Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access

Library of Congress Liaison Report to ALA/ALCTS/CCS/CC:DA Annual Conference, June 2003 Submitted by Barbara B. Tillett, LC Liaison to ALA/ALCTS/CCS/CC:DA with special thanks to Susan Morris

  Also available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file

GENERAL NEWS

LC at ALA. The Library of Congress regrets that it will not have an exhibit booth nor representatives at the ALA Placement Center in Toronto. We apologize for the inconvenience this cancellation may cause members of the American Library Association and the Canadian Library Association. We look forward to full participation in the Midwinter 2004 exhibition in San Diego. Please consult the LC ALA Update at <http://www.loc.gov/ala/an03-update.html> for the latest information on various LC initiatives and units.

New Associate Librarian for Library Services. On June 17, the selection of Deanna Marcum as the new Associate Librarian for Library Services was announced. She expects to report to LC on August 11, 2003. Dr. Marcum is currently president of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), formed by the merger of the Commission on Preservation and Access and the Council on Library Resources. She was previously Director of Public Service and Collection Management at the Library of Congress, Dean of the School of Library and Information Science at The Catholic University of America, and a program officer and then vice president of the Council on Library Resources.

National Book Festival. The third National Book Festival is scheduled for October 4, 2003.

MINERVA. The Library of Congress’s MINERVA Web Preservation Project, in collaboration with WebArchivist.org of the State University of New York Institute of Technology and the Internet Archive, created the Election 2002 Web Archive <http://www.loc.gov/minerva/collect/elec2002/index.html> with additional funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts through the University of Washington Center for Communication and Civic Engagement.
      The Election 2002 Web Archive is a selective collection of nearly 4,000 sites archived between July 1, 2002 and November 30, 2002. The initial March 4th, 2003 release of the Election 2002 Web Archive includes Web sites produced by congressional and gubernatorial candidates. Future releases will include party, interest group, press, government, civic, and other selective Web sites related to the 2002 national and statewide elections. Additional materials will be made available as the collection is processed for long-term preservation.
      The MINERVA project has also recently collected Web sites relating to the 107th Congress, September 11 Remembrance, and the War on Iraq. These collections are currently in production, and will be made available on the MINERVA Web site <http://www.loc.gov/minerva> as processing, cataloging, and other access-related tasks are completed.
      In April 2003, the Library of Congress completed a Collections Policy Statement for Web Site Capture & Archiving. This CPS is available at: <http://lcweb.loc.gov/acq/devpol/webarchive.html>

CATALOGING

New Hires. The Cataloging Directorate has nearly completed the process of recruiting and hiring approximately 48 new catalogers and two new Dewey classifiers authorized in the fiscal 2002 hiring plan. This is the largest number of “regular postings,” or hiring from applicant pools that included external candidates, that the directorate has had in more than a decade. For each posting, a position description and job analysis were submitted through AVUE, the Library’s automated position management system. Nearly every cataloging team in the directorate will obtain at least one new cataloger through this process. Five new catalogers will be added to the Computer Files and Microforms Team, Special Materials Cataloging Division, including a cataloger with Spanish language expertise. The following teams will gain two new catalogers: Law, Germanic and Scandinavian Languages, and Religion, Philosophy, and Psychology teams, Social Sciences Cataloging Division; Rare Book Team, Special Materials Cataloging Division; Hebraica and Southeast/South Asia teams, Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division; and Hispanic Team and Children’s Literature Team, History and Literature Cataloging Division. The Special Materials Cataloging Division will hire three new catalogers for music and sound recordings. The directorate chose to recruit catalogers from outside the Library, at the cost of foregoing or postponing needed hiring in other positions, in order to obtain critically needed language skills. As of June 9, 25 new catalogers were on board, including four new catalogers with Chinese language skills and three with Arabic. Overall, selecting officials report that the quality of the applicant pools has been outstanding.

Cataloging (Books and Serials) Production

                                    FY03 Oct.-April   FY02 Oct.-April   FY02
LC Full/Core-Level Cataloging           98,918           94,504        199,586
Copy  Cataloging                        18,441           17,870         49,576
Minimal-Level  Cataloging               21,230           18,511         38,328
Collection-Level Cataloging              2,176            2,409          4,259
TOTAL records created                  140,765          133,294        291,749
TOTAL volumes cataloged                    N/A              N/A        310,235

Authority Records
Names                                   45,861           45,159         88,475
Series                                   4,622            4,092          8,909
Subjects                                 4,197            3,702          7,365
TOTAL                                   54,680           52,953        104,749

For more information contact: Judith A. Mansfield, Action Director for Cataloging, Library of Congress, LM 642, Washington, DC 20540-4300 (telephone: 202-707-5333 or Internet: juma@loc.gov).

Cataloging Policy

MARC Code List for Languages. The 2003 edition of the list includes all valid codes and code assignments as of February 2003. There are 24 code additions and five changed code captions in this revision.

