Library of Congress Round Robin Report
                                                          American Library Association Annual Conference

                                            MAIL DELIVERY AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

                The Library resumed accepting United States Postal Service deliveries on March 4, following baseline testing of the environmental and health effects of handling irradiated mail.  No USPS mail was delivered to the Library from October 17, 2001, after anthrax spores were discovered in the Hart Senate Building, through March 3.  First-class mail and flats were diverted to facilities in Ohio and New Jersey to be irradiated to destroy anthrax spores.

                Much of the mail received since March 4 appears to have suffered damage from the irradiation process.  The Preservation Research and Testing Division, Preservation Directorate, has examined this mail to determine the extent of damage.  The Copyright Office, Acquisitions Directorate, and Cataloging in Publication Division have developed triage procedures to process damaged collections materials delivered by USPS according to whether the items are salvageable or must be replaced.  The Acquisitions Directorate notified all vendors of the mail embargo and encouraged them to email invoices whenever feasible.

                Loss of revenue from copyright registration fees that are backlogged in undelivered, irradiated mail prompted the Library to request a supplemental appropriation of $7.5 million for the Copyright Office. 

                Mail for the Library is now delivered to an off-site mail handling facility in Prince George’s County, Md., where it can be double-checked for safety before it arrives on Capitol Hill.  It is expected that normal levels of mail receipts at the Library will not resume for several months. 

                The Office of Security continues to enhance the Library’s security program under two major initiatives, the 1999 Library of Congress Security Enhancement Implementation Plan and the 1997 Library of Congress Security Plan. Both plans describe the framework – and give a schedule of actions, periodically updated – to improve the security of the Library’s facilities, staff, visitors, collections, and other assets.

                The office coordinates projects under the 1999 Library of Congress Security Enhancement Implementation Plan, which is a multiyear program of security upgrades originally funded under an emergency supplemental appropriation to strengthen the Library’s security in conformance with the overall Capitol complex security objectives. One of the most obvious upgrades is full entry screening, which began December 26, 2001.  Now, all staff and visitors must pass through security checkpoints equipped with metal detectors and x-ray machines at Library entrances.  Several of the entrances will  be modified within the year to accommodate this expanded screening. Police operations were consolidated January 28, 2002, in the Jefferson Building, where the Library will install a new state-of-the-art Police Communications Center to integrate the Library’s intrusion detection and security monitoring systems. The new communications center is scheduled to be completed by June 2003. The authorized expansion of the police force has been completed, and installation of the Library’s perimeter security upgrades is scheduled to begin mid-summer 2002.

                                After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Congress approved an additional supplemental appropriation to pay for emergency communications systems, including construction of an Emergency Management Center, and money for additional perimeter security enhancements.

                                The office coordinates updates to the 1997 Library of Congress Security Plan.  Major recent initiatives  include: launching the Site Assistance Visit program May 13 to follow up on risk assessments and other concerns in custodial and processing divisions; conducting additional random sampling projects to produce baselines assessing the magnitude of the collections security problem in three divisions; improving security at the Library’s off-site facilities; and implementing a Library-wide security awareness campaign, including a series of articles in the Gazette and security Web sites for patrons and staff.

LC Web Archiving Project : MINERVA (Mapping the Internet: Electronic Resources Virtual Archive)

 <http://lcweb.loc.gov/minerva/minerva.html>  Formerly known as the Web Preservation Project, this is an experimental pilot developed to identify, select, collect and preserve open-access materials from the World Wide Web. The effort includes consensus building within the Library, joint planning with external bodies, studies of the technical, copyright and policy issues, the development of a long-term plan and coordination of prototypes. The aim is to identify what can be done immediately and move rapidly through prototype into production in these areas.

                The Library is collaborating with the Internet Archive (Alexa) and two new groups, the State University of New York and the University of Washington, to expand the project. The latter groups are assisting with identifying content and are using tools of their design to develop a metadata database and assign metadata descriptions to the Web sites collected. This metadata database will be used to search, retrieve and analyze the archived collection of Web sites. The contractors have been assisting us with the collecting and archiving of Web sites focused on these themes:

• Election 2000 - over 1,000 related sites http://web.archive.org/collections/e2k.html
• September 11^th over 2,000 related sites identified http://september11.archive.org/
• The Winter Olympics 2002  - approximately 65 related sites not yet available
• Election 2002 - over 2500 related sites tentatively targeted

The Computer Files and Microforms Team, Special Materials Cataloging Division, has processed the catalog records for all sites submitted.

                The project team originally consisted of Cassy Ammen (HSS), William Arms (Cornell University), Roger Atkins (ITS), Allene Hayes (SMCD), Diane Kresh (PSC), Jane Mandelbaum (ITS) and Barbara Tillett (CPSO). The Group presented a report to the LC Digital Futures Group in December 2000 and to the LC staff in February 2001, and submitted the “Web Preservation Project Final Report” to Winston Tabb in October 2001.

