NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Compiled for OLAC by David Reser*
For the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting
San Antonio, Texas
January 2006
*With special thanks to colleagues Lynn El-Hoshy and Susan Morris for their help with this compilation.
More information about initiatives undertaken at the Library of Congress since the ALA Annual Conference in June 2005 is available on the "LC at ALA" Website, <http://www.loc.gov/ala/ala-sanantonio-update.html>.
National AudioVisual Conservation Center
In December 2005, the Library took possession of Phase 1 of the new National AudioVisual Conservation Center (NAVCC) in Culpeper, Virginia. Phase 1 is comprised of the 140,000 square foot Collections Building and the Central Plant servicing the entire facility. Staff will begin working onsite in early January to prepare for the massive task of moving the Library’s moving image and recorded sound collection throughout the Winter and Spring months. The Packard Humanities Institute continues to construct Phase 2 of the facility--comprised of the Conservation Building and Nitrate vaults--which is now scheduled for completion and final turnover to the Library at the end of 2006. At that time, the Library’s audiovisual preservation laboratories and the staff in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division will be relocated to Culpeper.
Integrated Library Management System
In November 2005, the Library upgraded its integrated library management system to Voyager with Unicode Release. This upgrade accomplished the conversion of the LC Database to Unicode, a character coding system designed to support the interchange and display of the written texts of the diverse languages of the modern world. Users can now search and display Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Persian, and Yiddish characters and scripts in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. During the upgrade, the Library reduced the number of simultaneous external OPAC and Z39.50 sessions in order to allocate additional system resources for processing the conversion and indexing of the database. Shortly after the completion of the upgrade the Library resumed all previous levels of access. The Library regrets any inconvenience to users and appreciates their patience during this brief period. The Library has provided extensive Help Files to guide users in adjusting the settings in their operating systems and Web browsers to enable proper display of all characters in the LC Online Catalog. These Help Files are available at: <http://catalog.loc.gov/help/unicode.htm>, and contain information about fonts for display and printing records. A presentation on the Library’s implementation of Unicode is available at: <http://www.loc.gov/ils/>.
Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS)
Free PDF Versions of Selected Publications. The following publications will be available as free PDF files beginning with issues published after January 1, 2006: Cataloging Service Bulletin, Updates to Library of Congress Rule Interpretations, Updates to Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings, Updates to CONSER Editing Guide, Updates to CONSER Cataloging Manual, and Updates to MARC 21 Formats documentation. The traditional paper publications will continue to be available from CDS by paid subscription. Based on the experience offering PDF versions of these selected publications throughout 2006, CDS may decide to offer additional titles in PDF format.
Descriptive Cataloging
The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) continues to move forward with its mandate to revise its documentation. The following LCRIs have been modified, cancelled or simplified:
- LCRI 1.0G1, Accents and Other Diacritical Marks. This LCRI prohibited the use of accent marks on initial capital letters of words in manifestations published after 1801 in French, Spanish and Portuguese. At that time of issuance in 1982, this policy aligned with the practices of the Library and Archives, Canada (LAC); however, since that time LAC has changed its practice and asked the Library of Congress to conform with that change. Effective January 1, 2006, CPSO is canceling this LCRI and will reissue the LCRI with guidelines for implementation. This LCRI will be available February 1, 2006 via Cataloger’s Desktop. Catalogers may begin to implement this decision immediately. Cf. <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/accents.html>
- LCRI 22.17, Dates. In late June 2005, CPSO posted a proposal for the addition of dates to existing personal name headings, and solicited comments from the wider cataloging community. This proposal stimulated a tremendous response and interesting discussions. A complete summary of the comments received, and a discussion of the resulting decisions made by Library of Congress cataloging management is available at <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/deathdates.pdf>. In brief, these decisions are: Allow the optional addition of death dates to established headings that contain birth dates only. Continue the "status quo" regarding the restriction of adding dates (birth and/or death) to existing headings that previously had no dates and are not in conflict with other headings. Additional simplification and implementation issues are addressed in the full report. A draft of LCRI 22.17 incorporating these decisions is available at <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/22-17-rev05.pdf>. The final version will be available via Cataloger’s Desktop on February 1, 2006. Because of the expected impact and in the interest of an orderly implementation, LC requests that the new policies not be followed until the LCRI is published.
