July / August 2001 Vol. 33, no. 4

Summary of the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR

Margaret Stewart
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services

On April 2-4, 2001, the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC) met in Washington, D.C., and made significant progress on its ambitious program of work. The following is a brief overview of some of the initiatives considered and decisions reached by JSC during this meeting.

Revising AACR2 to Accommodate Seriality

One of the action items at the 1997 International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR was to "formalize the recommendations on serials endorsed during the conference and introduce them into the rule revision process." Since that time, JSC has been working on an extensive revision to AACR chapter 12, and, at its April meeting, completed a review of the latest iteration of the chapter. JSC agreed to introduce the concept of "continuing resources" into the revised chapter 12 and to rename the chapter "Continuing Resources." Accordingly, the scope of the chapter was revised to encompass both serials and integrating resources (e.g., updating loose-leaf publications and Web sites). JSC has also been working with the ISBD and ISSN communities, which are also revising their respective serial standards to align differences. Of particular note is the three-way agreement on what to consider a major/minor title change and consequently, when to create a new record.

Although the decisions that JSC made at the meeting still require another round of review by each member’s national cataloguing committee (i.e., the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing in Canada), JSC is optimistic that the revised chapter 12 is close to being approved.

"Content vs. Carrier"

An ongoing challenge for JSC has been and continues to be how to revise the code to handle the description of works issued in multiple formats more effectively for users of library catalogues. As a first step in addressing the problem, JSC agreed to a revision of rule 0.24, which states that it is important to bring out all aspects of the item being described, including its content, its carrier, its bibliographic relationships, and whether it is published or unpublished. As a second step, JSC decided to establish a Format Variation Working Group to revisit the "multiple versions" problem from a fresh and practical perspective. Christine Oliver, from M^cGill University Library and also Chair of the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, and Pat Riva, also from M^cGill University Library and who is Chair of the Canadian Committee on MARC, agreed to be the Canadian representatives on the Group. It is anticipated that an interim report of the Working Group will be submitted to JSC for consideration at its fall meeting.

Specific Characteristics of Electronic Resources (Chapter 9)

Although JSC completed its review of chapter 9 (Electronic Resources) and approved a significant number of revisions at its September 2000 meeting, the Committee has not reached consensus on how to handle specific characteristics of electronic resources. The major issue still to be resolved is the proposal to eliminate area 3 (File Characteristics Area). The American Library Association’s cataloguing committee has been charged with developing rule revision proposals to accommodate the recording of specific characteristics of electronic resources for consideration at the next JSC meeting.

Rule Revision Proposals for Cartographic Materials

Chapter 3, which contains rules for the description of cartographic materials, is also undergoing revision. The Anglo-American Cataloguing Committee for Cartographic Materials is revising its publication entitled Cartographic Materials: A Manual of Interpretation for AACR2 and has been working with JSC to ensure that the provisions in the manual are aligned with AACR2 rules in chapter 3. Given that many rule revisions were approved at its September 2000 meeting, JSC focussed on the outstanding proposals pertaining primarily to area 3 (Mathematical Data Area) and the recording of scale. Although decisions taken at the April meeting are subject to constituent review, the revision of chapter 3 is close to completion.

JSC Web Site

As part of its ongoing commitment to keeping the library community informed of AACR related activities and developments, John Attig (Pennsylvania State University), in his role as JSC Webmaster, worked on a design of a new look for the JSC Web site. The site (www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/index.htm) contains up-to-date information on the JSC program of work, its current activities, and outcomes of the JSC meetings.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of JSC will be held in October 2001 in Ottawa.

For further information on activities related to JSC, please contact the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing representative to JSC:

Margaret Stewart
Chief, Standards and Support
National Library of Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N4
Telephone: (819) 994-6900
Fax: (819) 953-0291
E-mail: marg.stewart@nlc-bnc.ca