Teleconference 21 June 2002
The Australian Committee on Cataloguing met by teleconference on Friday 21st June 2002. There were four main topics of business: AACR revision; developments with Dewey Decimal Classification; the national cataloguing seminar in 2003 and membership of ACOC.
AACR revision
Ann Huthwaite reported on the topics discussed at the last meeting of the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, May 13-15 2002, and on some of the strategic planning and forward work of JSC.
JSC's focus on strategic planning at the May meeting had been very good, with a vision statement, goals, and strategies drafted for discussion with the Committee of Principals. AACR was maintaining its outreach to other standards communities and would be meeting IFLA bodies in Frankfurt, as well as linking with MARBI.
JSC is currently planning to work on a number of major issues affecting the cataloguing rules. Ann noted that the Format Variation Working Group under Jennifer Bowen had presented a second interim report in May, would be having a meeting with its English members in August, and would be presenting a third interim report that month.
The appendix of major changes, which had been discussed for some time, was now not going ahead. Instead, guidelines for when to consider a change to be a major one were to be incorporated into the revised introduction.
Chapter 21 would undergo a total review and revision by a consultant.
Chapter 25 was to be re-written.
The distinction between main and added entries would eventually disappear, being replaced by citations/headings/records.
Library of Congress were working on a proposal for a separate section (Part Three) of AACR covering authority records.
A paper was being prepared on GMDs and the 'class of materials' concept.
Part 1 of AACR was being reviewed for consistency.
JSC were considering the first report by Pat Riva on introducing FRBR terminology into AACR. A revised report is to be discussed at the September meeting.
ACOC had undertaken to present some proposals on revisions to Malay and Indonesian names, and was currently consulting on Malay names with standards bodies in Malaysia and Singapore.
ACOC agreed to support a proposal by the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing to add dates or names to heads of government acting in an official capacity in cases where the head of government is not also a head of state. ACOC also commented on a proposal from the American Library Association to treat Universal Resource Names (URNs) as a standard number in AACR2.
Developments with Dewey Decimal Classification
Anne Robertson reported on the latest developments with DDC classification. The most recent meeting of the Editorial Policy Committee in Washington in May had also undertaken some planning for the future. Most activities were on track. The Editorial Policy Committee was experimenting with different ways of holding their conferences, and would try a teleconference shortly. The mathematics schedule was being amended and fixed following testing. The Manual to DDC being written by Ross Trotter was expected to be much more user friendly.
ACOC agreed to write to LC and express support for the valuable service it provided in hosting the Decimal Classification Division at the Library of Congress.
ACOC also thanked Anne Robertson for her very informative and readable reports on the work of the EPC.
National cataloguing seminar in 2003
ACOC resolved to contact Joan Mitchell, Chief Editor of the DDC and ask if she would be available in July or early August 2003 for a conference on cataloguing and classification in Sydney.
Membership of ACOC
An advertisement had appeared in ALIAnews and on Catlibs asking for expressions of interest.
ACOC decided to continue its work by teleconference if necessary arranging a series of shorter teleconferences to work on specific issues in the lead-up to the next JSC meeting. The next teleconference is on the 23rd August.