- LCRI 25.13. Manuscripts and Manuscript Groups Draft Available for Comment. Because this complex rule is used infrequently by most catalogers, the lack of explicit guidelines has caused considerable frustration and disparate results. The revisions are designed to give clear instructions so that catalogers will 1) know exactly how to create a heading for a manuscript and provide appropriate references, even though they only occasionally create these headings, 2) achieve consistency in creating manuscript headings, 3) provide specific instructions for relating a manuscript heading to the heading for the work contained in the manuscript, and 4) limit the creation of an authority record for the work to situations in which it is actually needed. The draft is available at <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/25_13.html>. The deadline for comment on this draft is January 30, 2006. Comments may be sent to CPSO by e-mail at .
- Descriptive Cataloging Manual, Z1. The 670 section has been updated to include guidelines for the use of subfield $u that allows catalogers to add a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) in authority records when needed. Appendix 1: "Ambiguous headings" has been updated to reflect recent policy changes in regard to Forests, parks, and reserves as well as to the appropriate MARC coding for U.S. tribal entities. Appendix 2: "Canadian Names" clarifies that the Library and Archives, Canada will maintain the status quo in regard to Canadian forests, parks, and reserves as well as to names of Canadian First Nations.
- LC Guidelines Supplement to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data (i.e., the "Blue pages") has been updated to reflect the use of subfield $u in the 670 field and guidelines for the use of 043 in authority records have been issued.
LC Unicode Cataloging Policies. CPSO will be working on adjustments to the cataloging policies related to bibliographic and authority records using non-roman scripts over this coming year. Currently, LC is planning to hold changes until 2007 to allow time for testing and coordination with the NACO nodes; discussions have already started.
CONSER Access Level Record for Serials. The Library of Congress Serial Record Division and several PCC members have formed a group to develop and test an access level record for serials. This collaborative pilot project is co-chaired by Regina Reynolds (LC) and Diane Boehr of the National Library of Medicine. The access level record pilot for serials takes advantage of the model used for non-serial e-resources developed by Dave Reser (LC), LC contractor Tom Delsey, LC cataloging staff, and LC reference staff. The effort is designed to enhance the utility of catalog records, both to end users and those in the library that use catalog records for processing serials, by assuring that essential elements for user tasks are present in the record. Cataloging cost savings may result by supplying only those record elements that are essential for performing the user tasks identified in Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR): find, identify, select, and obtain. The project is expected to result in a chart of essential data elements and an outline of cataloging guidelines by January 2006. A progress report, including an evaluation of the pilot, is expected by the end of April 2006. The charge for the pilot, including a detailed discussion of background, methodology, and deliverables is available at <http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/Access-level-chargelc-pccaug17.pdf>.
Subject Headings
Genre/Form Headings for Moving Images in LCSH. Cataloging staff from the Moving Image section of the Motion Picture, Broadcast & Recorded Sound (MBRS) Division, working with policy specialists in CPSO, have begun a project to analyze the genre/form terms from Moving Image Genre-Form Guide (MIGFG) and reconcile the terminology with LCSH. The terminology from Moving Image Materials: Genre Terms (MIM) will also be consulted as part of this project. The goal will be to move as much of MIGFG as possible to LCSH, and to indicate unambiguously in LCSH whether the terms are to be used as topics (i.e., subject authority records tagged as 150) or genre/form headings (i.e., subject authority records tagged as 155). The resulting subject authority records will be the first issued as part of LCSH with the 155 tag and will be supplemented with instructions for applying such headings in bibliographic records in the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings. As soon as LC has developed a draft list of headings to be established in LCSH as genre/form headings, along with scope notes where necessary and a list of principles used to establish such headings, the proposal will be shared with the larger moving image community for input and comment before the genre/form headings are established and distributed as part of LCSH. The staff envisions releasing the draft sometime prior to the ALA Annual Conference in the Summer of 2006.
Geographic Authority Record Enhancement. OCLC staff have been consulting with CPSO staff to develop guidelines and procedures for enhancing a selection of name authority records for jurisdictions by programmatically adding 043 fields with geographic area codes (GACs) and 781 fields showing their geographic subject subdivision forms. It is expected that several thousand records that meet project criteria can be handled in this fashion and that the project could begin after ALA.
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Last updated: April 4, 2006
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