Library of Congress Subject Headings, 26th edition (2003). Library of Congress Subject Headings is published annually in printed form. The five-volume 26th edition includes a new introductory section listing all of the free-floating subdivisions with usage information. The data in this new section are derived from the subdivision authority records that have been created over the past few years to control the approximately 3,250 free-floating subdivisions The new subdivision section appears after the AC [Juvenile] Subject Headings in Volume I. Both sections are tabbed for easy reference. LCSH 26 is scheduled for shipment to subscribers in late July 2003.

• Great Britain as a Geographic Subdivision in Law Cataloging. In the spring, a change in policy regarding the use of –Great Britain as a geographic subdivision in law cataloging was implemented. The new practice is to assign subject headings divided by –England and/or –Wales, as appropriate, to legal works that are limited in coverage to one or both of those countries. The subdivision –Great Britain will be used only for works that cover all of the constituent countries of Great Britain. Because it is sometimes difficult to tell from examining an individual work exactly what portion of Great Britain it covers, the British Library has provided the Library of Congress with a checklist of legal topics where the law of Scotland differs from the law of England and Wales. The checklist can be used as an aid in cases where the coverage is not clear from the work itself. The information in this checklist is included in a revised version of instruction sheet H 955, which was issued in the 2003 Update No. 1 to the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings.
• Subdivision Change. As part of the ongoing effort to standardize subdivisions in LCSH, the subdivision –Travel has replaced –Journeys as a free-floating subdivision used under names of individual persons, groups of literary authors, and headings of the type [place]–Kings and rulers for works about voyages and travel undertaken by the person or members of the group. The subdivision –Travel has also been authorized for use under names of individual corporate bodies to cover the travel or tours that musical groups, sports organizations, etc., undertake, or to indicate the topic of travel in relation to a corporate body or its members in general. Free-floating subdivision lists and instruction sheets in the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings will be revised to reflect these changes for the 2003 Update No. 2, which will be issued in the fall.
• Earthquakes. Subject heading policy on representing individual earthquakes in LCSH changed in the spring. Previously, individual earthquakes were covered by generic subject headings of the type Earthquakes–[place]. Specific subject headings are now established for notable earthquakes that have come to be known by conventional names, which are generally based on their epicenters, for example, Kanto Earthquake, Japan, 1923; Loma Prieta Earthquake, Calif., 1989; and San Francisco Earthquake, Calif., 1906.
• Geographic Subdivision Data. Since 1999, information on the form of geographic subdivision has been included in a 781 linking field in records for all newly established or revised geographic subject headings that are also authorized for use as subdivisions. If a geographic heading is not authorized for use as a subdivision, a statement to that effect is added in a 667 field instead. As I reported at Midwinter, a project to add this data retrospectively to approximately 20,000 existing geographic subject authority records was completed at the end of last year. Only a handful of geographic name authority records contain 781 fields because LC has not yet implemented that field for LC staff who create name authority records. NACO participants are now being given the option of adding 781 fields to name authority records for geographic headings that may also be used as geographic subdivisions. Instructions for adding this field are available at both the NACO and CPSO web sites.

LC Classification

• Obsolete and optional numbers in LCC. The Library of Congress Classification schedules have traditionally used parentheses around certain class numbers to indicate one of two conditions: (1) the number was formerly valid but is now obsolete and no longer used by LC, or (2) the number is an optional number that was never used by LC but is provided for those libraries that wish to follow an arrangement that differs from LC practice. In either case, a see reference or explanatory note generally appears at the location of the parenthesized number to indicate to the user the valid number currently used by LC.
        The Library has introduced a change in the display conventions for these two types of numbers. Numbers of the first type continue to be displayed in parentheses, but numbers of the second type are now being displayed in angle brackets. See references or explanatory notes continue to appear under both types of numbers. This change in displays has already been implemented in Classification Web, the Library’s online Web-based classification product. It will also appear in new printed editions of the classification schedules dated 2003 or later.
• Religious law. Subclasses KB (Religious law in general. Comparative religious law) and KBM (Jewish law) are the most recent of the religious law schedules to be added to the forthcoming hard copy publication of Class KB (Religious legal systems). As part of the development of KBM, major revisions to BM (Judaism) were approved. The volume KB (Religious legal systems), will include KB, KBM, KBP (Islamic law) and the expanded and revised subclasses KBR/KBU for Canon law.
• Asian calligraphy. The Library of Congress has revised its classification practice for works of Asian calligraphy. In the past, these works have been classed in either subclass ND (Painting) or in subclass NK (Decorative arts). In addition, calligraphy of some Asian countries has been treated differently from calligraphy of other Asian countries. The following changes in practice will achieve more uniform treatment of these works: (1) The span of numbers ND1454-ND1457 have been made obsolete since calligraphy is generally not considered a type of painting. The Library of Congress has discontinued the use of these numbers. Existing materials in these numbers will not be reclassified. A reference has been added to the classification schedule directing the user to NK3600+ ; (2) The subarrangement of non-Roman calligraphy in NK3633-NK3639 was revised to provide a more comprehensive treatment similar to the subarrangement previously used in ND; and (3) Changes have been made at the beginning of subclass NK to indicate that the subclass also includes certain art forms that are considered to be fine arts.

