BCC2010/SDC/4

MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
Bibliographic Control Committee
Descriptive Cataloging SUBCOMMITTEE
ANNUAL REPORT
July 2009-June 2010

Members: Mark Scharff, chair (2008); Joseph Bartl (LC Representative), Don Brown (2009), Sarah Cohen (2010), Candice Feldt (2009), David Guion (2008), Jean Harden (2008), Mark McKnight (2008), Tracey Snyder (2010)     

Report on Activities   

The final draft of Resource Description and Access (RDA) had just appeared in July 2009, and that meant a relatively quiet summer for the Subcommittee.  The Chair worked with Kathy Glennan to solicit and select MLA participants in a funnel project with catalogers from the Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC).  This funnel had been chosen as a participant in the RDA testing program in late May.  Ten institutions were accepted into the funnel; among the participants is SDC member Jean Harden (University of North Texas).  The chair attended test participants’ meetings at ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual 2010 in his capacity as co-coordinator of the MLA portion of the funnel.  The Chair also served as a beta tester for the RDA Toolkit software from November 2009 to June 2010.  In early 2010, the Subcommittee assisted the Chair in developing a list of music priorities for revision proposals after the publication of RDA.  The Chair submitted a written list and made a brief presentation of the highest-priority items at a meeting of ALA ALCTS CCS Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) at ALA Midwinter 2010.  The final version of ALA’s list of priorities identifies those areas and a few others as places where MLA will take the lead in drafting proposals. 

In a related matter, Subcommittee members supplied feedback to a question from Jay Weitz (OCLC) about whether or how to present data regarding content type, media type and carrier type on printed catalog cards.  These data elements, new with RDA, are expected to replace the General Material Designation (GMD) (e.g. [sound recording], [microform]). 

In other matters, individual Subcommittee members continued to be active in the discussions surrounding the work of the Subject Access Subcommittee/Library of Congress project to develop form/genre headings for music.  Subcommittee member Steve Henry (University of Maryland-College Park) served on a joint MLA/OLAC task force to develop cataloging standards for SlotMusic devices, a new audio format that stores music as mp3 files on memory cards.  The final report was approved in May.  Subcommittee members Jean Harden and Joe Bartl (Library of Congress) served on a BCC task force charged with drafting Bibliographic Standard Record (BSR) profiles for scores and sound recordings, at the request of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC).  BSR standards govern the creation of “floor” records that contain data and coding judged essential in fulfilling user tasks.  BCC approved the task force’s report in late February.  Subcommittee members also contributed feedback that the chair used to write BCC’s response to the draft version of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Music) (DCRM (M)).

List of goals for the next year

  1. Work with other BCC subcommittees and MLA groups to draft proposals for revision of the RDA text in three areas deemed of highest priority. This work must be completed by Thanksgiving for submission to CC:DA.\
    1. Revisiting the assumptions underlying the instructions for recording data elements that pose unwanted restrictions for the sake of producing “access-point-ready” data.
    2. Clarify the status of containers as a preferred source of information.
    3. Propose changes to the instructions for naming arrangements and adaptations that help more readily distinguish between the two categories, reduce the Western-music bias, and give more weight to arrangers and adaptors as creators for their role in works based on world and folk musics.
  2. Work on other RDA revision needs as requested by ALA. This also must be done by Thanksgiving.
    1. Naming larger instrumental ensembles in preferred access points, and ordering instruments in medium of performance statements.
    2. Resolving difficulties presented by preferred access points for operas for which the libretto is written by the composer (without qualification, the access point for the opera is the same as that for the libretto; but adding qualifiers raises other problems).
    3. Use of "Lyrics" vs. "Texts" as a form qualifier in preferred access points.
  3. Participate in the planning and execution of RDA-related programs and activities at the 2011 MLA Annual Meeting.

Submitted by Mark Scharff

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Last updated August 18, 2010