Standards—a second look Rebecca Culbertson ALCTS CCS-EXEC COMMITTEE Forum Friday, Jan. 7, 2011 Cataloging standards • 1. What are standards and where do they live? • 2. Why do we spend so much time on developing them? • 2. Who uses them? And where do they live? • 3. What is the development process? • 4. How do we get the word out? • 5. Levels of standards • 6. What happens when standards conflict? Why do we have standards? • To allow for the “Timely creation of authoritative, cost-effective bibliographic and authority records by knowledgeable catalogers at many institutions” • Sets up patterns so that catalogers can spend less time on repetitive processes http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/macros.html • Essential with consortia to have agreement • Better user experience because of consistency • Makes the life of a trainer easier What standards do catalogers use? • Standards documentation can be found as – Rules The Biggies: AACR2 (Content standard); MARC format (Encoding standard) – Guidelines and “Best Practices” • BSRs AND CSRs • Provider-Neutral Guidelines • OLAC Streaming Media • Standards can be full or floor—we just have to agree Full vs. Floor Standards • First the serial cataloging developed the CONSER Standard Record (CSR) • Next PCC developed the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) for books • Tendency is to move towards a ONE level standard for BIBCO catalogers using an 042 code of “pcc”—not true for OCLC non 042 records (OCLC I and K) Cataloging as “Embryonic” • Using FLOOR standards to “grow” records – Will any record ever be final? • Using FLOOR standards – Brief (NOW) just to get it out there... – Full (LATER) if the need arises – Levels of detail will vary Who decides on which standards to use? And at what level? • AACR2; RDA—multiple contributors • MARC format—multiple contributors • PCC “standards” are not just for CONSER/BIBCO catalogers – CONSER standard record – BIBCO standard record • Evolved from Core and Full –Now just one level • First was Textual Monographs • Now Multiple formats Where do the PCC standards live? Serials • http://loc.gov/acq/conser/ – CONSER • • • • • CONSER Standard Record Field 588 Electronic serials (CCM Module 31) Integrating Resources: a Cataloging Manual CONSER Editing Guide: Appendix O for CJK Where do the PCC standards live? Monographs • BIBCO http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/bibco.ht ml – BIBCO Standard Record (BSRs): Oct. 1, 2010 – Provider-Neutral e-Monograph Guidelines – Draft BIBCO supplemental requirements for emonographic resources at: • http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/BSR_Suppl_ER_1 3Dec-2010.pdf Development process for PCC Standards • Start with a need • Charge comes from the PCC Policy Committee (PoCo) • PCC Standing Committees on Standards and Automation – Set up task groups – Answer TG questions, review, wheedle, compare, contrast, agree/disagree, and finally come to a consensus – Get feedback from listservs and other concerned catalogers – Go through the Reviews process… again – Report conclusions to the Policy Committee – Finally—Implementation A method of using the BSR (locally) • UCSD has inputting and copy cataloging guidelines for every format • Decision was made to adopt the BSRs –PLUS • Looked at each BSR Standard in a new light to see what we wanted to add/subtract • Committee discussed and made changes using laptops and Google Docs! What happens when standards conflict? • Important to say what standards you follow • Important to work towards resolution at the highest levels • Example is the 300 field in the Streaming Media Guidelines • Another is AACR2 Chapter 9 and ProviderNeutral Guidelines Suggestion for using the PCC standards • Review each standard • Review even if your institution is not a BIBCO institution • Compare with your local editing guidelines • Make sure that what you have includes what is in the BSR and CSR • Optional to include more (if possible) “Seeing Standards” • http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metada tamap/seeingstandards.pdf