the afternoon. One session will target public service librarians, one targeting catalog librarians, and one administrators. The first of these workshops has already been scheduled and is to take place in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Librarians in Anaheim, California in July. These workshops are to be presented over the next three years and may be planned in conjunction with the annual meetings of the various bibliographic networks and/or as special stand-alone workshops.