                Yahoo Internet Life (January 2002, Vol. 8, issue 1), a monthly periodical, declared the Sept. 11 collection its Site of the Year. To read more about it, see <http://www.yil.com/features/feature.asp?Frame=false&Volume=08&Issue=01&Keyword=topofnet&Page=01>

                                                                 DIGITAL REFERENCE

                In December 2001 the Digital Reference Team was created to handle the reference support for the digital collections and to spearhead the Library’s digital reference initiative. To this end the team has answered 4,000 inquiries, field-tested Charles McClure’s Statistics, Measures and Quality Standards for Accessing Digital Reference Library Services, and worked collaboratively with the CDRS team to support the development of QuestionPoint. This electronic reference service provides both text-based and chat components and a knowledge base to the member libraries as well as a global network for 24/7 access to reference experts.  It was developed by the Public Service Collections Directorate and OCLC, based on the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) pilot, begun in early 2000 by the Library of Congress and 16 partner libraries.  The QuestionPoint service will be available at http://www.questionpoint.org, beginning June 3.  

                Additionally the Digital Reference Team is the public interface for the Library’s digital collections. They present demonstrations, on-site workshops, and video conferences about American Memory collections to members of Congress, distinguished guests of the Library, visiting scholars, and educators. The team is exploring opportunities for distance learning and Web-casting based on the collections. To this end, the new “American Journey’s” project of Web casting interviews and presentations by LC subject specialists and curators will debut in the summer of 2002. Working with the Center for the Book, the team will be responsible for creating and updating the “Read More about It” selections for the American Memory collections with an interactive element linking these bibliographies to the Library’s online catalog.

                                                                            ACQUISITIONS  DIRECTORATE

Serials Check-in Pilot Project

                Following the completion of LC ILS implementation, the Acquisitions Directorate launched a major business process improvement project intended to assess the costs and benefits of having serials checked in at the front-end of the processing pipeline by staff in the "acquiring" divisions of the Library.  For several decades, most serials entering the Library have been checked in to manual files in the Serial Record Division.  The ILS now has made it possible to decentralize the serials check-in function.  The European/Latin American Acquisitions Division, the Anglo-American Acquisitions Division, and the Serial Record Division successfully completed a pilot project in 2001 whereby certain incoming serials were checked in before they leave Acquisitions.  Now all serials from Western Europe, mostly in French and Italian, and U.S. Federal, state, and local government documents, which were the subject of the initial pilot project, are checked in at the point of entry and sent directly to the custodial areas of the Library.  Other areas of those acquiring divisions have begun check-in of serials for their respective areas and the Directorate has a September 2002 goal of moving most serials check-in for materials that come in via purchase, exchange, or gift to the acquiring divisions.  As a result of this decentralization and the elimination of several procedural steps, we anticipate being able to process serials more efficiently, providing better service to our readers.  The next phase will include an examination of the decentralized check-in of serials received through copyright deposit.

OMB Memo on GPO. 

                On May 3, 2002, OMB issued a memo declaring that executive branch agencies are no longer required to acquire printing services from GPO.  OMB cites a 1996 Department of Justice legal opinion that concludes that Congress could not constitutionally require executive branch agencies to use GPO’s printing services.  OMB further states that agencies could realize substantial savings in printing costs by directly contracting for printing services rather than using GPO.  GPO disputes OMB’s assertion that GPO is a monopoly, and says that GPO’s efficient contracting saves the government millions of dollars.  GPO says that, under OMB’s plan, printing costs to agencies would rise, and the cost of services that GPO would continue to provide to the Congress would increase dramatically as well.  GPO also claims that its ability to ensure public access through the Federal Depository Library Program would be crippled and that the flow of information to the public would slow to a trickle. 

                Congress has not yet expressed an opinion on this matter.

                                                                              CATALOGING DIRECTORATE

Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT)

                BEAT has concentrated on the following projects this spring:

                ONIX TOC.  ONIX (Online Information eXchange) is a means of representing book industry product information and is being used by some publishers today to communicate that data electronically. The Library receives this data directly, including coverage of some  retrospective material. Programming developed by a BEAT team member utilizes the data to create Table of Contests (TOC) records that the Library makes available on the Web.  The TOC data and the catalog record are hyperlinked.  A catalog record with a related TOC file retrieved in an online search has the hot-link to the TOC displayed on screen.  As in the Digital TOC project described below, Library of Congress subject headings from the catalog record are added to the HTML keyword meta tag.  To date the project has created more than 20,000 ONIX TOC records, and the links to these from the catalog are being made in ongoing fashion.  Additional information about the ONIX  TOC project is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/lccn/lccn0912.html#3

