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CONFERENCE REPORTS
Jan Mayo, Column Editor


** REPORTS FROM THE **
2006 ALA Midwinter Conference
San Antonio, Texas


Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information Committee (MARBI)
Liaison Report
submitted by John Attig
Pennsylvania State University


The Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information (MARBI) Committee and the USMARC Advisory Committee met for two sessions during the ALA Midwinter Conference in San Antonio, Texas. The following is a summary of the meeting. More information is available on the MARC Advisory Committee Web page at <http://www.loc.gov/marc/marcadvz.html>.

Proposal No. 2006-01: Changes to Accommodate IAML Form/Genre Codes in Field 047
The proposal dealt with the Form of Musical Composition Code (008/18-19 and Field 047). Currently only codes defined in the MARC 21 formats are allowed in these fields. This proposal called for changes to the definitions that would allow codes from other sources (such as the new IAML code list) to be used, and for the addition of $2 to Field 047 in order to identify the source of the code.

MARBI approved the proposal with some minor changes: Proposal No. 2006-02: Adding subfields for Relator Terms to X11 Fields
At the 2005 ALA Annual Conference, MARBI had approved the addition of subfield $e for relator terms to subject access fields (6XX). A remaining problem with this decision is that subfield $e has already been defined for a different data element in the X11 conference name fields. This proposal offered two alternatives for adding a relator term subfield to X11 fields: define a new subfield ($j) or redefine two subfields so that $e could be used for the relator term.

MARBI reaffirmed the principle that fields and subfields, once defined and implemented, are never redefined for a different purpose. MARBI approved the addition of subfield $j to the X11 Fields.

Proposal No. 2006-03: Standardized Terminology for Access Restrictions in Field 506
This proposal calls for coding to support the use of standardized terminology in Field 506 (Restrictions on Access Note). MARBI approved: Proposal No. 2006-04: Technique for Conversion of Unicode to MARC-8
In response to a number of issues raised at the 2005 Annual Conference, this proposal defines an "official" MARC 21 technique for conversion of Unicode data to the MARC-8 character set. The conversion technique calls for a "placeholder" character to be used in cases in which the Unicode character has no equivalent in MARC-8. MARBI approved the proposal, but indicated that this technique would not allow round-trip mapping of data, and that a more complex technique should also be developed that would support round-trip conversion without loss of meaning.

Proposal No. 2006-05: Changes to Holdings Data Fields to Accommodate ONIX for Serials
This proposal called for defining additional subfields to support data elements in the ONIX Serial Release Notice. MARBI approved the addition of subfield $o for Type of Unit in Fields 853/863; the addition of subfield $2 for source of caption abbreviation in Fields 853-855; made subfield $o repeatable in Fields 854/864 and 855/865; and called for consideration of language of captions to be included in the proposal to be developed in response to Discussion Paper No. 2006-DP05.

Discussion Paper No. 2006-DP01: Recording Geographic Coordinates in Authority Records
This discussion paper calls for adding Field 034 to the Authorities Format, so that geographic coordinates can be added to headings for geographic names. This information would support searching based on coordinates; the headings retrieved in the authority records could be used to retrieve relevant bibliographic records.

MARBI endorsed the concept and made a number of recommendations about the details of the proposal, which is expected to be considered at the 2006 Annual Conference.

Discussion Paper No. 2006-DP02: Addition of Coded Value to 008 for Content Alerts
This discussion paper deals with the identification of sensitive material (sex and violence) in material for the visually impaired; these alerts allow users to avoid inadvertently giving offense to others when using audiobooks, for example. MARBI endorsed the concept, but felt that use of a single byte of coded data would not be adequate; Field 521 was suggested as an alternative. A proposal will be developed.

Discussion Paper No. 2006-DP03: Incorporation of Former Headings in Authority Records
The discussion paper suggests defining a note field (683) for recording former headings that do not qualify for inclusion as "see from" references. There was considerable discussion as to whether such former headings would be used for processing, i.e., to "flip" the former headings to the new headings; it was noted that the former headings may conflict with valid headings in the authority file and that processing would be risky. However, MARBI seemed inclined to recommend use of the 4XX "see from" reference fields, with appropriate codes in subfield $w to control display and processing. A proposal will be developed and may explore multiple options.

Discussion Paper No. 2006-DP05: Indicating Coverage Dates for Indexes in the Holdings Format
This discussion paper, like Proposal No. 2006-05 above, is based on the ONIX Serial Release Notice (SRN). The SRN distinguishes between the coverage dates of an index and its issue date (e.g., an index covering 2001-2005 issued in 2006). MARBI agreed that both types of dates should be supported in holdings records. A proposal will be developed.

Other Business
MARBI heard reports from:

Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA)
Liaison Report
submitted by Greta de Groat
Stanford University Libraries

RDA Discussions and Actions at ALA Midwinter in San Antonio
The main point of discussion at the three CC:DA meetings in San Antonio was RDA Part 1, which the Joint Steering Committee made publicly available on their Website in mid-December. This draft lacked Ch. 3, the chapter on technical (formerly physical) description. The draft of Ch. 3, minus the lists of GMDs/SMDs was finally made available on the JSC Website on the Thursday before ALA, so was not discussed in any depth at the meeting.

