Outcomes of the Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee Held in London, England, 13-15 September 2000

This is a summary of the most important decisions made by the JSC at its meeting in London. A complete list of the topics discussed is contained in the agenda.

Harmonization of AACR2 with ISBD(ER)

JSC completed its review of the revisions to Chapter 9 of AACR2. The discussion was based primarily on a clean copy of the revised chapter prepared by the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing. The major issue still to be resolved was the elimination of Area 3 (File Characteristics Area) proposed by the Library of Congress. ALA announced that it had formed a Task Force to study “specific characteristics of electronic resources” and recommended that the area not be eliminated until that Task Force had presented its recommendations in June 2001. JSC agreed to defer consideration of this issue, leaving the text of rule 9.3 as it appears in the 1998 revision, changing the captions of the rules from “File characteristics” to “Type and extent of resource” and deleting “when readily available” from rule 9.3B1. JSC will consider an interim report from the ALA Task Force at its April 2001 meeting and the final report at its September 2001 meeting.

In other action on Chapter 9, JSC agreed

• to retain the footnote to rule 9.5 and thus not to allow the use of Area 5 for remote-access electronic resources, pending further consideration by the constituencies;
• to add definitions of “disc” and “disk” to the glossary and therefore to delete footnote 4 to rule 9.5B1;
• to revise the definition of the term “sleeve” to make it applicable to material other than sound discs, e.g., computer discs.

A revised clean copy of Chapter 9 will be prepared by the Canadian representative, given a final review by JSC, and forwarded to the publishers as part of the next rule revision package in January 2001.

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Revising AACR2 to Accommodate Seriality

JSC reviewed the rule revision proposals submitted by Jean Hirons, along with the constituent responses, in particular the extensive responses from the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing and the Library of Congress.

JSC began by discussing some significant issues regarding terminology and the scope of Chapter 12.

• JSC decided to retain the term “integrating resources”, rather than “resources of integrating issuance” proposed by the Library of Congress.
• JSC left unresolved the issue of whether multiparts were continuing resources or not, and whether they should be included in the scope of Chapter 12 or not.
• Provisionally, it was decided to change the title of Chapter 12 to “Serials and Integrating Resources”. This language was preferred to “Continuing Resources” on the grounds that the chapter was somewhat broader than continuing resources (it also covered finite integrating resources) and that it might not cover all continuing resources (if multiparts were determined to be continuing resources).
• The constituent organizations will revisit the different models that have been proposed for organizing the universe of bibliographic resources, and recommend whether they wish multiparts to be considered as continuing resources (Model C as defined in Jean Hirons’ paper at the International Conference) or finite resources (Modified Model C).
• Given the provisional decisions about the title and scope of the chapter, JSC accepted the recommendations from the Library of Congress not to use the term “continuing resource” in the text of Chapter 12. Specific rules will use the terms “serials” or “integrating resources”; general rules will use the term “resource.” The introductory chapter which is being drafted will explain the model of the bibliographic universe and introduce the concept of continuing resources.

JSC discussed the specific rules. The following are some of the more significant decisions:

• JSC agreed to remove the provision in 12.5B1 requiring the use of three spaces preceding the specific material designation for incomplete resources.
• JSC would like to instruct cataloguers not to record “v.” under 12.5B1, but has not yet decided on language to accomplish this.
• JSC approved major revisions to rule 1.4F8 to deal with multiple dates of publication for three categories of resources: (a) serials, (b) integrating resources, and (c) multipart items.
• JSC approved interim language for rule 21.2, Changes in title proper. These rules will eventually be moved to a new Appendix on Changes in a Bibliographic Resource. Until that appendix is published, the text of rule 21.2 will need to be revised to reflect international agreements on rules for title changes.
• JSC approved Glossary definitions for “Bibliographic resource,” “Integrating resource,” and “Updating loose-leaf service”; revised the definitions of “Monograph” and “Serial”; and decided not to add a definition of “Continuing resource.” until that term has been introduced in the introduction to AACR2.

