Statement on the Changing PCC Environment
R. Wolven

The impetus for the PCC and its raison d'être is to improve the processes by which libraries, collectively and collaboratively, provide access to their collections. (By "access," I mean essentially FRBR functions -- to find, identify, select.) When PCC was created, those processes primarily involved the creation of records for library catalogs. Thus, PCC has focused on making the collective enterprise of creating those records more effective -- devising pragmatic standards; cataloging training; automated aids to record creation and use.

Now we are in an environment in which, for large parts of our collections, the library catalog is only one means among several for providing access. The mantra of "better, cheaper, faster, more" certainly has application in this broader context. The CONSER Summit discussions suggest that there are opportunities for collaborative action towards these ends, and that in the absence of such action libraries are likely to continue duplicative and possibly wasteful efforts. At the same time, this emerging environment is far more diffuse, less organized, and less under library control than the cataloging environment of either 10 years ago or today. The issue now is whether PCC should embrace a broader role involving other means of providing access, what transformations would be needed to play such a role, and what the implications would be for organization, funding, etc.