Treatment of Globes in LCSH and LCGFT

LC has issued Library of Congress to revise the treatment of Globes in LCSH and LCGFT. A couple of major changes "To promote collocation of all of the globes, maps, and atlases of a place, the subdivision –Globes will be cancelled in favor of using the form subdivision –Maps. The fact that a work is a spherical representation will be brought out with the genre/form term Globes." And "Since there are at least two, and possibly three, commonly accepted meanings, the heading for Earth as a planet should be qualified. The heading will be revised to Earth (Planet)."

On May 24, 2012, the Policy and Standards Division (PSD) of the Library of Congress issued a discussion paper entitled “Proposed Treatment of Globes in the LCGFT Environment” (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genre_form_globes.pdf). The paper explained that currently in Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT), the term Globes in refers to globes of the Earth, to exclusion of globes of other heavenly bodies (e.g., other planets, comets, asteroids). The paper went on to suggest revisions to both LCGFT and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to allow for more accurate and consistent description of all globes.

Library of Congress Systems Offline

News from LC.

All Library of Congress systems will be taken offline beginning Friday evening. This includes LCCN Permalink, Z39.50 and SRU services, ID.LOC.GOV, all listservs, and, of course, the catalog. All Library systems. Service will be restored by Tuesday.

The Library of Congress has planned extensive electrical work and power maintenance for this coming weekend. As a protective measure, all Library systems will be powered down. The maintenance period is scheduled for completion by Tuesday morning, when it is expected all Library systems will have been restored to normal operation. Though it is anticipated work will not be fully completed until late Monday (or very early Tuesday morning), services will be start coming back online many hours before then.

Kazakh, Lepcha, and Manchu Romanization Tables

News from LC.

The ALA-LC Romanization tables are developed jointly by the Library of Congress (LC) and the American Library Association (ALA). Romanization schemes enable the cataloging of foreign language materials. Romanized cataloging in turn supports circulation, acquisitions, serials check-in, shelflisting, shelving, and reference, particularly in library catalogs that are unable to display non-roman alphabet information.

The ALCTS Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Materials (CC:AAM) recently received and reviewed proposals for new Kazakh (in Arabic script) and Manchu romanization tables, as well as a revision proposal for the Lepcha romanization table. All three tables were approved.

The Kazakh (in Arabic script), Lepcha, and Manchu romanization tables are now available for downloading from the ALA-LC Romanization Tables webpage http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html

LC to Add Subject Category Codes to Selected Subject Authority Records

The Library of Congress has announced they will add subject category codes to selected subject authority records.

No earlier than August 2012, the Policy and Standards Division (PSD) of the Library of Congress will begin an experiment to add subject category codes (MARC 21 tag 072) to authority records for subject headings. It is anticipated that the addition of this information will enhance the usability of LCSH on the Semantic Web; assist catalogers by allowing integrated library systems (ILSs) and resource discovery platforms to provide a list of the subdivisions that are appropriate to headings being assigned; and improve automatic heading string creation and validation in ILSs and resource discovery platforms.

Library of Congress Preparing for RDA

Image via WikipediaWidely posted.

The Policy and Standards Division, part of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate at the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), is launching a new website as the Library prepares for RDA. The site is located at: http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/. There are links to training documents, presentations, exercises, and examples of records as well as to other RDA related sites. Many more links will be added as items are created, edited, and updated as preparations for RDA proceed. The page originally created for LC documentation related to the US RDA Test will no longer be maintained. Links from that site will be migrated to the new site over time as appropriate.

Related articles

• ALA 2011: Some RDA news (catalogingfutures.com)

Procedural Guidelines for Proposed New or Revised Romanization Tables

News from LC.

I am pleased to report that the "Procedural Guidelines for Proposed New or Revised Romanization Tables" is now available on the LC website at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romguid_2010.html. These guidelines were developed jointly by the Policy and Standards Division at the Library of Congress, the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) and the Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Materials (CC:AAM) within the Cataloging and Classification Section of the American Library Association. The need for a formal procedure became apparent in recent efforts to revise certain Romanization tables. A draft was issued on June 15, 2010, with a request for feedback. The current procedure, dated August 13, 2010, is the result of that feedback and was printed in Cataloging Service Bulletin Issue 127http://www.loc.gov/cds/PDFdownloads/csb/CSB_127.pdf (PDF, 289 KB).

