National Library of Australia

Minutes

Draft minutes of the 31st meeting held in the Council Room, National Library of Australia on Friday 29 March, 1996 at 8.30 am - 4.00 pm.

Present:

Ms Pam Dunlop (NLA) Chair
Ms Helen Hoffmann (ALIA)
Mr Giles Martin (ACLIS)
Ms Susanne Moir (ALIA)
Ms Ann Huthwaite (ACLIS)
Mr Chris Taylor (ALIA)
Ms Janet Thorp (ACLIS)
Ms Julia Trainor (NLA)
Ms Esther Tucker (Minutes)

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Pam Dunlop welcomed the committee. There were no apologies.

2. MINUTES OF THE 30TH MEETING, 28 AUGUST 1995 (ACOC/401 min)

It was moved (Janet Thorp/Helen Hoffmann) that the minutes be accepted as a true record of the 30th meeting. Carried. There were no matters arising from the minutes which were not already on the agenda for this meeting.

3. REPORT FROM ACLIS

Ann Huthwaite mentioned that she had not reported on the last ACOC meeting in ACLIS news, but this was just a temporary lapse.

4. REPORT FROM ALIA

Susanne Moir reported that she addressed the Annual General Meeting of the New South Wales Cataloguers Section on the role of ACOC, with much interest by those present. She mentioned that she is sending a report to ALIA National Office after each ACOC meeting.

5. REPORT FROM NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Julia Trainor reported on standards news from the Services to Libraries Division:

  • USMARC integration is now fully implemented on ABN, and the NBD Section would promote better understanding of the integrated format among cataloguers, especially for nonbook serials
  • The National Bibliographic Services Branch had provided advice and feedback to the compilers of the Aboriginal thesaurus, based on experience in compiling the APAIS thesaurus and the Australian extension to LCSH on ABN. The NBD Section would be giving priority in the next year to defining additional Australian subject headings for use in LCSH in WORLD 1. At this point Giles Martin mentioned that his project to document synonyms of unsuccessful searches and input reference structures into the University of Newcastle OPAC.
  • The NDIS project had been defining indexes for NBD and Ozline database with reference to the 'new' metadata standards the Dublin Core, the Z39.50 BIB1 attributes.

Pam Dunlop then reported on matters of standards interest in the Collections and Reader Services Division of the National Library:

  • A Committee on the Selection of Online Australian Publications (SCOAP) had been set up to look at the provision of long term access to Australian networked electronic data, including selection and preservation issues. The committee is expected to work for six months and will publish its findings in National Library of Australia gateways. A draft policy for networked data is under development, and an electronic unit has been set up to support the SCOAP Committee. A library policy on preservation of networked publications is in draft form and will go on the National Library server when it is complete.
  • A project to provide digitised images of works in the Library's Pictorial Collection, accessible via the Internet, is under way.

6. ABN STANDARDS COMMITTEE REPORT

Ann Huthwaite indicated that she will stay on ACOC as Standards Committee Representative until the end of 1996 when she would prefer to hand over the representative role to another member of ACOC.

  • Ann then highlighted the following issues which were discussed at the Standards Committee Meeting of 27-28 March:
  • the question of the adequacy of AACR2 for cataloguing works in different formats, for example successive versions of CD ROMs, and nonbook materials which are published serially
  • the development of record matching and merging for the NDIS project
  • the role of the NDIS cataloguing client and the development of cataloguing protocols under the Z39.50 standard to support this
  • the development of minimum record standards for contribution of data to WORLD 1
  • the issue of weighting records according to their quality for the purpose of record merging and the issuing of credits
  • subject access issues including the heading Native title and the formulation of headings for places in cities
  • the Library of Congress classification of Australian and Pacific law

7. JSC MATTERS

Vietnamese personal names (LC/24)

The Committee was inclined to maintain its position of support for the omission of the comma in Vietnamese personal names entered in direct order, and not to support the British Library response (LC24/BL response) which opposed the proposal. However, it was resolved that the National Library should consult with the National Library of Vietnam on the preferred practice, and advise Ann Huthwaite of the Vietnamese view before the JSC meeting. It was anticipated [later confirmed] that the National Library of Vietnam would support the omission of the comma, as advocated in the paper by Phan Quang Loc.

It was noted that the proposal in LC/24 could also be generalised to include Chinese and Hungarian personal names, but this was not pursued.

Membership and chairing of the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR.

