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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 42 | December 1999


Australian Committee on Cataloguing

The Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC), and its predecessor, the Committee on International Cataloguing, have facilitated Australian library input to the development of international bibliographic standards since 1977. Since 1981, a representative from ACOC has served on the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules (JSC) and ACOC has been a joint author of AACR2 from that time. Additionally, since 1993 ACOC has nominated an Australian representative for the Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee.

Members of ACOC were drawn from two peak bodies, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS), as well as from the National Library of Australia.

In February 1996 these agencies commissioned a Cataloguing and Bibliographic Access Review which examined the then existing Australian bodies responsible for standards advice, with a view to rationalising any overlap between committees. ACOC was included in this review and various recommendations were made in relation to it in the final report presented in November 1996.

While the recommendations were endorsed by the agencies that commissioned the report, most decisions were deferred because of discussions surrounding the future of ACLIS. Additionally, governance of related committees such as the ABN Standards Committee appeared likely to change with the implementation of Kinetica.

This year ALIA and the National Library agreed that they would continue to support the Australian Committee on Cataloguing and that this name would be retained. The committee is to comprise three representatives nominated by each body and will continue to provide a forum for the development and revision of AACR and the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). To expedite this decision, current members representing ALIA were asked if they were willing to serve on the committee. They agreed, so the current members are Susanne Moir, State Library of NSW, Chris Taylor, University of Queensland, and Helen Hoffman, La Trobe University (all ALIA representatives). The National Library representatives are Peter Haddad, Julia Trainor, and Pam Dunlop (Chair). Ann Huthwaite, the current Chair of JSC and ACOC’s representative to it, is coopted to the committee.

Thanks go to the retiring ACLIS members, Giles Martin and Janet Thorpe, for their years of service on ACOC.

The committee now communicates through a closed discussion list and telephone conferences, with face-to-face meetings that will be organised in conjunction with the National Cataloguing Conference when required. The Internet list, Catlibs, will be used as the forum for wider comment on issues. Contact Pam Dunlop on (02) 62621305; email:pdunlop@nla.gov.au

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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