Pinyin Romanization. Library staff members are actively pursuing some sixteen pinyin conversion and cleanup tasks. Records for instrumental music, videocassettes and motion pictures are being converted, as are subject headings, chronological subdivisions, and the most frequently used descriptive headings on non-Chinese records. Discrepancies between the results of the machine conversion and the romanization guidelines are being resolved. Search strategies are being pursued that will identify records that have strings of unconverted romanized Chinese text. Former headings on converted authority records will be systematically searched against access points on bibliographic records. A description of all sixteen projects may be found on the Library’s pinyin home page, at: <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/cleanup.html>.

Decimal Classification (Dewey)
      The Decimal Classification Division will start assigning Dewey Decimal Classification numbers using Edition 22 on July 1; from that day forward 082s will contain 22 instead of 21 in subfield 2. We will continue assigning Abridged Edition 13 numbers for works which do not require full unabridged numbers until the implementation of Abridged Edition 14 in 2004.
      OCLC Forest Press will not be sponsoring a Dewey breakfast/update at this Annual Conference. “Dewey Decimal Classification 22 and Beyond” is the title of the ALCTS CC:DA SAC (Subject Analysis Committee) preconference, Friday, June 20, 7:30 am-5:30 pm, at the Westin Harbour Castle. Instructors for breakout sessions include the Dewey assistant editors, Julianne Beall and Gregory New. Beall will also speak at the preconference on “Social Change and Dewey: A Case Study of Religion and Social Groups.”

Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Activities
      In the first half of fiscal 2003, PCC members created 79,665 new name authorities; 4,769 new series authorities; 1,543 subject authorities; and 1,092 LC classification proposals. Original cataloging from CONSER totaled 10,476 records and BIBCO members created 37,753 bibliographic records. The semi-annual PCC Participants’ Meeting at ALA Midwinter, which was convened by PCC Chair Robert Wolven of Columbia University, focused on the results of the November 2002 PCC Policy Committee meeting. Wolven noted that the theme of “new directions” for the PCC resulted from the PCC’s having achieved milestones during its initial development and growth, and that the PCC is now charting new paths with a diversification of directions. The PCC is now concentrating on strengthening the underpinnings of the program and building for the future: broadening coverage of needed records; improving training for all catalogers; and adapting standards to meet changing needs. At the May 2003 meetings of the operations committees of CONSER and BIBCO, these themes re-appeared as the newly revised PCC Strategic and Tactical Plans were reviewed for action items by both groups. Issues included standards for new types of materials, membership types and recruitment for coverage of certain topical or language expertise, numerical quotas, and costs of maintaining members.
      A PCC Task Group on SACO Program Development, which is charged with examining present and future parameters of the subject authority component of the PCC, is to make its preliminary report at this conference with a final report to be submitted in time for consideration at the annual PCC Policy Committee meeting in November 2003. A SACO funnel project for Hawaii/Pacific is now contributing proposals.
      The regular PCC Participants’ Meeting will take place Sunday night at the Metro Toronto Convention Center 205 C/D from 7:00 - 9:00. After reports on program highlights, the meeting will celebrate “CONSER at 30,” focusing first on its Canadian connection and then on the challenges for the future.
      Summaries of the BIBCO Operations Committee meeting held at the Library of Congress May 1-3, 2003 are available at: <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/opco03.html>
      Summaries of the CONSER Operations Committee meeting held at the Library of Congress May 1-3, 2003 are available at: <http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/conop2003.html>

Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT)
      The Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) is a Cataloging Directorate initiative aimed at developing tools to aid catalogers, reference specialists, and searchers in creating and locating information. Major components of the team’s work are enriching the content of Library of Congress bibliographic records, improving access to the data the records contain, and conducting research and development in areas that can contribute to furthering these efforts. Additional information regarding the various BEAT projects may be found at <http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat>. Questions about BEAT or its projects may be directed to the BEAT Chair, John D. Byrum, Jr., Chief Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, Library of Congress, jbyr@loc.gov