                ONIX Descriptions.  An outgrowth of the ONIX TOC initiative is the creation of records that contain publisher’s descriptions of books.  Based on ONIX encoded materials, file creation and linking is similar to that of the ONIX TOC initiative above. To date, the project has created approximately 30,000 such records, although links are currently made from the catalog record only in an ongoing fashion.  It is anticipated that introduction of additional system capabilities within the near future will permit the timely creation of such links and in increasing volume.  Some examples will be found at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/beat.html

                Digital Tables Of Contents (D-TOC). The data used by the Digital Tables of Contents start out as hard copy.  The project creates machine readable Table of Contents (TOC) files from TOC surrogates and those materials are subsequently processed using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).  Using programming developed by the team, the information is HTML-encoded and placed on a Web server at the Library. The process also cross-links the TOC to underlying catalog records.  Both the catalog records themselves and the linked TOC data may be viewed through a Web browser by accessing the Library's online catalog. At present 4,000 D-TOCs have been created and linked, and more that 700,000 hits have been recorded on these TOC files.  With the recent appointment of a full-time staff member to this project and with additional support from cataloging staff, the team anticipates accelerating production significantly during the second half of 2002.  More details and current status the D-TOC project is available from http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/digitoc.html

                A Web Cybercast, dealing with these and other BEAT  TOC initiatives is now available for public viewing at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/eTOC/jan30-eTOC.html

                Additional Web Access To Publications in Series Project.  Many social science monographic series of the "working paper/discussion paper" type are now available in electronic form. Selecting from among in-scope titles LC holds that are available in electronic form, this BEAT project adds the URLs to the LC records for  these series. By linking to the electronic versions, LC can provide more timely, comprehensive, and cost-effective access to these series. To date, with 100 links now created, the project has provided access to thousands of individual titles within the series that are available in digitized formats.   More information and sample data are available at  http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/analytics.html

                BECites+ (Bibliographies plus: Enhanced Citations with Indexes, Tables of contents, Electronic resources and Sources cited).  BECITES+ enhances staff-produced bibliographies, and the catalog records for the titles included in such bibliographies, by adding links to their tables of contents, indexes, and sources cited. The project is an outgrowth of the D-TOC project above.  Completed works within this project  include guides on business history, Thomas Jefferson, and materials on Immigrant Arrivals to the United States.  Works in progress cover guides to film collections and manuscripts from monasteries on Mount Athos, additional resources on business, and a guide to Ladino publications in the Library of Congress. Another  recent initiative has been the scanning and conversion to text of heavily used, but out-of-print guides to Library collections.  Information concerning the titles in the project that are available online, and further details about the project as well as a full list of completed bibliographies and other work in progress can be found at http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/guide/

Cataloging in Publication (CIP)

                The CIP Advisory Group will meet Sunday (June 16^th) in the Wyndham Hotel, Athena Room at 4:30.  Discussion will focus principally on development of the New Book’s  Library of Congress Partnership Program module.

                The New Book’s  Library of Congress Partnership Program would enable  participating  libraries to register with LC so when  readers find a New Book title of interest on LC’s home page, they could click on the name of their local library and then communicate their interest to the local library.  The way the model is designed now, the mode of communication  would be a simple email message.  Chuck Gialloreto and Stan Lerner from LC’s automation unit will attend the meeting to obtain input from CAG regarding this issue.  The model as currently designed also allows participating libraries to use LC’s server as something of a clearing house for these incoming requests.  CAG members and others attending the CAG meeting are asked to visit  the New Books model ( http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ecip/celli/welc01.html) in preparation for the meeting.

Cataloging Policy

                AACR2 Amendments 2002.  The Library of Congress will implement AACR2 Amendments 2002 on December 1, 2002.  LC’s implementation date is being postponed from the previously-announced September 1, 2002, date due to the delay in the publication of the amendments package by ALA Publishing and concerns expressed from constituents about adequate time to schedule training before implementation.

                LCRIs.  Revisions to the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations related to the amendments package will be published in late summer.  Discussions are still ongoing about LC and Program for Cooperative Cataloging practice for a few rules; that information will be available on the Web site of LC’s Cataloging Policy and Support Office in August and then will be included in the fall update to the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations.

                ALA/LC Romanization Tables on the Web.  The scanned text of the 1997 edition of the ALA-LC Romanization Tables is now available as PDF files on the CPSO Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html There are links to the tables under “The Latest News from CPSO” and under “Cataloging Tools and Documentation.”

Decimal Classification (Dewey)

                David A. Smith, chief of the Decimal Classification Division, retired from the Library on May 3.  Until the position of chief can be filled through a national recruitment search, the chief’s duties will be carried out by Library staff on temporary promotions to the position of acting assistant chief.  The current acting assistant chief is Dennis McGovern.    