Ann Huthwaite reported that Pat Oddy (British Library) has resigned as Chair of JSC and has been temporarily replaced by Sally Strutt. Ralph Manning, CCC Representative on JSC, suggested that the Chair come from Canada or Australia. His position at the National Library of Canada had changed, but if he remains on JSC he would be willing to take the Chair. Ann Huthwaite said she would also be interested in the Chair, but as she is comparatively new on JSC, the Chair should probably come from Canada this time. The Library Association representative, Rodney Brunt, has also been replaced. The American Library Association representative Janet Swan Hill has been replaced by Brian Schottlaender, who is excellent.

International conference (3JSC/CCC/7/rev)

Ann reported that the Committee of Principals of AACR has not yet formally supported the need for an International Conference. However, JSC is continuing to make preparations, and Ralph Manning suggested that Canada take on the role of organising the conference.

ACOC members then suggested agenda items for the International Conference, as follows:

  • Object oriented cataloguing
  • Relevance of AACR
  • Application of AACR to both network cataloguing and cataloguing in an individual library, i.e. two roles
  • Integration of AACR with other standards, such as USMARC, LCRI, Dublin Core, TEI, BIB1 attributes, SGML
  • The content versus carrier issue - perhaps a proposal that Barbara Tillett's paper be adopted as a model for creating data for the future

Publication of AACR2

Ann reported that there has been no progress to date on the publication of AACR2 in electronic format.

Next JSC meeting

The next JSC meeting will be held in Washington DC, at the Library of Congress, on 23-24 May 1996.

8. DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION EDITORIAL POLICY COMMITTEE REPORT

Giles Martin tabled a report on the March meeting of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) which was held at the Capitol Hill Suites, Washington, D.C. Giles highlighted the following issues:

Australian history -DDC schedule 994 06

Giles tabled his draft proposal for closing of the period 1991 to 1996 at 994.065, to mark the Labor government and closing of the period 1996 to 1999 at 994.066 to mark the Liberal government.

The committee agreed that this proposal should be sent to EPC without delay to avoid unnecessary retrospective cataloguing.

Australian geographical subdivision Table 2 -94

There has been no support for the proposed separation of the Northern Territory from South Australia, but there has been strong support for providing more detail in this area of the tables.

On the issue of providing more detailed geographic schedules, the committee supported local government areas rather than statistical subdivisions as the basis for further subdivision.

Australian society table 5 and 6

Giles Martin reported that there is a need for further subdivision of Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal people in the Abridged Edition of DDC. However, as the main users of the Abridged Edition are school libraries whose collecting policies do not include a large mix of materials in Indonesian, Maori, Tagalog and Australian Aboriginal languages, the committee declined input to this issue.

It was suggested that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library Resource Network (ATSILRN) be asked if they see a need for further breakdown, and if they wish to be involved in developing a proposed revision to the Abridged Edition.

Giles commented that his term of office as Australian representative on EPC which ends at the end of 1996 has been beneficial for making contacts in LC and elsewhere.

9. SURVEY OF THESAURUS USAGE IN AUSTRALIAN LIBRARIES

In the absence at this meeting of AIMA, the body appointed to undertake this survey, Pam Dunlop reported on this item:

270 survey forms were sent out to all state, national and university libraries who had responded earlier to Margaret Henty's Indexing in Australian libraries: a Towards Federation 2001 survey. as well as a sample of special libraries. A very pleasing return of 250 responses has been received.

AIMA will submit the final report to ACOC by 31 May so that ACOC may assess the feasibility of developing an Australian thesaurus.

10. CATALOGUING AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS REVIEW

Pam Dunlop reported that she had sent a minute to Warren Horton summarising the comments of ACOC on the proposed review. All the comments seem to have been addressed in the Terms of Reference for the review.

The Review Committee, which consists of Stan Bastow (ACLIS) Convenor, Andrew Wells (ALIA) and Warwick Cathro (NLA), will commence work next week (9-12 April) with a teleconference.

The committee discussed ACOC's achievements and contributions, its recognition in the international forum, its future role in the broader context of WORLD 1 and the need to broaden its mix of expertise.

11. NEXT MEETING

It was agreed that the next meeting should be moved from 26 August to 13 September, which is immediately following the ABN Standards Committee meeting. [The date of the next meeting was subsequently changed to 19 August, following the rescheduling of the ABN Standards Committee meeting and the ABN/Ozline Annual Users Meeting].

The meeting closed at 4.00 pm.


Last updated 13 August 1996