Special Materials Cataloging Division

Music and Sound Recording Cataloging

• Collection Level Records. In the winter and spring of 2003 SMCD has been creating collection level records for ten significant Library of Congress Music Division collections. Two of them, the Irving Fine collection and the Nicholas Slonimsky collection, have finding aids mounted on the Performing Arts Reading Room Web page. The Aaron Copland collection has a presence in the American Memory Web site, <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/achtml/achome.html> The 102 item-level records for Copland that were already in the LC Online Catalog have been linked to the collection level record. All told these 10 collections cover 1,586 feet of shelf space (over 1/4 mile!) and contain 623,040 items. (The bulk of items is in the Copland collection). The seven other collections are: Ernst Bacon, Ernest Bloch, the photographer Victor Kraft (part of the Copland collection), Luigi Dallapiccola/Margaret Dwight, Jascha Heifetz, Serge Koussevitzky, and the Thomas A. Edison, Inc. sheet music collection.
• Library of Congress Concert Tapes. The SMCD Music and Sound Recording teams continued cataloging the Library of Congress Music Division concerts that are held in the Coolidge Auditorium and recorded by the Library of Congress Recording Laboratory. In 2003 so far we have cataloged concerts from fall 2000 through spring 2002. Highlights include concerts by Apollo’s Fire, the Beaux Arts Trio, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, the Juilliard String Quartet, and a performance of Libby Larsen’s opera Barnum’s bird. Bibliographic records can be accessed by searching “Library of Congress Music Division concert” as a title proper. Results will be displayed chronologically.
• Marion S. Carson Collection of Americana. While this wide-ranging collection of nineteenth-century materials resides in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Special Materials Cataloging has finish providing the sheet music bibliographic records for these materials. These 160 pieces present a broad overview of nineteenth century popular topical music and are valuable for their musical content, their sociological import, and their art work.
• 78 rpm Album Cataloging Project. We are virtually finished with the cataloging of the 78 rpm album sets. This completes the project that originally comprised over 5,000 albums of classical, jazz, popular music, and spoken word recordings, totaling nearly 40,000 discs. They were cataloged at core level and give significant subject, performer, and publisher and matrix number access. The project provides comprehensive access to the Library’s collection of sound recordings in the first half of the 20th century.
• American or Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) Project. Cataloging of 112,000 33 1/3 rpm sound discs from the AFRTS collection began in 2002. These discs provided programming to the radio stations of the Department of Defense Armed (variously, American) Forces Radio and Television Service. AFRTS has provided broadcast service to military personnel since the 1940s. From 1959 until the mid-1990s, commercial and AFRTS-produced shows were provided to member stations on 33 1/3 rpm discs on a weekly basis; this part of our collection runs from 1967 to 1994. Shows range from informational to religious programming to popular shows such as the Charlie Tuna show. As archival materials, many of these recordings are unique, and few other copies are likely to exist. Planning began in November 2001, and processing in March 2002. We anticipate that virtually the entire run of LPs, plus several thousand. Processing these discs and making them available to the public has long been desired; now, as we near the reality of the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center facility in Culpeper, VA, the Library is reaching this goal.
• CD Workflow. The CD Workflow has managed not only to achieve currency in establishing bibliographic control for items new to the Library, but has now begun processing the arrearage collection of some 140,000 discs for which incomplete cataloging and no accurate holdings information exists. The Library is also facing the influx of new sound recording formats: CD/DVD combo publications will be handled fully in MBRS and giving both sound and moving image descriptive cataloging; Super Audio Compact Discs, MP3 files, DVD-Audio, and other new formats are also making their ways into the workflow. The Library is working closely with the Music Library Association, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, CC:DA, and the Joint Steering Committee for AACR2 to help determine the best way of describing these new formats.
• Music Cataloging Advisory Group (MCAG). The working group charged to examine the Music Cataloging Decisions (MCDs) and their relationship to any existing Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRIs) has almost completed its initial assessment and, through MCAG, will shortly hand over their recommendations to the Cataloging Policy and Support Office for review.
• Music Online Input Manual (MOIM). An SMCD cataloger finished the latest update to the MOIM. Most changes were prompted by the AACR2 rules changes and changes to MARC21 Bibliographic that were implemented at the Library of Congress in December 2002. The changes will be mounted as part of Cataloger’s Desktop, and distributed in hard copy.
• Old Catalog Updates. The old catalog sound recording bibliographic records in LCDB have been undergoing a slow metamorphosis from their misleading “Books” format into the sound recording format, making them available via OPAC searches which employ format limits. With a sound recording format-driven approach, the technician- implemented project has finished most old catalog 78s and most pre-1974 LPs.

Electronic Resources Cataloging

• Web Site Capture and Archiving Projects. The Computer Files and Microforms Team (CF&M), has processed collection level records for all the sites submitted to date under the Library’s MINERVA Web-archiving contract. As we collect thematic sites, we create collection level AACR2/MARC catalog records for each theme in order to represent these items in the LC Integrated Library System (ILS). For each theme we have collected thousands of sites. Building upon traditional methods, we are in the process of supplementing the collection level metadata by experimenting with the creation of title-level descriptive metadata for each Web site within the collection using the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). In April 2003, the Library of Congress completed a Collections Policy Statement for Web Site Capture & Archiving. This CPS is available at: <http://lcweb.loc.gov/acq/devpol/webarchive.html>
• ER Cataloging Expansion. In continuing the expansion of processing electronic/digital resources throughout the Cataloging Directorate, a total of ten catalogers from divisions throughout the Directorate have now received instruction in cataloging electronic resources.