Electronic Resources Cataloging

                Beacher Wiggins, Director for Cataloging, Library of Congress will chair the second Conference 2000 Action Plan Forum on Sunday, June 16, 10:00 am-12:00 pm, Omni Hotel at CNN-Greenwood Room.  The Forum will provide an update on progress in carrying out the 29 work items in “Bibliographic Control of Web Resources: A  Library of Congress Action Plan.”  This Plan stems directly from recommendations made during the Library's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, November 15-17, 2000.  The plan can be viewed on the Conference Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/conference.html

                Digital Resources Traffic Manager. The Computer Files & Management Team has been working with Information Technology Services (ITS) to develop an online workflow system to assist with the processing of digital resources. This digital resources traffic manager’s  design is based on the Electronic Cataloging In Publication (ECIP) Traffic Manger System. ITS has started the programming in Oracle.

                Training for Cataloging Digital Resources. BeOnline+ Expansion Project: In continuing the expansion of training catalogers throughout the Directorate to process electronic/digital resources, two more volunteers were detailed in March to the Computer Files and Microforms Team (CF&M) for training for 120 days.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)

                NUCMC is a free cooperative cataloging program provided by  the Library of Congress.  NUCMC produces cataloging which describes archival and manuscript collections in eligible repositories throughout the United States and its territories.

                In addition to its normal work, the NUCMC Team is currently working on two special cooperative projects, the Montana Union List Project (MULP) and the Cooperative HBCU Archival Survey Project (CHASP). MULP is a statewide cooperative cataloging project first proposed by the Montana Historical Records Advisory Board in 1998. Its ultimate goal is to provide cataloging which describes collections and manuscripts in all Montana archival and manuscript repositories.  Repositories represented by cataloging at this time include the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, Cascade County Historical Society Archives (Great Falls), Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana Historical Society, Montana State University--Bozeman, Museum of Women’s History (Billings), Musselshell Valley Historical Museum (Roundup), Tobacco Valley Board of History (Eureka), and the University of Montana–Missoula.

                CHASP, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a survey of the archives of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. These materials may be unknown to researchers because they are not listed in existing reference tools and databases.  CHASP is surveying ninety-seven HBCU and is more than half completed. When CHASP surveys an archives, the team writes a description of each collection including title, inclusive dates, size, and contents. These descriptions are then sent to the NUCMC program for cataloging in the RLG Union Catalog. http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc In addition, the CHASP descriptions will eventually be published in a printed guide to HBCU archival and manuscript collections.  To date the NUCMC Team has cataloged 102 collections from sixteen repositories: Allen University, Arkansas Baptist College, Barber-Scotia College, Benedict College, Bennett College, Bowie State University, Claflin College Archives, Clinton Junior College, Delaware State University, Fayetteville State University, Harris-Stowe State College, Lewis College of Business, Lincoln University, Morgan State University, Paul Quinn College, and University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.

                The NUCMC Team creates its cataloging in the Archival and Mixed Collections (AMC) file of the  Research Libraries Group (RLG) union catalog and its associated authority work in the Library of Congress authority files. The cataloging produced by the NUCMC Team may be accessed free-of-charge by researchers in the U.S. and around the world  via the NUCMC/RLG Union Catalog AMC File Z39.50 gateway which is accessible via the NUCMC Web site (www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc).  Searches on that gateway for the period from January to April 2002 totaled 43,019.  We are currently evaluating the site with the idea of making it more user friendly.  Comments are welcome and should be directed to Deborah Nygren at dnyg@loc.gov

Labeling

                Labeling of hardbound books has been conducted in the Cataloging Directorate since March 2001, using staff detailed from the Binding and Collections Care Division, who work fulltime on labeling.  Experience with labeling by the BCCD detailees shows a high degree of accuracy.  Labeling in the Cataloging Directorate permits call number errors to be spotted earlier in the workstream and eliminates the need to return errors from BCCD to Cataloging.  In order to gain information needed to make LC ILS-based labeling a regular work activity throughout the Cataloging Directorate for staff who also have other duties, a pilot began in May 2002 to test 1) how much time and effort the labeling activity will require when added to current regular workflows; 2) staff effectiveness in performing labeling; and 3) staff reactions to the labeling equipment and software.  The pilot compares labeling at a shared labeling workstation to labeling by individuals at their own general-purpose workstations.

Pinyin Romanization

                Review and correction of LC’s Chinese bibliographic records which reside in RLIN has essentially been completed.  The task of identifying, reviewing and converting Wade-Giles strings and headings, and headings for old forms of Chinese conventional place names on older Chinese records and non-Chinese records in the LC database will continue for the rest of the calendar year. 