Because the draft is publicly available, CC:DA was planning to take public comments on the draft from people who were not already commenting through an official channel. The JSC also started a list, called RDA-L, on which people could discuss RDA, but it is not an official part of the comment process. There is a FAQ on RDA on the JSC Website. There was an RDA forum at ALA, as well as focus groups. These outreach efforts will continue through the RDA process until publication in 2008. The JSC will then go back to its normal procedures concerning rule revisions. Talks are now beginning on the need for implementation and training, and of possible impacts on MARC.

CC:DA Discussions - January 2006
Jennifer Bowen, CC:DA representative to the JSC, reported that JSC received so many comments on AACR3 that they were unable to get to them at the October meeting, and the next meeting will largely address Part 2. Though much concern was expressed by CC:DA with the redundancy of instructions in RDA, Bowen explained that it is part of the design of the Web product, so that people do not miss the general rule when they search for the specific. Since basic decisions on arrangement and principles have already been decided, issues discussed generally centered on individual rules which were unclear or had unintended consequences. As rules are supposed to be "principle-based", there is less of a case-law approach than in AACR2. Users are intended to follow principles when a novel situation occurs rather than having separate rules/exceptions for every possible situation. In CC:DA discussion, opinions were split on the role of transcription of data, some wanting to "record what is there", others wanting the type of normalizations and omissions currently prescribed in AACR2. Similarly, some members welcome the separation of ISBD punctuation from the rules into an appendix, others find this confusing. FRBR concepts are not used consistently in the draft, and it still seems to be text-centric. Sources of information were considered problematic by many CC:DA members. In particular, representatives from OLAC and the Music Library Association, as well as people involved in metadata, find the definition of container and accompanying material as "outside the resource" to be problematic, as it would result in the bracketing of much information which is not currently bracketed. A straw poll of CC:DA members favored JSC returning to an earlier proposal on source of title by the Library of Congress, to take the title from anywhere in the resource but always note its source.

Other CC:DA activities included reports on:

Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA)
Cataloging Committee
Liaison Report
submitted by Arlene Balkansky
Library of Congress

AMIA’s 2005 Annual Conference was held in Austin, Texas, from November 30-December 3. The sessions covered a wide range of materials--from digital files to small gauge amateur film collections (Super 8 mm, etc.)--and focused on preservation, management, processing, and access to these varied materials.

It is a time of change for the AMIA Cataloging Committee. Unfortunately, Nancy Dosch, elected Chair of the Committee, was unable to attend the Conference and resigned as Chair, although she hopes to continue to participate in AMIA and the Cataloging Committee. Arlene Balkansky volunteered to act as Interim Chair until a special election arranged by the AMIA Board is held.

The Committee met twice. In place of one of the standard meetings, Kris Kiesling, from the Society of American Archivists, gave a presentation about Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), a new SAA standard for description of archival materials. Her talk provided an overview of DACS, including its development, basic structure of the rules, and some comparison of DACS to AACR2, Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts, and Archival Moving Image Materials: A Cataloging Manual.

The second meeting covered Subcommittee and Liaison reports, cooperation with the AMIA Digital Initiatives Committee, and discussion about Conference sessions.

The Cataloging Committee’s Standards Review Subcommittee (SRS), under the leadership of Sarah Ziebell Mann, was involved in two important projects in 2005. The first project was the review of the December 2004 draft of AACR3. The individual members of the SRS were able to participate in the review, first on a consultancy basis through OLAC in February and one month later as a direct contributor. The SRS has been asked by OLAC to participate in the review of the next draft--now titled RDA: Resource Description and Access --and Arlene volunteered to contribute comments through OLAC. That review has since been completed. In addition to Arlene’s contributions, Martha Yee, Andrea Leigh, and perhaps additional AMIA members contributed comments through OLAC and other organizations. For the second project, the SRS submitted comments to MARBI regarding Discussion Paper 2005-DP01, "Subject Access to Images".

The Liaison report from the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Cataloguing and Documentation Commission described current projects, which include updating the FIAF Cataloguing Rules and the Glossary of Filmographic Terms, as well as the Commission’s ongoing focus of updating the four databases on the FIAF International FilmArchive Database. The Liaison report from the Library of Congress described the planned move of most of the activities and staff of the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division to the National AudioVisual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, scheduled to fully open in late 2006 or early 2007. The LC report and the MIC: Moving Image Collections project report stated that LC will serve as permanent host site for MIC <http://mic.loc.gov>, which documents moving image collections around the world. Jane Johnson, MIC Project Manager, is currently working with LC staff to effect the MIC technology transfer from the three developer universities to LC. The OLAC community may be particularly interested in MIC’s Cataloging and Metadata Portal, which includes information on standards and tools, systems and utilities, organizations, and training and education at: <http://mic.imtc.gatech.edu/catalogers_portal/cat_index.htm>.

There was discussion about working with the Digital Initiatives Committee through the formation of a Joint Metadata Subcommittee. This Joint Subcommittee has since been approved by both sets of Committee members and will begin work in the near future.

Discussion of future Ccnference program sessions focused on presenting a moving image cataloging and metadata workshop. The workshop has since been proposed for the next AMIA Conference in Anchorage, Alaska, with a possible regional workshop to follow at NYU.

For more information on the Conference, Committee projects, or general questions relating to AMIA, please feel free to contact Arlene Balkansky at . Also see the AMIA Website at <http://www.amianet.org>. In addition to consulting the MIC Website, Jane Johnson <jjohnson@loc.gov> may be contacted for more information about MIC.

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Last updated: April 4, 2006
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