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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000


Changing the rules:
recent developments in cataloguing rule revision

Most Australian libraries use the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR) to describe the materials in their collections. Use of AACR as a standard became widespread in the English-speaking countries after the first edition was published in 1967. The use of a common set of rules for cataloguing has enabled libraries to share their cataloguing, and build common databases of catalogue records. In Australia this has enabled the establishment of the National Bibliographic Database, initially through the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) and then using Kinetica. As well as providing guidance for libraries, the rules make it possible for library users to approach library catalogues with some guarantee of consistency and predictability.

The rules change from time to time. In 1978 the second edition of AACR (AACR2) was published. This was a radical change at the time and incremental changes to the catalogue code have been made ever since.

The change process is slow. This is because the revision of AACR2 involves extensive consultation at a number of levels. The Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC) is the key body responsible for maintaining and revising the code. Representatives from the American Library Association, the Australian Committee on Cataloguing, the British Library, the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, the Library Association, and the Library of Congress make up JSC. Changes are proposed through one of these bodies, and then discussed by the others. Each of these bodies may refer the proposal to its national constituency before responding to the proposal. Changes to the original proposal are also circulated to the whole group in an iterative process of examination and discussion. Only when all parties are in agreement is the proposed change made to the rules.

Another body involved in the revision process is the Committee of Principals, chief executive officers of the American, British and Canadian library associations, the British Library and Library of Congress who oversight and fund code development. There are also the publishers of AACR, the library associations of Canada, Great Britain and the United States, who make the publishing and printing decisions relating to the rules and the amendments.

Recent changes to the information environment have meant that the revision process has accelerated, and taken on a new aspect. As well as changes to specific rules, the JSC has had to consider far-reaching proposals for fundamental changes to the structure of the rules and the principles on which the code is based.

The Joint Steering Committee meets approximately every six months. Its last meeting was held in London during September 2000. At this meeting the JSC examined and passed a revised Chapter 9 for computer files. This will be the next revision package available early next year. The changes bring AACR into greater harmony with the International Standard Bibliographic Description for Electronic resources (ISBD(ER)). Chapter 12, now to be called ‘Serials and Integrating Resources’ is close to appearing in a new guise with many changes resulting from the work done by Jean Hirons. Continuing progress with revising Chapter 3 was made, and the map cataloguing community is contributing to this work.

Other topics discussed in London were general material designations, and the principles of AACR. The JSC is also going to set up a working party to test the viability of using expression-based records to overcome the format variation problem. This will involve constructing a shared database to allow the contribution of expression-based records, using the existing MARC format as a practical way of discovering some of the implications of such a change.

Further information about the Joint Steering Committee and its work may be found on its Web site at www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/index.htm.

Information on Australia’s member body on the JSC, the Australian Committee on Cataloguing may be found at www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/acoc.html.
—Peter Haddad

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

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