                In light of comments received from both within and outside the Library, pinyin romanization guidelines have been revised and sent to ALA’s Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Material for approval.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Activities

                Program statistics, October 2001-March 2002, include:

                NACO (Name Authority Cooperative) participants have created, during the first half of fiscal 2002, 78,200 new name authority records and 4,928 new series authority records and modified 22,515 name and series authority records.  Wellcome Library (London, England), Colorado State Library, University of Colorado at Denver, and the National Library of Singapore received NACO training recently.

                Libraries belonging to the monograph bibliographic program, BIBCO, created 38,399 new bibliographic records and modified 2,729 bibliographic records, during the same half-year period.  There are currently a total of 46 BIBCO libraries; the newest member, Smithsonian, joined the ranks of BIBCO libraries in March.

                During the first half of fiscal 2002, participants in the subject component of the PCC program, SACO, submitted 1,278 new subject headings; 222 subject changes; 1,088 new classification numbers, and 2 classification changes for inclusion in the  Library of Congress Subject Headings list and Library of Congress Classification schedules.  To increase the quality and quantity of subject proposals, SACO workshops, presentations, and multi-day seminars for over 200 catalogers have been conducted at a variety of venues:  notably at the Oregon Library Association (OLA) and Washington Library Association (WLA) joint state library conference in Portland, Oregon, April 17-20, 2002,  and  the Taller sobre Encabezamientos de Materia LCSH/Workshop on LCSH for Librarians from Latin America, at the Library of Congress, May 20-24, 2002.

                The BIBCO Operations Committee (OpCo) meeting, May 2-3, 2002, focused on the cataloging of integrating resources (IRs) and the decisions reached for PCC policies, practices, and issues related to IRs.  The meeting offered an opportunity to discuss the White Paper on PCC Role in Continuing Education for Catalogers written by Jean Hirons and Carol Hixson that postulates that there is a training void in the cataloging field and that the existing PCC training infrastructure could/should be expanded to fill that need and what impact this trend would have on the BIBCO program.  The summary of the May 2002 OpCo meeting is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/opco02.html

                The BIBCO-At-Large meeting in Atlanta ( http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/agenda02a.html) will include an update on Research Study on Use of PCC Records by Robert Ellett (Joint Armed Forces College) and feature a lightning Integrating Resources overview by Steven J. Miller (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), who presented was charged with the development of PCC integrating resources training materials.

                The PCC Standing Committee on Training (SCT), Carol Hixson (University of Oregon), Chair, is partnering with the ALCTS Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) to develop course materials on subject analysis for training and continuing education of catalogers. This initiative grew out of the expanded ALCTS plan for continuing education and a survey conducted by a Task Group of the SCT on Educational Needs of the Cataloging Community. Both groups had identified the need to provide more training for catalogers in basic cataloging skills given the growing lack of such training by library schools. More information on the work of the SCT is available at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/training.html

                The PCC Standing Committee on Standards (SCS) under the leadership of Ann Caldwell (Brown University) is ready to debut its new, improved, harmonized core record which is expected to be greatly improved and easier to use. The SCS Task Group on the Function of the Authority File is expected to submit its final report at this ALA Conference which will articulate the differences between shared authority data and data appropriate for local authority files. The report is also expected to make recommendations on issues related to the use of authority records to support maintenance of bibliographic records. More information on the work of the SCS is available at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/standards.html

                The PCC Standing Committee on Automation under the leadership of Gary Charbonneau (Indiana University) is focusing on Item 4.1 of the LC Action Plan for Bibliographic Control of Web Resources, for which the committee was assigned the lead role.  A team of SCA members was appointed at ALA Midwinter Meeting to draft the work plan to achieve the desired outcomes and these are expected to be discussed at this ALA Annual conference.  The SCA Task Group on Series Numbering, led by Gary Strawn (Northwestern University), is investigating ways in which local systems could provide improved displays of series headings, ignoring captions in subfield $v and arranging the numerical portions in numerical order. The outcome of the work of this group is expected to be an algorithm for recognizing and ignoring captions in subfield $v that can be presented to library system vendors in a manner adaptable to each system.  More information on the work of the SCA is available at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/automation.html

                The PCC Participants' Meeting invitation and agenda for the ALA Annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, is now posted at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/agenda02a.html Featured at this meeting will be a panel presentation by three former PCC Chairs and moderated by Chair, Larry Alford, to mark the 10^th anniversary of the PCC.

Cataloging (Books and Serials) Production

					FY02 through March    	 FY01

LC Full/Core-Level Cataloging		78,924			176,636
Copy Cataloging				15,364			 31,652
Minimal-Level Cataloging		15,101			 23,204
Collection-Level Cataloging  		 2,090	      	 4,073 
TOTAL records created	       	       111,479			235,565
TOTAL volumes cataloged			N/A			270,801


Authority Records		
Names					38,166			91,880
Series					 3,405			 8,279
Subjects		     	 	3,131	     	 6,933
TOTAL				       44,702		       107,092

For more information contact: Beacher J. Wiggins, Director for Cataloging, Library of Congress, LM 642, Washington, DC 20540-4300 (telephone: 202-707-5333 or Internet: bwig@loc.gov).