• Montana Union List Project (MULP). Collections have been cataloged from Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, Cascade County Historical Society Archives, Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Montana Historical Society, Montana State University–Bozeman, Museum of Women’s History (Billings), Musselshell Valley Historical Museum, Tobacco Valley Historical Society, and the University of Montana–Missoula. By the end of May, NUCMC had produced a total of total of 4241 preliminary (845) and full level (3396) project records in the RLG AMC file.
• Cooperative H(istorically Black Colleges and Universities) Archival Survey Project (CHASP). To date 288 collections have been cataloged from twenty-one repositories: Allen University, Arkansas Baptist College, Barber-Scotia College, Benedict College, Bennett College, Bluefield State College, Bowie State University, Claflin College Archives, Clinton Junior College, Delaware State University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, Harris-Stowe State College, Lewis College of Business, Lincoln University, Morgan State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Paul Quinn College, Southwestern Christian College, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, and Winston-Salem State University.
• NUCMC and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). As a result of recent discussions, future NHPRC direct grant projects dealing with archives and manuscripts which do not have MARC records as a stated goal will be directed to report descriptive data to NUCMC catalogers for processing into cataloging. The team leader will also be writing an article on the NUCMC program for Annotation, the NHPRC newsletter.

Rare Book Cataloging
      The Rare Book Team of the Special Materials Cataloging Division processed various holdings in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, the Prints and Photographs Division, the Law Library, the Music Division, and the general collection.
      Collections now fully processed include: The Reformation Collection, 154 sixteenth-century titles relating to the Protestant Reformation. The collection is accessible in the LC online catalog with the name search: “Reformation Collection (Library of Congress)”; the Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collection of 609 items housed in two LC divisions (the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and the Prints & Photographs Division). It consists of graphic art, papers, and cookbooks collected and created by Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell. The collection is accessible in the LC online catalog with the name search: “Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collection (Library of Congress)”; the Shaker Collection of 455 Shaker literature items donated by J.P. MacLean.
      In work on other collections, 250 additional Shapiro Bruce Rogers titles were fully processed. Bruce Rogers was an American type and book designer, associated with the Riverside Press and Houghton Mifflin. The collection, previously owned by Solomon Reuben Shapiro, includes book and non-book material by and related to the artist. The collection is accessible in the LC online catalog with the name search: “Shapiro Bruce Rogers Collection (Library of Congress)”. More than 150 rare titles in the Law Library’s Rota Romana collection were fully processed. The Rota Romana is the tribunal of the Catholic Church. The Law Library’s holdings are largely from the 16th century. Most titles may be browsed in the LC online catalog with a name or subject search: “Catholic Church. Rota Romana”.
      Rare book cataloger Svato Schutzner retired from the Library on May 2, 2003, after 39 ˝ years of service to the Library. In Sept. 2002, rare book cataloger Mary Louise Elder retired from the Library after 18 years of service.

ACQUITISTIONS DIRECTORATE

E-Serials Access Recommendation. This spring, acting Associate Librarian for Library Services Beacher Wiggins charged a study group led by Maureen Landry, chief of the Serial Record Division, to recommend an approach to cataloging the influx of 5,000 to 7,000 new electronic serials that the Library expects to receive in the next few years. The study group included catalogers, acquisitions specialists, reference librarians, and cataloging policy specialists. The group recommended that LC expand the use of the single-bibliographic-record approach to cover all electronic serials, at least for the next three years. (Under this recommendation, LC would not routinely catalog serial titles in aggregators at all, unless the titles themselves met the criteria for inclusion in the LC permanent collections.) The study group considered it essential for “blind” URLs in CONSER records - that is, URLs that are not valid for LC - to be stripped out of the bibliographic records before loading into the LC Integrated Library System. Working, LC-valid URLs would then be added to the holdings records. An implementation group will consider how to accomplish these changes.

NATIONAL SERVICES DIRECTORATE

Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS)