MARC Printed Documentation

LC is seeking comments on changing from print to online documentation.

The Network Development and MARC Standards Office is considering some changes in the publication of the MARC 21 Format documentation. For many years we have printed the formats and their updates and the code lists and sold them through our Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS). In the last decade, however, CDS and our Office have developed alternative publication channels -- first the Concise formats were made available online for free, then the format documents were added to Catalogers Desktop where they were enriched with links to code lists and cataloging norms, and finally the full format content was published for free on the web. As a result, the demand for the printed format documentation has dwindled to very small numbers. (I, myself, rely totally on the online now and am not expeditious about filing in those updates!)

Format updates:

I have announced at the last two ALA meetings that we were considering not printing several of the updates and I have talked with a number of persons individually about that. Now we are ready to act and are proposing not to print any of the full format documents henceforth -- Bibliographic, Authority, Holdings, Classification, Community Information -- but want the community to have an opportunity to voice any concerns. We would continue to print the concise format annually, but perhaps in a reduced form -- only a looseleaf binder with Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings.

We would also establish a printing stylesheet for the online format pages that would eliminate internet framing material, yielding pages very close to the current print. They could be used by those who prefer print to update a printed format resource.

The free online version of each format would continue to be available online in both full and concise forms, as it is now.

The annual printing schedule has also hampered us from issuing updates after each MARC meeting and made it difficult to make minor corrections. Over time we have begun to make the minor corrections to the online as they are found but are still wrestling with the update schedule and as a result are beginning to get the print and online out of synch (the online currently goes through Update 12 (October 2010) while the print has been published through Update 10/11 (February 2010)).

If we go to updates only online, as noted above, we would still print the Concise Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings annually. We would update the online with an official update in September/October and March/April of each year. Minor corrections would be made to the online text as they are discovered.

Code lists:

The Language, Geographic Area, and Country MARC code lists are still printed on an occasional basis. The latest updates are Language in 2007, GACs in 2006, and Countries in 2003. The Organization codes, and the Relator and Source code lists ceased to be printed several years ago and are online only because they are more frequently changed than the ones mentioned above. The Language, Geographic Area, and Country code lists are also online and are updated as changes occur. These code lists are also in CDS's Catalogers Desktop with rich links, downloadable in an XML format from the MARC site, and are available through a new web service: Authorities and Vocabularies Service (id.loc.gov), commonly called ID. In ID, the codes and their captions are being augmented with links to each other and with their corresponding terms in LCSH and NAF, where possible.

Our proposal is to no longer issue the Language, Geographic Area, and Country code lists in print form but depend on the different online services for access.

We would like to hear from you on these plans. Could you please respond via email to ndmso@loc.gov by April 4, 2011.

Canada
As the publisher and distributor of the MARC 21 formats in English in Canada and of the French formats worldwide, Library and Archives Canada will also review its plans for production of printed updates pending any decision taken by the Library of Congress.

The content and structure of the French MARC 21 formats at www.marc21.ca is currently being upgraded to align with the printed full formats.

Canadian users of the MARC 21 formats in English may send their comments to the Standards team at Library and Archives Canada at: marc@lac-bac.gc.ca

Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials

Seems we should be planning for updated genre/form authority records. No date just yet.

As a first step toward formally separating the genre/form terms from LC subject headings list, PSD titled the new thesaurus the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT) in June 2010.

No earlier than March 1, 2011, PSD will revise the LCCNs and MARC 21 coding of the genre/form authority records to indicate that they are LCGFT terms, not LCSH headings. To accomplish this, all existing genre/form authority records with an sh prefix in the LC Control Number (LCCN) will be cancelled and replacement records for them will be issued simultaneously.

For the full announcement of these plans, including a description of the new coding, please see http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/gf_lccn.html.

The firm date for the reissuing of the records will be announced when it has been determined.