                                                                      NATIONAL SERVICES DIRECTORATE

Cataloging Distribution Service

                Library of Congress Classification on the World Wide Web                 The Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) will give demonstrations of Classification Web, a new fee-based service offering web access to LC Classification schedules and LC Subject Headings  to libraries worldwide. CDS is now taking orders for the product.  Demonstrations of Classification Web will take place in the booth theater at 12:30 PM daily and throughout the day at one of the CDS modules. CDS staff will also demonstrate Cataloger’s Desktop and Classification Plus throughout the day at one of CDS’s modules.  The CDS booth display will feature the  new classification schedules published in 2001-2002.

                The Library of Congress upgraded its integrated library management system to Voyager 2000.1.3 in February, 2002.  The redesigned Web OPAC offers greater flexibility and some new features for users.  All help files have been revised and updated to assist users in navigating the LC Online Catalog.  The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS/BPH) will migrate to the LC ILS later this year.

                The Library of Congress is pleased to announce the pilot of a new feature, Web Authorities, that will provide access to LC authority data via the Web.  LC will make this feature available on a trial basis beginning July 1, 2002.  Name, subject, and title authority records, (including series authority records) will be available to search, display, and download at this address: http://authorities.loc.gov   For more information about Web Authorities please visit the LC ILS FAQ at: http://www.loc.gov/ils/ilsfaq.html

                The Operations Directorate and the ILS Coordinating Committee are working with the Library's ILS vendor, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., to improve system performance in order to increase the number of simultaneous external users.

                The LC Database resides on a Sun E10000 server and includes nearly 12.5 million bibliographic records; approximately 12.5 million holdings records; over 12.9 million item records; and approximately 5.4 million authority records.  The LC Online Catalog is available at: http://catalog.loc.gov

                Additional information can be found on the public ILS home page at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/ils/

Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)

                Z39.50 Gateway.  LC’s WWW/Z39.50 Gateway now contains more than 500 databases on 400 servers; 115 of the databases listed are non-US, from over 18 countries.  Servers of eighteen different library vendors are represented.

                Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS).  The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard is an XML schema designed for the purpose of describing digital objects in library collections. The  schema provides a standard form for the recording and transmission of structural, administrative, and technical metadata.  Version 1.0 of the schema is currently in the final stages of review. The development of METS is an initiative of the Digital Library Federation. NDMSO is participating in the development effort and also serves as the maintenance agency for the standard. A METS Editorial Board has been established and had its first meeting in May 2002. An NDMSO staff member will serve on the board. Additional information can be found at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/

                Metadata for Still Images (MIX).  NDMSO, in partnership with the NISO Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images Standards Committee and other interested experts, is developing an XML schema for a set of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections. The schema provides a format for interchange and/or storage of the data specified in the NISO Draft Standard Data Dictionary: Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images (Version 1.2). This schema is currently in draft status and is being referred to as "NISO Metadata for Images in XML (NISO MIX)". Additional information can be found at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mix/

                Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS).  The Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) is an XML schema developed in the Library of Congress’ Network Development and MARC Standards Office, with a broad review and input group external to LC, intended as a descriptive bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes particularly for library applications. It is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description records.  It includes a subset of MARC fields, inheriting the MARC definitions, and uses language-based tags rather than numeric ones, in some cases regrouping elements from the MARC 21 bibliographic format. MODS may potentially be used as:  a Z39.50 Next Generation specified format; an extension schema to METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard); to represent metadata for harvesting (e.g. Open Archives Initiative); for original resource description in XML syntax; for representing a simplified MARC record in XML; for metadata in XML that may be packaged with an electronic resource

                Vendor records.  LC is working with two booksellers in Arabic-speaking countries who would like to support the MARC 21 format.  Layla Books in Cairo and Sulaiman Bookseller in Beirut approached LC for help in developing a MARC 21 capability and hope to complete the work by the end of 2002.  LC is also planning to work with several of its approval plan dealers in East Asia, especially China and Japan, to provide MARC records for titles they supply to LC.

                                                                            PRESERVATION DIRECTORATE

                The Preservation Directorate initiated a five year, $5.6 million preventive conservation project to preserve at-risk materials using preventive conservation techniques. The project involves four action steps: 1) monitoring collection storage environments for relative humidity, temperature and pollutants and develop of a mitigation plan; 2) stabilization of select general and special collection materials with basic treatments and preservation quality housings; 3) rescuing ‘too brittle to serve’ documents through paper strengthening, and 4) development of collection storage and support specifications.