• Classification Web. CDS’s new Classification Web service introduced in June 2002 now has over 1,300 subscribers. The subject correlation feature (correlations between LC Classification and LC Subject Headings) is especially popular. Thirty-day trial accounts are available at no charge. Subscription rates start as low as $375 per year. An online tutorial and order information are available at <http://classweb.loc.gov>. An advertisement for Classification Web appears in the June 2003 issue of American Libraries.
• Cataloger’s Desktop Web-Based Training. An online training course is now available for CDS’s Cataloger’s Desktop (CD-ROM). Cataloger’s Desktop Web-Based Training covers the most important features, contents, and functions of Desktop. The training course is free at <http://www.loc.gov/cds/desktop-training>.
        Cataloger’s Desktop contains the full text of AACR2 (2002 revision) and virtually all of LC’s cataloging manuals on a single CD-ROM. A Web version is planned for 2004. Cataloger’s Desktop is sold on an annual subscription basis. A demonstration CD-ROM is available free on request from CDS (cdsinfo@loc.gov).
• Integrating Resources Cataloging Workshop Training Manuals. Training manuals for the newest Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program course, Integrating Resources Cataloging Workshop, were published in May. CDS publishes the training manuals in PDF format so that libraries and networks offering the courses may replicate the desired number of manuals for participants in a class.
        Pricing and order information for Integrating Resources and other SCCTP training manuals in PDF format may be found on the CDS Web site at <http://www.loc.gov/cds<. Instructions for sponsoring an SCCTP training session and arranging for a trained instructor are available at <http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/scctp/home.html>.
• Library of Congress Subject Headings, 26th edition (2003). Library of Congress Subject Headings are published annually in printed form. The five-volume 26th edition includes a new section listing all of the LCSH free-floating subdivisions. The new subdivision section appears after the AC [Juvenile] Subject Headings in Volume I. Both the AC Subject Headings section and the new Free-floating Subdivisions section are tabbed for easy reference. LCSH 26 is scheduled for shipment to subscribers in late July 2003.
• Understanding MARC Bibliographic and Understanding MARC Authority Records. A new edition of the popular Understanding MARC Bibliographic booklet has just been published. The 2003 edition is available now from CDS. The first edition of a brand new publication, Understanding MARC Authority Records, will also be available in June. These publications are especially useful for library school students, system vendors, and others in search of a concise, easy-to-understand introduction to MARC. The booklets are sold as single copies or in packs of 25. For price and order information see the CDS Web site at <http://www.loc.gov/cds>.
• New Edition of LC Classification Outline. The seventh edition (2003) of the LC Classification Outline will be available from CDS in late June. The 2003 edition is the first new print edition in 13 years. The last print edition was published in 1990. In recent years the Outline has been available on the Web, but customers have repeatedly requested an updated print edition. The Cataloging Policy and Support Office reviewed and updated the content for the new edition. The Web version of the Outline is available at no charge at <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html>. Copies of the 2003 print edition may be ordered from CDS at <http://www.loc.gov/cds> or cdsinfo@loc.gov.

OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE

LC ILS (Integrated Library System)
      The Integrated Library System Program has been successful in expanding access and improving service for external users of the Library of Congress Database. Over the past twelve months the Library has increased the number of external user sessions for the Library of Congress Online Catalog <http://catalog.loc.gov> and improved service for Z39.50 users. Reports from users having difficulty accessing the Catalog have decreased significantly as a result of these actions. The Library will continue to explore ways to improve the capacity of its integrated library management system (ILMS) to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for the system.
      The Integrated Library System Program is currently planning to upgrade to the 2001.2 version of Voyager by the end of this calendar year. The Library plans to implement the Unicode standard in its ILMS in 2004. As part of that effort, the Library is working in strategic partnership with its vendor, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., to test the Unicode conversion of MARC 21 records in the Library of Congress Database. In preparation for the implementation of Unicode, the Library has identified bibliographic records for correction, which are being re-distributed by the Cataloging Distribution Service.
      July 1, 2003 will mark the first anniversary of the Library of Congress Authorities <http://authorities.loc.gov>, a permanent service that provides free access to LC’s authority data via the Web.
      In January, 2003 the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) migrated to LC’s ILMS environment. The NLS Database became available via the Web in May, 2003.

Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)

