Minutes
ACOC, the Australian Committee on Cataloguing met at ALIA House, Deakin, ACT for a one-day meeting on 26th July 2000.
Present:
Peter Haddad (NLA rep),
Helen Hoffmann (ALIA rep),
Ann
Huthwaite (co-opted ALIA rep),
Deirdre Kiorgaard (NLA rep standing in for
Pam Dunlop),
Sue Moir (ALIA rep),
Chris Taylor (ALIA rep)
Julia
Trainor (ALIA rep).
The meeting took the form of a working meeting to prepare Australian responses to a number of issues on the agenda for the next JSC meeting in London in September, and to consider an Australian proposal for a rule change from SCIS.
1. Revising AACR2 to accommodate seriality
ACOC examined a paper prepared by Jean Hirons giving a number of proposed rule revisions to chapter 12 aimed at accommodating rules for integrating resources, both loose-leaf publications and electronic resources that are continuing in nature. Broadly in agreement with the intent of Jean Hirons changes, ACOC suggested a number of ways in which the rules could be modified, without causing the chapter to become too cumbersome and complex.
2. Harmonization of ISBD(ER) and AACR2
Work on this is well advanced, but ACOC examined the voluminous documentation relating to the issue, making several decisions. Particular points of interest are the proposal to eliminate area 3 from chapter 9 and extending area 5 to remote access resources.
3. Titles of nobility
The British Library recently suggested that in order to simplify the rules, and avoid treating a small group of persons (almost all British) in a special way, titles of nobility and British terms of honour prescribed in chapter 22 be dropped. The issue has proved to be more complex than simply removing these terms, but the JSC constituent bodies have worked out a compromise which allows for the simplification of the rules, while retaining these terms where they are necessary for identification or are intrinsically linked to the name.
4. ACOC commented on extensive rule change proposals for cartographic materials. This work had been carried out by a number of bodies including the American Library Association, Map and Geography Round Table, with input from the Australia Map Curator Circle and experts from around the world. ACOC will be supporting these revisions which should improve chapter 3 and allow it to accommodate information relating to digital geospatial data.
5. At the 20th Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR held in March in San Diego, ACOC had been asked to prepare a rule revision proposal for making the "rule of three" optional in order to allow cataloguers to make unlimited additional added entries if considered useful. ACOC examined two possible ways of achieving the intent of the JSC meeting and will consult with the other constituent bodies in London on the best way of proceeding before preparing a proposal.
6. ACOC also discussed a proposal from the Curriculum Corporations Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS). This was to revise or give a new interpretation to rules 1.4D, 2.4D and 6.4D in order to allow the publisher name element to take into account the frequency of occurrence in recent years of publisher imprint names and phrases on print and non-print materials. Although this proposal had come too late for the JSC September meeting due to the extended period necessary for circulation to library bodies in Canada, the UK and the US, ACOC agreed to work on this proposal.
ACOC gratefully acknowledged the support of ALIA in making a face to face meeting possible. Although ACOC will hold tele-conferences whenever necessary, the all day meeting proved to be a very effective way of preparing Australian input for the JSC meeting.