New Vocabularies Added to LC Authorities and Vocabularies Service

Good news from LC more linked data.

The Library of Congress is pleased to make available new vocabularies from its Authorities and Vocabularies web service (ID.LOC.GOV), which provides access to Library of Congress standards and vocabularies as Linked Data. The new additions include :

MARC Code List for Countries
MARC Code List for Geographic Areas
MARC Code List for Languages

The MARC Countries entries include references to their equivalent ISO 3166 codes. The MARC Languages have been cross referenced with ISOs 639-1, 639-2, and 639-5, where appropriate. Additional vocabularies will be added in the future, including additional PREMIS controlled vocabularies.

The vocabulary data are published in RDF using the SKOS/RDF Vocabulary. Individual concepts are accessible via the ID.LOC.GOV web service via a web browser interface or programmatically via content-negotiation. The vocabulary data are also available for bulk download. A new bulk download of LCSH will be available tomorrow, 5 January 2011.

Dept. Stays

Here is a Christmas present from LOC. Lots of useless work avoided.

The Library of Congress will not undertake changing headings with the abbreviation “Dept.” to the fuller form at this time. Between August 20-October 1, 2010, the Library requested comments from the library community on changing “Dept.” to “Department” to follow the longstanding AACR2 provision (which is also incorporated into RDA: Resource Description and Access) of not abbreviating "department" in headings unless it is abbreviated by the body on the resource from which the name has been taken.
The few comments received by the Policy and Standards Division, Library of Congress, via email showed a clear preference for making this change but the limited response did not constitute a mandate. In addition those opposed to the change had solid reasons for not undertaking the change at this time. Consequently, the Library’s Policy and Standards Division will NOT proceed with implementing the change now. The issue will be reviewed again, following a decision regarding implementation of RDA.

VRA Core Schemas now Hosted by Library of Congress

News from LC.

The VRA Core is a data standard for the description of works of visual culture as well as the images that document them. The standard is now being hosted by the Network Development and MARC Standards Officeof the Library of Congress (LC) in partnership with the Visual Resources Association . VRA Core’s schemas and documentation are now accessible at http://www.loc.gov/standards/vracore/ while user support materials, such as VRA Core examples, FAQs and presentations, will continue to be accessible at http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/

In addition, a new listserv has been created called The Core List (vracore@loc.gov). The Core List is an unmoderated computer forum that allows users of the VRA Core community to engage in a mutually supportive environment where questions, ideas, and tools can be shared. The Core List is operated by the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office. Users may subscribe to this list by filling out the subscription form at the VRACORE Listserv site

Genre and Form Terms for Law

Image via WikipediaNews from LC. Since early 2007, the Library of Congress has created over 600 genre/form terms for moving images, sound recordings, and cartographic materials. In November 2010 the Policy and Standards Division (PSD) will approve approximately 80 genre/form terms for law, the culmination of a successful partnership with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), whose members developed a thesaurus of law genre/form terms and presented it to PSD. (For AALL's thesaurus see http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/committees/cataloging/classification/genreterms/lawgenreformterms2010final.pdf.)

The law genre/form terms will appear on LC's Tentative Weekly List 44 and be approved on November 3, 2010. The Library of Congress plans to implement the terms in new cataloging in early 2011; a separate announcement will be made when the specific date has been determined.

Additional information on this and other genre/form projects can be found on LC's genre/form web page, http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/genreformgeneral.html. The page includes a timeline, an extensive FAQ, reports, discussion papers, and announcements.

Children's and Young Adults' Cataloging Program

Image via WikipediaNews from LC.

The Library of Congress, U.S. and Publisher Liaison Division is pleased to announce that as of September 2010 the Annotated Card Program is officially renamed the Children's and Young Adults' Cataloging Program. The Library of Congress initiated the Annotated Card Program in the fall of 1965 and it is one of its oldest programs. Though renamed, the program will continue to provide the same services. The new name, which now contains the word "cataloging," better defines the activity of the program. The inclusion of "children" and "young adult" in the name specifically identifies the audience for the types of materials handled by the program.