                The Library awarded a contract in fiscal 2001 to Pittsburgh-based Preservation Technologies L.P. (PTLP) that will save 1 million books and at least 5 million sheets of unbound paper-based materials from further acid deterioration. This contract, the third awarded to PTLP since 1995, is permitting the Library to increase preservation productivity and save increasing quantities of endangered materials over time. The contract calls for ramping up treatment during the remaining four years of the contract, FY2002-2005, increasing annual book deacidification from 100,000 to more than 250,000 books per year by the fifth and final year. Congress has demonstrated support for the Library's plans to save millions of books and manuscripts by approving funding for this important endeavor.

                The Library has made excellent progress in the past year with its Mass Deacidification program. Working with Preservation Technologies, the Library has successfully mass-deacidified nearly 500,000 books to date, using the Bookkeeper deacidification technology that was pioneered by PTLP. The Bookkeeper process exposes paper to acid-neutralizing chemicals. Using a suspension of magnesium oxide particles to neutralize the acid and leave a protective alkaline reserve, Bookkeeper halts deterioration and adds hundreds of years to the useful life of paper. Under the new contract, the Library will continue to provide training and oversight to PTLP staff who select books for treatment; charge out, pack, and ship volumes to the deacidification plant in Cranberry Township, Pa.; and then reshelve books following treatment.  Library staff provide contract administration and quality control over the selection and refiling of books as well as laboratory testing to monitor the effectiveness of treatment. Preservation Technologies has engineered new horizontal treatment cylinders that it uses to offer deacidification services to libraries and archives for the treatment of loose manuscripts and other items in unbound formats. The Library's new contract authorizes PTLP to build and install a paper sheet treater and a Bookkeeper spray booth in a Library building on Capitol Hill. This will enable the Library to treat large quantities of paper-based materials in nonbook formats, such as newspapers, manuscripts, maps, music scores, pamphlets, and posters. The Library expects this single-sheet Bookkeeper mass deacidification equipment to be installed onsite this summer. Additional information about the Library's mass deacidification program is available on the Library's Web site at HTTP://www.loc.gov/preserv/carelc.html

Collections Access, Loan, and Management Division (CALM)

                The Loan and Collections Management divisions are merging into a new division, Collections Access, Management, and Loan.  The chief of the new division is Steve Herman.  Chris Wright, formerly chief of the Loan Division, has moved to a management support position in the Office of the Director for Area Studies.  The new organization takes advantage of the capabilities of the integrated library system to perform collections management and circulation functions.  The reorganization is expected to be complete in spring 2003.

                Audio-Visual Digital Preservation Prototyping Project.  The Library of Congress is developing a library-wide digital repository that will preserve every type of digital content for which the Library takes responsibility, including reformatted and born-digital audio-visual collections. Since audio-visual materials raise unique issues in repository design, the Library's MBRS Division has undertaken an Audio-Visual Digital Preservation Prototyping Project as part of the general planning for the construction of the digital infrastructure within the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center to be constructed in Culpeper, Virginia. The combination of the MBRS AV Prototyping Project and the Library-wide repository development effort provides a platform for testing the latest technologies in creating, preserving, storing and providing access to audio-visual formats. This collaboration is experimenting with new approaches for reformatting historical materials in digital form, receiving and processing "born-digital" recorded sound and moving image collections, exploring how digital materials may be stored and thus preserved, and testing new ways to present them to researchers. Access to the digital sound recordings, television and video titles and, eventually, film materials in the repository will be provided by a storage area network with nodes in Culpeper and on Capitol Hill connected by fiber optic links that serve the Library's reading rooms.

                During recent months, the MBRS Digital Culpeper project continued to define the digital object production and ingest functions, while also conducting feasibility tests on the metadata software packages that will accompany these digital objects. Digital preservation prototyping continued to be performed on specific audio-visual samples from the collections of MBRS and the Library's American Folklife Center.

Prints and Photographs Division

                Thesaurus for Graphic Materials Updated

                After a year-long software upgrade process, new terms are being added again to both the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: Subject Terms (TGM I) and Genre and Physical Characteristics (TGM II). Efforts continue to provide more stable access via the Web. A full list of terms added since July 2001 is available via the TGM home pages: TGM I http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/ and TGM II http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm2/

                Item-level Still Picture Records Distributed via CDS

                In January 2002, P&P began distributing its item-level catalog records through the MDS-Visual Materials service in CDS.  MDS-Visual Material subscribers can expect to receive approximately 5,000 of these records annually. A retrospective file of approximately 45,000 similar records is anticipated to be distributed later in 2002.

