Terms of Reference

4JSC/Chair/71/Rev
24 November 2001

At the JSC meeting held in Ottawa in October 2001, it was agreed that the charge for the Format Variation Working Group should be revised. JSC decided that the issue would be pursued in two strands. Firstly, Pat Riva would be asked to prepare rule revision proposals to incorporate FRBR terminology in AACR; the terms of reference for this strand may be found in the JSC document 4JSC/Chair/76. Secondly, the Format Variation Working Group would be asked to explore the question of whether the rules as they stand allow for the explicit display of relationships (assuming that systems could be programmed accordingly). The development of an experimental database would continue in conjunction with this work.

The revised charge for the Working Group follows.

1. Experimental database

The Working Group is asked to continue with the investigation of an experimental database to test the feasibility of grouping records for manifestations into displays that illustrate expression-level relationships.

2. Collocation

The Working Group is asked to consider these questions:

• Are the rules as they stand sufficient for expression-level collocation?
• If not, where do the rules need to be changed?
• Is collocation in catalogue displays sufficient to explain relationships to users?
3. Guidelines for determining new expressions

The Working Group is asked to develop guidance for cataloguers in determining when an item in hand represents a new expression.

4. Uniform titles

The Working Group is asked to investigate the concept of uniform title to determine if the rules in chapter 25 could be restated to identify distinctions between different types and different functions of uniform titles (collocation vs. differentiation). Rule revision proposals to clarify these different purposes may result.

The Group should explore the concept of a “citation” for an expression to determine if this is the most appropriate mechanism for organising expression-level displays.

Ann Huthwaite
Chair, JSC

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