Teleconferences July & August
ACOC teleconferences: 22nd July, 31st July, 7th August, 15th August, 19th August 2002
JSC briefings
The Australian Committee on Cataloguing held a short series of teleconferences in July and August to brief Ann Huthwaite, the ACOC representative on the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR in advance of the JSC meeting to be held in September.
At the first teleconference, ACOC looked at a number of papers requiring responses from JSC constituent bodies. The first, prepared by the American Library Association (ALA) proposed that Uniform Resource Names (URNs) be treated as standard numbers in AACR 9.8B1 and Appendix D. ACOC supported this proposal, but wanted the rules to emphasise that numbers chosen as standard numbers should stress persistence, especially for those relating to electronic resources. There was some discussion among ACOC members on whether the present rules gave enough guidance on how to handle resource identifiers for Internet resources.
ACOC agreed with two Canadian proposals to allow the use of conventional terminology for new and emerging technologies in Rule 6.5B1 and 7.5B1, in addition to the present instruction of choosing from a defined list of specific material designations. ACOC members considered that the list of specific material designations needed examination as some terms were obscure or obsolete. ACOC also supported a Canadian paper on the redefinition of the term issue in Appendix D.
Another ALA paper proposed to bring AACR into line with online catalogues and move away from those restrictions remaining from the days of card catalogues by removing the exceptions to title added entries in Rule 21.30J. This move was supported by ACOC. In cases where specialised cataloguing agencies have so many generic titles in their collections that suppressing the title added entries is seen as desirable, local policy can achieve the desired effect, rather than the rules having to specify.
ACOC then began its examination of a very long paper prepared by Pat Riva of McGill University Library, and commissioned by JSC, in which she has incorporated the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) terminology into the cataloguing rules. At the first teleconference, ACOC reviewed the definitions and glossary changes, the General Introduction, and Part 1: Introduction, Chapter 1 and Chapter 13.
In the second teleconference ACOC examined a number of brief proposals from the American Library Association, and supported them. The first related to the capitalisation of the term Earth in AACR, the second was a change to the punctuation required in recording dimensions and the third concerned the abbreviation of metric units of measurement. These papers were good examples of the constant revision and tidying up of the rules that is constantly taking place.
ACOC them returned to an examination of the major paper incorporating the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) terminology into Part 2 of the cataloguing rules.
In its third teleconference on 7th August ACOC completed work on the FRBR paper, confirmed its responses to a number of other papers, and spent some time discussing the JSC Strategic Planning Document. While some modification to the wording was suggested, ACOC endorsed the statements of purpose, vision and the strategies outlined for taking AACR into the future.
In the fourth teleconference, ACOC examined a number of proposals for minor changes to various rules. A more substantial item of discussion was a paper by Library of Congress proposing to incorporate authority control into the new edition of AACR. The proposal envisaged changing Part II of AACR to cover Choice of Access Points, and drafting a new Part III of AACR for Headings and References. Each of the new parts would have its own introduction. Specific rules for references would be added to the chapters for each type of heading, and the current Chapter 26 would be eliminated. Current Chapter 13 Analysis would be moved into the new general introduction of the new introductions to Part II and Part III. ACOC members initial reactions to the proposal were favourable. ACOC also prepared a rule revision to AACR rule 22.27 Malay Names on behalf of libraries and library organizations in Malaysia and Singapore.
The final ACOC teleconference on 19th August began examining the proposed new Introduction to AACR before the teleconference was abandoned due to a faulty line.
New ACOC member
Ebe Kartus from Deakin University Library joined ACOC members for the second and subsequent teleconferences. Ebe is the new ALIA representative on ACOC, replacing Susanne Moir.
Cataloguing event July 2003
Some of the ACOC teleconference time was given over to a discussion of a one-day cataloguing conference, the feasibility of which ACOC has been investigating.
ACOC has been concerned to note that in the intervening period between the last of the ALIA Cataloguing Section conferences (Geelong, 2001) and the new format for ALIA special interest groups participating in joint conferences (to take effect in 2005), there was nothing of a national nature planned for cataloguers professional development. Although ACOC is too small and dispersed to take on the organization of a full two-day conference, committee members felt that they could manage to hold a one-day event in July 2003. The venue chosen was Sydney, and ACOC is indebted to Susanne Moir for helping with local information on possible venues and costs.
A very dynamic and popular speaker, Joan Mitchell, Editor in Chief of the Dewey Decimal Classification has agreed to come and present the keynote address. Her visit coincides with the mid-2003 release of a new edition of Dewey, and the theme of the one-day conference will be the broader topic of subject access to information. Planning for the seminar is continuing.