The Children's Literature Section, under the U.S. and Publisher Liaison Division, is responsible for the Children's and Young Adults' Cataloging Program. It catalogs the wide range of fiction material published for children and young adults. The records created, which include an objective and succinct summary of the book, are primarily used by publishers, school libraries, and public libraries. The section also develops new children's subject headings, proposes changes to existing headings, monitors the policies and practices of children's cataloging, keeps abreast of trends in children's publishing, and responds to queries related to the cataloging of children's and young adults' material. The Children's Literature Section actively participates in the American Library Association Committee on Cataloging of Children's Materials and solicits its advice and feedback when developing policy for children's cataloging. The section will continue the services of the program under its new name, Children's and Young Adults' Cataloging Program.

Library of Congress Changed Subject Heading Subdivisions

Sept. 1 there will be a new edition of the Library of Congress Changed Subject Heading Subdivisions.

Each August I review the previous years' changes from Library of Congress's "Weekly List" of new headings and cross-check them with their annual "Free-Floating Subdivisions". Questionable entries are referred to the Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service for resolution. Changes are then added to my master file, which is then totally cumulated. Official publication date of each year's new edition is September 1.

Joyce T. Ogden, the author, sent me a very nice note asking that I announce the newest version of her work.

Subject Headings for Cooking and Cookbooks

Image via Wikipedia

This statement was issued by LC concerning the change from cookery to cooking. For some libraries this is going to be a major change.

The Library of Congress issued the list of the new and revised subject headings for materials on cooking and cookbooks on June 22, 2010 (http://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/subject/weeklylists/). These new and revised headings will be distributed beginning with the CDS distribution file vol. 25, issue 24 dated June 14 and will continue until completed. The revision of Subject Headings Manual (SHM) H 1475, "Cooking and Cookbooks," is forthcoming and will be posted as a PDF file on the public Cataloging and Acquisitions Web site (http://www.loc.gov/aba/). It will also be included in SHM Update Number 2 of 2010, which will be distributed in the fall.

The word "cookery" has been changed to "cooking" in approximately 800 subject headings (e.g., Cooking, Cooking (Butter), Cooking for the sick, Aztec cooking, Cooking, American--Southwestern style).

A topical subject heading for Cookbooks and a genre/form heading for Cookbooks have also been approved, and are available for use.

Most of the Children's Subject Headings in the form Cookery--[Ingredient] have been cancelled in favor of the adult heading Cooking ([Ingredient]). However, three of those headings have been retained and revised: Cooking (Buffets), Cooking (Garnishes), and Cooking (Natural foods).

In cases where reference structure for a heading has been changed but the heading itself has not, the heading was omitted from the list. For example, the headings Brunches, Comfort food, and Tortillas had the broader term Cookery, which has been changed to Cooking. None of these three headings appear on the Weekly List. The references on approximately 500 headings have been changed.

Every effort will be taken to expeditiously change the old form of subject headings in bibliographic records to the new form during the next few months.

Genre/Form Headings for Moving Images

The OLAC LC Genre/Form Headings for Moving Images Best Practices Task Force has released a draft of the guidelines that it has been developing for public comment.

The guidelines are intended to supplement and be compliant with existing practices as well as provide examples of usage. In a few cases, notably the "nationality/language" genre section, we offer alternative (with appropriate local coding) options for access that we believe some libraries might find helpful. We also acknowledge that the LC Moving Image Genre/Form Heading world has been shifting under our feet as we have worked on these guidelines, and that a number of other groups are working on similar guidelines in other areas. Thus, these guidelines must be regarded as somewhat in flux. Most notably has LCs recent decision to separate out (and re-code in MARC) the genre/form terms from LCSH. Our examples as they currently stand do NOT reflect the new MARC coding of 655 7 $2. They will be edited to do so during the draft revision baring any reversals from LC. We are opening the draft for comments till July 23rd.