• MARC 21. The 2002 edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats was published in April 2003. It includes all of the 2002 updates to the MARC 21 formats. The 2003 edition of the MARC Code List for Languages was published in May 2003. This new edition contains 24 code additions and 5 changed code captions.
        Understanding MARC Authority Records was published in June 2003 as a companion to the popular Understanding MARC Bibliographic. Understanding MARC Authority Records introduces the MARC 21 authority format to librarians and students who are not familiar with MARC 21 authority records. It uses the same structural organization as the Understanding MARC Bibliographic document, however, it includes comprehensive information and descriptions of MARC 21 authority records, along with many useful examples. In addition the 7th edition of the Understanding MARC Bibliographic was published during the first week of June 2003. It includes a few expanded explanations and updated examples of MARC 21 bibliographic records.
• Z39.50 International Next Generation. The Library of Congress has organized a series of initiatives, collectively referred to as “ZING” (Z39.50-International: Next Generation), to evolve Z39.50 to a mainstream, contemporary information retrieval protocol. One of these initiative is SRW (Search and Retrieval Web Service), a Web platform protocol intended to be attractive to information providers, vendors, and users. It lowers the barrier to implementation, but preserves the existing intellectual contributions of Z39.50 that have accumulated over 20 years, discarding aspects no longer useful or meaningful. After starting the SRW initiative with a small international development and implementation group in June 2001, the initial specifications (version 1.0) were finalized and announced in November 2002. Version 1.0 will remain stable for a test and implementation-experience period of about nine months. Version 1.1 will be released in early Fall 2003.
• MARC 21 Records for Acquisitions. The Library of Congress now receives MARC 21 bibliographic records for non-U.S. imprints from 24 sources covering 29 countries. All of these sources are booksellers who have developed the ability to export bibliographic data in the MARC 21 format. LC is working with its new vendor in Serbia to assist them in producing MARC 21 bibliographic records for the titles they supply. LC is also working with East View, its vendor in Russia, to help them expand their MARC 21 records service to include titles in languages other than Russian and Ukrainian. Test records for titles in Belorussian and Moldavian have recently been analyzed. Some work on character encoding remains to be done. East View also supplies materials in languages of Central Asia.
        All of LC’s foreign MARC distribution services have been retired, the flow of records having changed so that most of these records now go into OCLC and/or RLIN for use by libraries in copy cataloging. Some of the vendors whom LC has assisted in developing a MARC capability also provide resource data to the utilities for copy cataloging and other functions.
• Copyright Records. LC is progressing with work to migrate copyright registration descriptive information from a proprietary non-MARC system to a standard MARC 21 platform by the end of calendar 2004. The records, after migration, should be more compatible with traditional MARC 21 records. The Copyright file includes more than 30 million records.
• MARCXML. NDMSO has developed a new XML Schema and toolkit (MARCXML) for working with MARC metadata in XML. The schema uses a slim approach to describe MARC data and as a result provides a flexible “bus” through which metadata can be transformed and manipulated in various ways. Users can now convert MARC data to and from various descriptive metadata standards such as Dublin Core, ONIX, and MODS. MARC data encoded in the slim schema can easily be used to display MARC records on the Web in HTML. The toolkit is being developed in a modular fashion while emphasizing the use and promotion of freely available open-source tools. MARCXML is approved as an extension schema for descriptive metadata in METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard) objects and for use with Open Archives Initiative (OAI). LC supports OAI harvesting of records from several American Memory collections in MARCXML.
• Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). MODS version 2.0 of the schema was made available in Jan. 2003. MODS is a lightweight version of MARC using language based tags rather than numeric ones (e.g. “Title” rather than “245"), that is intended to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as supporting original resource description records. It targets applications that require richer resource descriptions than simple Dublin Core but not as complex as full MARC. It is more compatible with library data than other metadata schemes such as ONIX. MODS is intended to be a compliment to other metadata formats. (See: <http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods>)
        Several projects using MODS have been initiated inside LC, including the Audio-Visual Prototype Project, MINERVA (Mapping the Internet Electronic Resources Virtual Archive), and I Hear America Singing. MODS has been endorsed as a Z39.50 Next Generation specified format (for SRU/SRW) and as an extension schema for descriptive metadata in METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard) objects. In addition, LC is now exposing records from several American Memory collections in the Open Archives Initiative harvesting project with MODS as an alternative metadata format.
        Version 2.1 will be available in June and will include several corrections and enhancements. This is not a major release, since it will not invalidate existing MODS records. The most important additions will be the ability to version the schema and records, some additional date types, and parsed citation information to allow for identifying a part being described that is in a larger work. The latter will facilitate use with OpenURLs.
• Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS). NDMSO staff participated in the development of the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema for creating XML documents that express the hierarchical structure of digital library objects, the names and locations of the digital files that comprise those objects, and the associated metadata. NDMSO is the maintenance agency for the METS standard which is being taken up by many digital library projects, worldwide. The official METS Web site and listserv is maintained by NDMSO. In the past year about 20 institutions implemented METS. These projects are listed at <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/mets/registry/<. In October NDMSO will host a “METS Opening Day” conference for current and prospective METS implementors at the Library of Congress.
• Z39.50 Gateway. LC’s WWW/Z39.50 Gateway now contains more than 500 databases on 450 servers; 145 of the databases listed are non-US, from over 23 other countries. Servers of over nineteen different library system vendors are represented. Of special note, the database of LC’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped was added in May.

PUBLIC SERVICE COLLECTIONS DIRECTORATE

Digital Reference
      The Digital Reference Team is charged with the reference support for the Library’s digital collections and spearheads the Library’s digital reference initiative. With Question Point as the access point for reference inquiries, the team provides both text-based and chat services via the Library’s Web site at <http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/> and <http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-memory.html>. To this end the team has answered nearly 8,000 queries from Question Point and 773 contacts via chat since January 2003.
      Additionally the Digital Reference Team is the public interface for the Library’s digital collections. The team designs and presents demonstrations, on-site and off-site workshops, and video conferences for members of Congress, distinguished guests of the Library, visiting scholars, and educators. Opportunities for video conferencing and Web-casting are continually expanding. In the past four months the team has conducted 30 video conferences for 570 students, teachers, and librarians, including a scheduled session of the annual meeting of the Texas Library Association. On-site presentations and workshops welcomed 40 groups with 670 participants. Working with the Center for the Book the teams continues to create and update the “Read More about It” selections targeted for general readers and younger students <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/collections/book/cntrbook.html>. Other activities of the team, such as Journeys and Crossings and Telling America’s Stories, are further outlined on the Virtual Programs and Services page <http://www.loc.gov/rr/program>.

