USMAI Cataloging Policy Committee Meeting
January 16, 2008 minutes

Present: Rick Davis (TU, recording), Kathy Glennan (CP), Heidi Hanson (ITD), Gordana Ruth (CP, chair), Kat Ryner (SM), Audrey Schadt (SU), Vicki Sipe (BC), Virginia Williams (FS)

Decisions and Actions Taken Since Last Meeting

• Gordana distributed the draft of the SFX loader specs for information purposes only. No actions were needed.
• Gordana responded to John Coogan's concerns about the 856 note for NetLibrary records and brought the concerns to the attention of ERIC2 at their December meeting.
• Various members worked with ITD to get access to the USMAI loader status table.
• Rick worked with Bill Sleeman to make minor edit changes to the Ebrary loader specs to add URLs to SFX via the 856/956 subfield 7. The updated loader specs have been submitted for the USMAI Documents page.
• The CPC web page was updated to include the CPC 2007 work plan, the Cataloging Workshop documents and the Aleph 16 Staff Searching document from ExLibris.
• Vicki tested the re-indexed test database for the changes requested in Rx's 1898, 2324, 2515, 2516, and 3325 and reported that all was good. A question arose concerning testing Rx 3325 without LTI authorities being implemented.

ERIC2 Meeting Update

Gordana reported that ERIC2 had not met since the last CPC meeting.

Overlay Hierarchy Proposal

Vicki reviewed her updated overlay hierarchy proposal, along with the comments on the original proposal that she had received from Kathy. Kathy had expressed concerns regarding placement in the original proposal of ELvl 4 records with any 042, the overall placement of ELvl 4 records in the hierarchy, and she wondered whether different overlay hierarchies might be needed for different formats (Leader/07 values).

Vicki's updated proposal included specific 042 codes that would be valid at the second level of the hierarchy (below ELvl blank) as a means of addressing Kathy's first two concerns. The specific 042 codes proposed were lc, lcd, lccopycat, nlc, and pcc, the last of which is included in the current overlay hierarchy. Kathy pointed out that lc, lcd, and nlc are all CONSER codes, so if the USMAI serials cataloging community was in favor of adding them then it seemed okay. Other codes, such as lcderive, were more problematic since those records appear to be more machine- than human-reviewed. Everyone present agreed to the 042 codes in Vicki's updated proposal.

Vicki also addressed the placement in her proposal of ELvl 5 records, which represent CONSER records without a call number. Vicki has been looking in the catalog for the past year but hasn't yet come across any ELvl 5 records for monographs; however, since there is no way to search ELvl in Aleph she can't be entirely sure there aren't any monograph records with ELvl 5 in the database.

Vicki suggested sending the updated proposal to the Cataloging and Ser/Acq COIs for a two-week public comment period rather than proposing different overlay hierarchies for different formats at this time; everyone present approved.

CPC's Web Page Revision

Kathy reviewed the changes she has proposed for the CPC page. Cataloging documentation is currently posted on both the CPC site and ITD's Cataloging and Database Maintenance (CDM) resources page, generating confusion. Documentation generated by ITD gets posted on the CDM resources page and CPC documentation gets posted on the CPC site or the CPC wiki. A common page for all cataloging documentation would be a better solution. The CDM resources page could be expanded and reorganized as the site for documentation from a cataloger training perspective, and the CPC site could be used for committee activities and projects. The CPC could then assume responsibility for maintaining ITD's CDM Resources page. Kat also suggested labeling any documentation created by the CPC but posted on ITD's CDM Resources page.

Kathy agreed to look at the CDM resources page with an eye to reorganization and redesign. Kathy, Vicki, and Heidi will work together to sort existing documents to see where they belong, and Vicki will share a list of training documents she recently provided to a new cataloger at UMBC.

Gordana suggested reducing the number of clicks necessary to reach documents posted on the CPC page and said she would like to see links to all of the current year's meeting minutes on the page.

Kathy's proposed changes to the CPC page also included a slight revision of the committee's charge. The committee agreed that we should check with CLD about the process for revising the CPC's charge. Kat said she will talk to Celia about this. In the meantime, Gordana will let Carlen know how we are proceeding with the CPC web page revision.

ITD's Web Pages

CPC members made the following suggestions for improving ITD's USMAI Workplan page:

• Vicki suggested restoring the calendar feature used on former iterations of the ITD Workplan. Others have asked for it, including USMAI library directors. The calendar could serve as a good planning tool for ITD as well.
• Kathy suggested embedding hyperlinks from the various category headers (User Interface, Acquisitions/Serials, etc.) to the COI or ITD page for that area.
• The link at the bottom of the page for sending content questions to Jamie Bush should be removed. It could be replaced with a suggestion that anyone with questions about topics should first check with their campus contact, with a link to the designated contacts for each institution. This would also help to weed out unnecessary questions sent to ITD.
• Virginia pointed out that a Google search on the USMAI Workplan page with the term "netlibrary" brings up a "Feedback on Workplan" page. Perhaps a link to this page should be added to the Workplan page.

