Teleconference 16 May 2001
An ACOC teleconference was held on Wednesday, 16 May. Anne Robertson from the State Library of Queensland joined the teleconference to report on attendance at the latest meeting of the DDC Editorial Policy Committee Meeting. Anne reported that DDC sales were up, and that the editorial work was on track for the publication of the next new edition of DDC in 2002. Print, abridged and web versions of the schedules would be available.
Anne reported briefly on the schedules undergoing major revisions, 340 Law and 610 Medicine, as well as a number of areas such as 004-006 Computing, 305-306 social groups, 510 Mathematics, 647 Travel guides (moved to 910) 200 Religion (less Christian-dominated) 370 Education 380 Commerce that have substantial changes approved or in the process of approval. 070 Journalism was noted as a problem but may have to be revised for the edition after next.
Anne spoke of the need to communicate some of this information and solicit opinion from practitioners, and it was agreed that CATLIBS was a suitable list with the right subscriber audience.
ACOC looked at a proposal originally forwarded to the Committee by the SCIS libraries last year. It proposes the revision or rule interpretation of rules 1.4D, 2.4D and 6.4D to assist cataloguers in choosing which of the variant publisher names to choose in the current dynamic and fluid publishing environment. ACOC members were divided over whether action needed to be taken, or whether the rules gave enough guidance, but will work at an addition to the rules that might give better guidance without having to propose major changes to the existing text.
Ann Huthwaite reported to ACOC on the recent 3-day meeting of JSC. The revision of Chapter 12 is virtually complete aside from detail, and will be called Continuing resources. It will appear in the revision package to be produced after the next meeting in Ottawa in October, and should be published next year. JSC also worked on the rule revisions for cartographic materials (Chapter 3). Anne listed a number of issues and proposals on which ACOC would need to respond before the next meeting. These included putting publisher name data in full in the publisher area and the future of GMDs. Other topics currently under discussion and waiting for new papers or responses are series authority records in AACR and the cataloguing of multipart items.
The JSC meeting also considered a draft of a new general introduction to AACR, and heard from the convenor of the Format Variation Working Group, Jennifer Bowen. JSC was intended to spend some time on strategic planning, but there was not enough time for this, so it will be high on the agenda for the meeting in Ottawa.
Ann also reported on the JSC website, its development and use. Committee membership is about to change as Matthew Beacom replaces Brian Schottlaender as the ALA representative. Anns own term as ACOC nominee to JSC continues until 15 August 2003.
Finally, arrangements were made for a 1-day meeting of ACOC late in August to prepare for the October meeting of JSC.