QuestionPoint

• Ask A Librarian. The Library of Congress (Public Service Collections and Area Studies Collections) received 31,253 online reference queries through the Library’s Ask A Librarian service from January through May 2003. Reference staff on the Digital Reference Team (DRT), and in the Science and Technical Reports, Prints and Photographs, and Business reading rooms conducted 1,057 live chat sessions with patrons during that same time period. The QuestionPoint Users Group (QPUG) was established in January. QPUG’s charge is to help determine the future direction of the electronic reference environment at the Library of Congress. The QPUG will evaluate, advise and assist in the implementation of the Ask A Librarian project, working under the general direction of Director for Public Service Collections Diane Kresh.
        QPUG’s first task was to help librarians deal with the increasing volume of online reference queries generated by the Ask A Librarian service, and to reduce the number of misdirected questions that patrons submitted to reading rooms. QPUG, with the assistance of staff from the Network Development and MARC Standards Office, established a template for intermediary pages to be placed between the main Ask A page and each Reading Room’s Web inquiry form. These pages are intended to help patrons help themselves to information available on the Library’s Web site, and to introduce them to the collections, programs and services provided by each reading room. To date, 14 intermediary pages have gone up with others in progress. QPUG has just completed a “best practices for digital reference” document, which will be presented to the LC Reference Round Table for final approval. This document will be distributed to LC reference staff and will be placed on the staff electronic reference resources page. It will serve as a model for the best practices document created for the QuestionPoint service and its members.
• QuestionPoint. LC is in the second year of its partnership with OCLC for the development of QuestionPoint. Building the Global Reference Network (GRN) remains the first priority for LC’s QP team. Increasing volume, improving workflow and the functionality of the knowledge base component are also goals, as is the development of standard training in the use of QP for librarians worldwide.
        QuestionPoint is a sponsor of the RUSA/MARS 2003 Preconference: Digital Reference @ Your Library II: Directions and Opportunities. The QuestionPoint Users Group meeting and the two sessions on QuestionPoint Implementation Models originally scheduled for Toronto have been cancelled because of low registration.

Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS)

• Audio-Visual Prototyping Project. The Audio-Visual Prototyping Project in M/B/RS continues to explore new avenues for the preservation of sound recordings in the form of digital files, and to discuss options for applying the same approach to video. The work proceeds in a collaborative undertaking with the American Folklife Center, which is preserving content in the Save Our Sounds project. The motives for the entire undertaking include the fact that the customary approach for reformatting endangered recorded sound and video content–copying to analog tape–is no longer practical since the manufacture of analog tape and tape recorders has virtually ceased, replaced by digital formats. A second important factor is that the Library of Congress will open the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center for its recorded sound and moving image collections in 2005, at Culpeper, Virginia, seventy miles from Washington. The new facility will include an entirely new laboratory for reformatting audio and video materials, and the prototyping project is informing the planning for the new Center.
        One key focus for the Audio-Visual Prototyping Project is the specialized metadata needed to shape and administer digital content over the long term. The project uses a contractor-produced software system that creates metadata conforming to the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), an XML structure capable of holding a rich mixture of descriptive and administrative metadata. The production process combines the digital audio files and the XML metadata to create a “digital object” for long-term management. The AV Prototyping Project’s use of METS packaging is intended to fit the needs of the Library’s future digital repository, as well as to permit the interim management of content in the current generation of storage systems.
        During the last year, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division has prepared sample preservation objects for a set of radio broadcast logging tapes, recordings on obsolete Memovox discs, and copies of a set of Magnabelts from a manuscript collection. The American Folklife Center has largely completed work on a collection of folk music from New England originally recorded in the 1940s and 1950s.

Prints and Photographs Division

• Recent Additions to the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Newly cataloged visual materials from the Tissandier Collection contribute to the 2003 centennial of powered flight by showing the earlier history of aeronautics. European in origin and primarily dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, the collection includes more than 440 prints, photos, original drawings, and ephemera portray balloons, airships, and flying machines; ascents and accidents; portraits of famous balloonists; and technical designs, cartoons, and posters. Vivid coloring enlivens many of the scenes. The Tissandier brothers, Albert (1839-1906) and Gaston (1843-1899), assembled the collection during their careers as balloonists and dirigible builders as well as aeronautical authors and illustrators. Digital images, funded in part by the Research Libraries Group Cultural Materials Initiative, accompany each catalog record. All records are available through PPOC <http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html> and the Cultural Materials Initiative <http://culturalmaterials.rlg.org/cmiprod/workspace.jsp>
        Another significant addition includes the Lawrence & Houseworth Collection, a series of 877 photographic prints (stereographic halves) taken in California in 1866 and published as Gems of California Scenery. Subjects include major settlements, boom towns, placer and hydraulic mining operations, shipping and transportation routes, and scenic sites in northern California and western Nevada.

OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program

      The Office of Strategic Initiatives is leading the development and implementation of a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The program is funded by a congressional appropriation of $99.8 million. The program’s goal is to develop, in collaboration with other institutions and stakeholders, a national strategy to collect, archive and preserve the burgeoning amounts of digital content, especially materials that are distributed primarily in digital formats, for current and future generations. Extensive fact-finding and planning has taken place over the part two years with a variety of stakeholders in preparation for submission of a plan to Congress for its approval.