ALCTS Catalog Form and Function Committee
Washington, D.C.
Saturday, February 15, 1997
4:30-5:30 p.m.
MINUTES
Present: Arlene Taylor (Chair), Rosann Bazirjian, Pat Callahan, Shirley Coleman, Walter Cybulski, Jane Greenberg, James Maccaferri, Ray Schwartz, Lydia Wasylenko, +7 guests
Absent: Sarah Bryan, Mitch Turitz
Arlene Taylor called the meeting to order, and the committee approved the minutes of the meetings held in New York at Annual. Introductions were given and the agenda was also approved.
The committee reviewed the report from the Topics Subcommittee, summarizing topics from the literature with relevance to the briefing paper series. The committee then discussed other journals, both print and electronic, that might be added to the list of journals reviewed. Arlene reread the committee charge, indicating that boundaries defining the nature of the catalog are rapidly disappearing and perhaps it was time to revise the charge. Concern was expressed that recent briefing papers had been heavily slanted to Cataloging issues. Walter Cybulski (Preservation), Lydia Wasylenko (Collection Development), and Rosann Bazirjian (Acquisitions) were asked to think about the important issues in their areas and to try to identify pertinent journals that could be added to the review list. Guests also provided suggestions about possible additions to this list. The current list will be sent out on the listserv and committee members are urged to submit additions and changes.
Pat Callahan reported that Briefing Paper #9 (working title: Worldwide Web Meets the OPAC) is almost completed. It will be ready for the Feb. 25th deadline for Vol. 8, no. 2.
In the absence of Sarah Bryan, Jane Greenberg reported on the status of Briefing Paper #10 which will focus on CONDOC. Ellen Crosby will be the editor for this paper and should be able to meet the Mar. 20 deadline. A brief discussion followed concerning CONDOC activities at the annual conference in New York. Lydia volunteered to attend the Midwinter RUSA MOPSS meeting on Sunday and Monday morning.
Jane Greenburg indicated that it was important for the committee to follow through with the publication of Part II of Colleen Hyslop's paper on the Program for Cooperative Cataloging. This will be briefing paper #11 and Jane will check with Colleen to see if it can be ready by the May 8th deadline. There was a brief discussion about whether briefing papers should be published back to back or every other month. Jane indicated that ALCTS Newsletter editor, Dale Swenson, was happy that there are so many currently "in the works".
Shirley Coleman updated the committee on the status of the briefing paper on international authority control issues. Barbara Tillett from the Library of Congress was identified as a potential author for this paper and Shirley will follow up with her. This will become briefing paper #12 with a projected deadline in July.
Due to lack of time, two topics were deferred to the second meeting on Sunday, Feb. 16, 4:30-5:30 pm.
Before the meeting was adjourned, Ray Schwartz made a general announcement about the CFFC program, "From Catalog to Gateway," to be held in San Francisco on Sunday, June 29 from 9:30-12:30.
The meeting adjourned at 5:30.
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ALCTS Catalog Form and Function Committee
Washington, D.C.
Sunday, February 16, 1997
4:30-5:30 p.m.
Present: Arlene Taylor (Chair), Pat Callahan, Shirley Coleman, Jane Greenberg, James Maccaferri, Ray Schwartz, Mitch Turitz, Lydia Wasylenko, +18 guests
Absent: Rosann Bazirjian, Sarah Bryan, Walter Cybulski
Arlene Taylor called the meeting to order and introductions were given. The committee then picked up discussion with the deferred items from Saturday's agenda: potential future topics and authors. Ray stated that he felt that the San Francisco program would generate a briefing paper and this should be published no more than two months after the San conference. The committee decided that this should be Briefing Paper #13 and Ray will be the editor (if he isreappointed to the committee). Two of the program speakers, Stu Weibel and Rebecca Gunther, were put forward as possible authors for the paper.
There was continuing discussion regarding the need for future briefing papers to concentrate on areas other than cataloging. Ray indicated that the program and paper certainly would. Pat stated that the paper he is editing on Webcats is more of a systems paper. It was decided that a future paper should have a strong preservation or acquisitions emphasis. One possible topic, discussed at previous meetings, is catalog access for the disabled or special needs patrons.
The committee moved onto the Sunday agenda items, beginning with reports from other Midwinter meetings that members had attended. Ray reported on the ALCTS Task Force on MetaData (formerly: Task Force to Define Bibliographical Access in the Electronic Environment). This task force is slated to expire after either the midwinter or annual conference. The members will prepare a final report and the meeting focused on the issues that would be included. They have identified seven broad areas to be addressed: 1) naming resources; 2) resource description and metadata; 3) syntax and formatting (e.g. MARC, Dublin Core); 4) record management and maintenance; 5) education; 6) outreach; and 7) scanning and responsiveness. There is nothing that CFFC can do until the final resport is completed. At that time, our committee should examine and determine the effect of the recommendations on the online catalog.