                                                             OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

                                         STRATEGIC INITIATIVES/NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program

                The primary focus of the Office of Strategic Initiatives in fiscal 2002 has been strategic planning for the development and implementation of a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP).  The program is funded by a congressional appropriation of $99.8 million. The program’s mission is to develop, in collaboration with other institutions and stakeholders, a national strategy to collect, archive and preserve the burgeoning amounts of digital content, especially materials that are distributed  primarily  in digital formats, for current and future generations. Several sessions have been held with a variety of stakeholders in preparation for submission of a plan to Congress for its approval.

                Legislative background: In December 2000, the 106th Congress appropriated $100 million for this effort, which instructs the Library to spend an initial $25 million to develop and execute a congressionally approved strategic plan for a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. (A government-wide rescission of .22 percent in late December 2000 reduced this special appropriation to $99.8 million.)  Congress specified that $5 million of the appropriation could be spent during the initial phase for planning as well as for the acquisition and preservation of digital information that may otherwise vanish. The legislation authorizes as much as $75 million of federal funding to be made available as this amount is matched by nonfederal donations, including in-kind contributions. 

                The new Web site for the NDIIPP program is at http://www.loc.gov/digitalpreservation

American Memory

                The National Digital Library Program’s flagship American Memory Web site now makes freely available more than 7.5 million digital items in more than 100 collections ranging from papers of the U.S. presidents, Civil War photographs and early films of Thomas Edison to papers documenting the women's suffrage and civil rights movements, Jazz Age photographs and the first baseball cards.

                Collections added recently include “Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society,” “Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian: Photographic Images,” “Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920,” “Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938,” “The Aaron Copland Collection,” “The Hannah Arendt Papers,” “Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry” and “Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860.”

                The Library will continue to expand American Memory by converting its historically significant collections for online access and by working with other institutions to add similarly important content.

                                                                  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

                To ensure long-term viability of the Library’s digital collections, Information Technology Services stores one complete set of backup tapes in the Library’s John Adams Building.  The Library also has a contract with a major commercial "vaulting" service that provides for a weekly transfer of backup tapes to the vendor for storage in a secure local facility.

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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

1. RENOVATION OF MAIN LIBRARY.

   The feasibility study for full scale renovation of the Main Library has been completed. The project is now the University's number one priority for capital funding beginning with planning money in 2003. Essential private fund-raising is also underway and will figure largely in the final scope of the project. In all current versions of the program, technical services will remind in the Main Library (though it is likely they will be relocated during the actual renovation process). The next steps which will occur this summer and fall are to develop a memorandum of agreement within the University about the scope of the project and to hire the architects who will actually do the renovation.

2. DEPOSITORY STORAGE.

   The second module of the depository opened this spring. Active work continues to remove material from the Main Library both to prepare for renovation and to create more inviting, useable space for patrons. With the renovation feasibility study complete, we now have a better picture of the size of the collection to remain in the Main Library following renovation and must begin to lay plans for what that collection will contain. The three member Collection Management Team which is housed in the Monographs Dept. of Technical Services is providing us with good information on the speed with which we can move material to the storage facility and the types of problems we encounter such as items missed during retrocon, preservation needs.

3. ACCOUNTING INTERFACE WITH UNIVERSITY.

   We are about to begin programming which will allow us to implementing an interface between our III acquisitions system and the University's PeopleSoft system. We anticipate considerable improvement in workflow and the elimination of redundant keying and the resulting errors introduced by rekeying.

4. SERIALS CANCELLATION PROJECT.

   We are nearing the end of our serials cancellation project for FY03 subscriptions. Collection managers have submitted plans for eliminating up to 20% of their serials budget. Thankfully, now that we have clearer information on expected budget cuts, we hope to cancel no more than 5%. We are proceeding now with cancellation of 3% and I hope we will not need to go higher. OhioLINK is affected more directly as their cuts come directly from the Legislature and are in the 6% range. We have had to pick up $50,000+ in new expenses that were previously paid for by OhioLINK.

5. OTHER BUDGET ISSUES.

   The budget difficulties which impact the materials budget also impact the remainder of our budget. Library-wide, we are eliminating 10 positions which have become vacant over the past year. Technical Services has been spared from loss of positions thus far but we anticipate losing 2 of the graduate assistants positions which are fundamental to our cataloging processes and up to 10% of our student employee budget in FY03. We did also make a decision to move a vacant cataloger position from Cataloging Dept. to the Serials/Electronic Resources Dept. to provide additional support to an every growing workload in electronic resources.

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Carol Pitts Diedrichs
Assistant Director for Technical Services and Collections
Editor, Library Collections, Acquisitions and Technical Services
The Ohio State University Libraries
1858 Neil Avenue Mall
Columbus, OH, 43210-1286
tel: 614-292-4738
fax: 614-292-7859
Internet: diedrichs.1@osu.edu
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PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES