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Putting Knowledge within Reach: Summary of the JSC for Revision of AACRMargaret Stewart, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Whenever Canadian users approach a library catalogue to find a publication, they can easily locate what they are looking for in one place in the catalogue, and it is clearly distinguished from all other items. What makes this possible is the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR). And what makes AACR possible is the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR (JSC), the group that develops and maintains AACR. JSC comprises members from the Australian Committee on Cataloguing, the American Library Association, the British Library, the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, the Library Association (UK) and the Library of Congress. Canadian participation in and contribution to the maintenance of AACR ensures that Canadian requirements and concerns are accommodated, which, in turn, makes it easier for all Canadians to access and retrieve library material. On October 15-17, 2001, JSC met to work through a significant number of agenda items. The following is a brief overview of some of the initiatives considered and decisions reached by JSC at its meeting in Ottawa. 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 chapter 12 of AACR. At its October meeting, JSC approved chapter 12 and will be submitting a final version to the publishers for inclusion in the next package of amendments to AACR. Some of the highlights of the revised chapter 12 include broadening the scope of the chapter to include rules for the description of both serials and integrating resources (e.g., updating loose-leafs and Web sites); inclusion of separate rules for integrating resources to address their specific characteristics and ongoing nature; and the addition of new and updated examples. JSC has also been working with the ISBD and ISSN communities, which are also revising their respective serial standards to align differences. A major accomplishment is the three-way agreement on what to consider a major title change and consequently, when to create a new record. Cartographic Materials: Rule Revision Proposals 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 is working with JSC to ensure that the provisions in the manual are aligned with AACR rules in chapter 3. The revised chapter 3 will be submitted to the AACR publishers for inclusion in the next package of AACR amendments. Multiple Versions The Format Variation Working Group was established to revisit the long standing "multiple versions" problem. Jennifer Bowen, Chair of the JSC Format Variation Working Group, presented the Working Group's interim report (www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/current.html#ForVarWG), which explores models for expression-level cataloguing and outlines further steps required to progress the work of the Group. JSC agreed with the Group's recommendations and requested that its final report address whether revisions to AACR are needed to facilitate the collocation of different expressions of a work. The Working Group was also asked to investigate the development of an experimental database to test the feasibility of displays that illustrate expression-level relationships. General Material Designations (GMDs) With the increasing occurrence of items that incorporate multiple characteristics, coupled with the fact that the current GMDs are a mix of physical format, class of material, form of carrier and notation, JSC agreed that it is an opportune time to begin a review of the GMD concept. Consequently, at the request of JSC, Library of Congress representative Barbara Tillett prepared a discussion paper on the history and use of GMDs. Future JSC deliberations will also benefit from the results of a survey conducted by Jean Weihs on the use and future of GMDs. Both the discussion paper and survey results are available at www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/current.html#GMD. At its October meeting, JSC acknowledged that before any revision to GMDs could be made, further study and consultation with the library community is needed. JSC will return to the GMD issue at its next meeting and decide on a strategy for further study. AACR and the Future As part of its long-term program of work, JSC plans to look at incorporating rules for authority records, undertake a review of the current chapter for choice of access points and develop an expanded introductory chapter to include AACR principles and the objectives of the catalogue. JSC is also interested in exploring alternatives to the current arrangement of AACR, given that the boundaries of the existing AACR chapters are becoming increasingly blurred. For example, should digitally encoded musical notation that can be "played back" in the form of sound be described as an electronic resource (chapter 9), as music (chapter 5) or as a sound recording (chapter 6)? An "unedited" prototype of AACR arranged by ISBD area has been made available to JSC constituent groups for review. JSC discussed the results of this preliminary review and concluded that a restructured AACR could potentially result in a number of benefits for both users and developers of the cataloguing code, but further work is needed to determine what approach to take. For Further Information: For more information on the activities of JSC, visit its Web site at www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/index.html. The Canadian Committee on Cataloguing (CCC) Web site, www.nlc-bnc.ca/ccc/ccc-e.htm, contains information on "How to submit a Canadian proposal for a revision to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules." The CCC representative on the JSC: Margaret Stewart |