Arlene reported on the ALCTS/CCS/SAC Subcommittee on Form Headings/Subdivisions Implementation. On Friday, Feb. 14, a hearing was held to discuss the implemenation of |b in catalogs. Most of the questions revolved around the value or benefit of coding |b in place of |x. One benefit is that this will allow searching by form (e.g. diaries, love stories). The subcommittee has developed one prototype and will develop more. These will then be distributed for feedback.
Jane reported on the ALCTS/CCS/SAC Subcommittee on Subject Relationships/Reference Structures in the Catalog. Among topics of discussion were 1) the importance of alerting vendors to the need for reference structures in online catalogs; 2) who is doing what; and 3) options for coding and reference display. The subcommittee members also participated in a team building exercise, looking for obvious clusters beyond current practice. The result was subject heading lists with obvious holes as well as existing clusters that could be cleaner. This subcommittee will disband after preparing a final report outlining recommendations for future research and a probable recommendation that a new subcommittee be formed to investigate the issues raised in this report.
Mitch reported on the CC:DA Task Force on TEI Headers. The task force has decided to expand to include the Dublin core and metadata. The Midwinter meeting was mainly a discussion concerning procedure-what do we want to do? They came up with the following four charges: 1) investigate ways in which TEI editors can collaborate; 2) investigate amending AACR2 to instruct catalogers in the use of metadata; 3) seek collaboration with MARBI and support mapping proposed Dublin metadata core and its use as a source of information for catalogers; and 4) attempt to map metadata to US MARC (if this has already been done, who has done it and how can we get it?). All documents for this Task Force are available to anyone who wants them. The URL for the Task Force is: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/ccda. Ray indicated that IFLA maintains resources on metadata on their website as well.
Lydia reported on the RUSA MOPSS Catalog Use Committee meetings. The Friday meeting, centered around CONDOC2. Joe Matthews (co-author of CONDOC1) and Ellen Crosby agreed to write a first draft of this document. The issues include: problems of current online catalogs; the development of a boilerplate RFP for online catalogs; the standardization of the main elements; and the use of the online catalog as a staff tool as well as for patron access. There are also issues revolving around archives and the demise of the AMC format. RUSA and CFFC are sponsoring a program in San Francisco, "The Latest Fashion in Online Catalogs: Does It Fit?", on Sunday, July 29, from 9:30-12:30. This not only conflicts with the CFFC Program (which is co-sponsored by RUSA), but one speaker is scheduled to present at both programs. Ray will contact ALA and see if the two programs can be held in adjacent meeting rooms. Arlene will also pursue the possibility of a time change for the CFFC program so it does not conflict.
Ray reported on progress for the CFFC San Francisco program, entitled "From Catalog to Gateway: URIs, Metadata, and the Dublin Core." The preliminary program information is due by February 26, so Ray will attempt to get the above mentioned conflict straightened out in time to meet the deadline. He will act as moderator for the program. The committee discussed possible PR means--posting on relevant listservs, AN2, Cognotes, ALCTS newsletter. Ray will coordinate our PR efforts with the ALCTS Office. He will also post a draft paragraph (for the Conference Program) for comments from committee members.
New Business:
Committee Webpage--Although not crucial for discussion at this meeting, the location of this webpage will become an issue when Arlene is no longer on the committee. She will find out what's happening at ALA in regard to partitioning off sections on the ALA website, as it would make more sense for this page to part of that website. It is currently hotlinked off the ALCTS webpage but anchored to Arlene's homepage. For the present, she will continue to maintain the page.
Abstracts--There was some question about what reviewers are to be looking for when scanning journals. Arlene will ask Sarah to post a core set to review. She also asked for a volunteer to write a brief description of what to look for in articles. Jane indicated that she could do it after Feb. 19th if no one else is able to do it. Ray indicated that he may have something old that he could eventually post to the committee listserv. Arlene will e-mail Rosann and see if she might have something on this as well.
Meeting Times--Are two hours at conferences sufficient to conduct our business? Maybe we should have longer meetings-perhaps one one-hour meeting and one two-hour meeting. Are there things we are doing at our committee meetings that could be done through e-mail or the website? Shirley suggested that meeting reports might be something that could be posted after conferences, provided there were not crucial issues that the committee needs to address ASAP.
Briefing Papers--To assist new editors, Jane will put out information on the website on what to do, who to contact, etc.
Meeting was adjourned at 6 p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Shirley Coleman