A revised clean copy of Chapter 12 will be prepared by the Library of Congress representative and will be considered at the April 2001 JSC meeting.

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Revisions to Rules for Cartographic Materials

JSC discussed an extensive set of revisions to Chapter 3 (Cartographic Materials) proposed by the Anglo-American Committee on the Cataloguing of Cartographic Materials resulting from revisions to the cataloguing manual Cartographic materials. JSC agreed

• to add “cartographic material” to List 2 of general material designations, and to remove “globe” and “map” from that list;
• to revise the list of specific material designations in 3.5B1, changing “relief model” to “model” and “map section” to “section”; and
• to add rules 3.5C4 and 3.5C5 to cover medium and production method as other physical details.

Further revisions to Area 3, Mathematical Data Area, are being revised and will be considered at the April 2001 meeting.

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Appendix on Changes in a Bibliographic Resource

JSC considered the draft Appendix on “Major and Minor Changes in a Bibliographic Resource,” submitted by ALA. This appendix is still being developed, and JSC concentrated on a few general issues.

• JSC decided that the appendix should focus on major changes which would result in the creation of a new bibliographic description.
• JSC agreed that the appendix should cover both changes to a continuing resource and differences among finite resources.
• JSC suggested that the appendix be organized to cover the following: (a) monographs, (b) serials, (c) integrating resources, and (d) multiparts.
• JSC agreed that the appendix should include consideration of series authority records as an appropriate place to record information about differences within a single work, such as a multpart item.

ALA will present a revised version of the appendix for JSC to consider at its April 2001 meeting.

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Principles of AACR2

JSC discussed and suggested revisions to a proposed statement of the principles underlying AACR, prepared by Barbara Tillett. A revised version of this appendix will be posted for information on the JSC Web site and will form a major part of a new introductory chapter for AACR2.

Recommendations Concerning Revision of Rule 0.24

Ongoing Rule Revision

JSC also considered and approved a number of other proposals. The following are the most significant:

• Rule 22.1C and 22.12 will be revised to limit the inclusion of British terms of honour (Sir, Lady) in headings for persons.
• Rule 22.15B1 will be revised to change the position of the term of address in headings for married women.
• Appendix B will be revised to allow use of the prescribed abbreviations even when a different abbreviation appears on the item.

These revisions will be forwarded to the publishers as part of the next rule revision package in January 2001.

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JSC Program of Work and Schedule for Revision of AACR2

• Chapter 9: revised clean draft from CCC rep during October; decisions incorporated into a rule revision package by December 2000
• Chapter 9, Areas 3 & 5: ALA Task Force; interim report in January 2001; JSC discussion in April; final recommendations from ALA in June; JSC decisions in September; incorporated into a rule revision package by December 2001
• Chapter 12: clean copy from LC by November; constituent comments by March 2001; JSC decisions in April; decisions incorporated into a rule revision package by June 2001
• Statement of principles for AACR: clean copy from LC by November; mounted on JSC Web site; incorporate text into introduction
• Introduction by AACR: draft from LA/BL by February 2001; JSC discussion in April, decisions in September; incorporated into a rule revision package by December 2001
• Appendix on major changes: revised draft from ALA by February 2001; JSC discussion in April, decisions in September; incorporated into a rule revision package by December 2001
• Chapter 3: decisions approved in London incorporated into rule revision package by December 2000; remaining revisions: final proposals from ALA in February 2001; JSC decisions in April; decisions incorporated into rule revision package by June 2001
• Format variations (rule 0.24): Working Group: terms of reference by October 2000; name chair and members by January 2001; interim report to JSC by September 2001; final report to JSC by April 2002
• Rule of 3 in Chapter 21: report from Australian Committee on Cataloguing by December 2000
• General Material Designations: constituency discussion by March 2001; JSC discussion and decisions in April 2001
• Index: the publishers will be asked to make a revised index a high priority

Next Meetings

• April 2-4, 2001: Washington, DC, USA
• September 12-14, 2001: (Ottawa, Ont., Canada) [tentative]

Ann Huthwaite
Chair, JSC
12 December 2000

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