Cataloging Reproductions

Image via Wikipedia

Excellent news from LC on cataloging reproductions. As it is now it is just too confusing. Determining original format is just impossible in many cases. If something crosses my desk that is a print-out, is it a Word doc that was meant to be printed or was it from a PDF and meant to be distributed electronically? How much difference does it make to the user? Is describing it as a remote-access text document in the body of the record but including a note that says it is on paper the best way to provide access and describe the resource? I'm personally so glad this is being reviewed.

Reconsidering the cataloging treatment of reproductions

The cataloging treatment of reproductions at LC is being reconsidered as part of a full-scale reevaluation of cataloging policy decisions necessitated by the upcoming test of Resource Description and Access (RDA). The basic approach to reproductions is the same in RDA as it is in AACR2, but LC and many other US libraries continue to follow an AACR1 approach as documented in the Library of Congress Rule Interpretation (LCRI) for Chapter 11 (microform reproductions) and LCRI 1.11A (non-microform reproductions).,p />In order to perform a more accurate test of RDA's provisions, those LC catalogers participating in the US National Library Test of RDA will follow RDA as written for the period of the RDA test (Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2009), which entails basing the record for a reproduction on the item in hand and providing information about the original in the record when the decision is to have separate records for the original and the reproduction.

A discussion paper is available at http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/reproductions.pdf that provides some background information on how LC’s policies came to differ from AACR2’s treatment of reproductions, possible approaches to implementing an AACR2/RDA-compatible treatment, and LC’s decisions on how its RDA testers will treat reproductions during the US RDA test.

ID.LOC.GOV Web Service Enhancements

Image via Wikipedia

News from LC about enhancements of the id.loc.gov web service.

The Library of Congress is pleased to announce the enhancement of its ID.LOC.GOV web service, Authorities and Vocabularies, which provides access to Library of Congress standards and vocabularies as Linked Data. In addition to technological refinements aimed at improving the user experience, we now offer additional vocabularies:

• Thesaurus of Graphic Materials
• MARC Code List for Relators
• Cryptographic Hash Functions
• Preservation Events
• Preservation Level Role

The latter three are in support of preservation and technical metadata schemes. The vocabulary data are available for bulk download. Additional vocabularies will be added in the future, including (among others) the MARC code lists for geographic areas, countries and languages and additional PREMIS controlled vocabularies.

The Authorities and Vocabularies web service was first made available in May 2009 and offered the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Library's initial entry into the Linked Data movement. In part by assigning each vocabulary and each data value within it a unique resource identifier (URI), the service provides a means for machines to semantically access, use, and harvest authority and vocabulary data that adheres to W3C recommendations, such as Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS). In this way, the Authorities and Vocabularies web service also makes government data publicly and freely available in the spirit of the Open Government directive. Although the primary goal of the service is to enable machine access to Library of Congress data, a web interface serves human users searching and browsing the vocabularies.

We are very interested to get feedback on the uses and usefulness of the service to inform ways that we might enhance it. (There is a comment form at the site.).

All Back Issues of Cataloging Service Bulletin Now Available Free Online

News from LC.

All 123 issues of Cataloging Service Bulletin (CSB) are now available at no cost. CSB is a quarterly bulletin that includes current, new, and revised information about LC cataloging and classification practices and policies. CSB lists revised AACR2 rules, LC Rule Interpretations, changes to the ALA/LC Romanization tables, changes to the LC Subject Headings, and includes "Cataloging Publication News" and "News of Cataloging Projects," and more.

CSB Issue 1 (summer 1978) through the current issue 123 (Spring 2009) can be accessed directly from the Library of Congress's Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) website. The entire 31 years of CSB are made available by LC as a free service to the worldwide library community.

Library of Congress Authorities and Vocabularies Service

At last LoC has created a replacement for Ed Summers's lcsh.info as their Authorities and Vocabularies service.

The Library of Congress Authorities and Vocabularies service enables both humans and machines to programmatically access authority data at the Library of Congress. This service is influenced by -- and implements -- the Linked Data movement's approach of exposing and inter-connecting data on the Web via dereferenceable URIs.

Currently only the LCSH are available. They plan to make the Thesaurus of Graphic Materials, MARC Geographic Area Codes, MARC Language Codes, and MARC Relator Codes available.