The following suggestions were made for the links under the Cataloging and Database Management header:

• Ongoing Authorities Processing - Kathy has drafted a document of suggestions for Carlen, which she will share with the CPC.
• Netlibrary Record Load to Aleph - The link to the Loader Request Status should be updated; Gordana will let ITD know.
• Record Extracts - This page should be simplified, and the Loader Request Status link doesn't belong here.
• Record Set Loads - This page should also be simplified; all that is needed are links to information on how to request loaders and the loader status chart.
• Duplicate BIB Record Merge/Purge - The link currently goes to Marlene's old version of the specs and needs to be updated.
• Spine Label Program - The "Click here for more information" and "How to initiate a request" links don't lead to any useful information.

Another observation that came up during discussion involved the "Learn More About RxWeb" link that appears on the List of Problems/Requests page. This link does not appear on the live Rx Problem Reporting/Service Request form. Heidi said she will suggest to Jamie that the link be added to assist people who haven't submitted an Rx before.

CPC Workplan 2008

Goal 1 The goal should remain as stated on 2007 Workplan. Virginia referred to an email sent by Wilma Bass on 7/26/07 re: the Stat Ref titles. Vicki said she could discuss this in an upcoming meeting she has scheduled with the HSL cataloger.

Goal 2 The goal should be restated to refer to ongoing authorities work. Kathy said that when authorities go into the PAC we'll need to add something under this goal about training and advising, as well as assessment of how to get authority records that we don't receive from LTI (e.g., headings consisting of five characters or less) into Aleph. Vicki also raised the issue of adding local notes to authority records in the PAC (e.g., for series).

Goal 3 The goal can remain as stated. Vicki will revisit the caption codes revision. Consideration of a single record policy for formats other than serials should be added to Activities. RDA Awareness should also be added under Activities, though this depends ultimately on what comes out of the LC Working Group; RDA implementation is currently expected no sooner than 2009.

Goal 4 The goal should be restated to "collaborate" or "continue to collaborate" with other groups.

Goal 5 Kat said she wasn't sure at this point what the next steps would be, but she felt we should keep this goal in the Workplan. Kathy pointed out that we opted out of the free snapshot offered by LTI last year because of the duplicate records that were in our database; so if we continue to use LTI that's an argument for continuing with the de-duping project.

Gordana said she would write up the new goals for the 2008 Workplan based on this discussion and circulate them to the CPC before submitting as an appendix to the CLD report.

Round Robin

Audrey reported that Marvella Rounds and the new serials person at ES asked about training on e-journals and gov docs, though it wasn't clear whether she was requesting help with e-journal management or cataloging. This may need to be referred to ERIC or to Arlene Klair for gov docs help.

Kat is continuing to help CEES with their journal records and is currently working on triplicates in the Autographics de-duping project.

Kat also reported on the Serial Records Study Group conference call. Marlene Vikor is reviewing hundreds of bib records representing duplicate ISSNs where at least one bib had a URL. She estimates 80 hours of work are needed to complete the remaining merge. Marlene is working on this until the end of Jan., when she goes on extended leave. The project could be finished in 2008 depending on who is available to work on it. Marlene has pointed out that de-duping will make the SFX loader specs easier to write/implement. There is a SRSG meeting next week at CP and a final report due Feb. 1st. Kat will report on the CPC discussion at next week's SRSG meeting.

Virginia hasn't yet submitted Rx's re: the OCLC Technical Bulletin but will do so soon and cc: CPC members.

Vicki is working on the caption list update, pursuing Rx's relevant to re-index, and planning for a CPC training session for 2008.

Kathy reported that the Jan. report from LTI contained the usual number of unlinked headings (the Dec. report was unusually short). There are no procedures in place to identify authority records excluded by LTI; we'll need to know how to download these into Aleph. Kathy has a diagram of the authorities process with BibNote that she can share with the CPC. CP wants to know how to deal with split headings and they are looking at unlinked headings for series, subject headings, and 1XX headings (but not personal names). Kathy is still awaiting response from the CPC to her questions about LTI's treatment of form/genre headings.

Heidi reported that handling Rx's is an ongoing issue for ITD. Management and maintenance of Rx's is currently done by Jamie, and certain things come in as Rx's that ITD can't deal with. Vicki said that an Rx status of "awaiting reindexing" would be useful.

Rick mentioned the need for a consortial approach to unlinked personal and corporate name headings-i.e., what is the preferred practice when a heading is called for by cataloging rules, but an authority record doesn't exist and the cataloger doesn't have NACO authorization to create one. Kathy said that for now the best thing to do is to make sure that undifferentiated name headings don't link to the incorrect record for an undifferentiated name; using subfield c to qualify the name in an added entry is one possibility, although this may not be consistent with established NACO practice.

Pending Topics

• Split headings - how to handle and inform COIs about them when they come up
• CPC and ITD Web page updates
• CPC Workplan 2008
• Discussion of best practices document from Bobbie/Marlene (placeholder per Kat, until after SRSG meeting)
• Reports from Aleph - Searching ELvl brought up in Overlay Hierarchy Proposal discussion today. Heidi believes that generating reports on bib record fields is not a problem, but it gets much more difficult when you combine this with Circ, Items, Hol, etc. information. Gordana will tell Carlen when she meets with her that the CPC would like reports on any encoded field, linked with system numbers.

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