Vocabularies Subcommittee Report: ALA Annual 2019
Washington, DC, June 21-24, 2019
Reported by Rebecca Belford (Oberlin College & Conservatory), Chair, Vocabularies Subcommittee

Reports from:

• Competencies and Education for a Career in Cataloging Interest Group (CaMMS)
• Cataloging Norms Interest Group (CaMMS)
• Faceted Subject Access Interest Group (CaMMS)
• Subject Analysis Committee Meetings
• SAC Presentation
• SAC Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies

Competencies and Education for a Career in Cataloging Interest Group (CaMMS)

The interest group program was held on Friday, June 21, 2019. The session theme was “Practical Linked Data in the Classroom,” presented by T​ina Shrader (National Library of Medicine) and Paul Frank (Library of Congress). Paul Frank opened the session on a positive note, first with a prediction that if we adopt linked data in cataloging we will be viable as a profession, followed by a suggestion that we do not need to fully understand linked data before applying it and learning (just like how we learned MARC). Paul began “Teaching Linked Data: Practicalities” with PCC and LC-specific activities, starting with a brief recap of the PCC strategic directions from 2014-2017 that led to a list of resources intended to prepare trainers and participants. The LC BIBFRAME pilot, phase 2 (2017) will include less background, and phase 2a has shortened the sources for training to one page. Both changes respond to thoughts on how much coverage is really needed for participants before they can begin. The current PCC strategic directions, 2018-2021, include “apply understanding of linked data”. There are specific goals in pathways to implementation. They are currently using Sinopia, based on the LC BIBFRAME editor, as a platform for cataloging, effectively a sandbox. Sinopia will be broadly available and can be a tool to learn by doing. Paul also discussed identity management superseding traditional authority curation. This shift means there is no single file with clean and unique authority headings. Identity management includes Wikidata, ISNI pilot, and the PCC $0/$1 pilot. Paul concluded by conceding that linked data is of ambiguous relevance to LIS students, and perhaps best implement in a learn-as-you-go style with the demonstrated benefits in mind.

Tina Shrader’s “Pavlov’s Cataloger and Schrödinger’s Data: Teaching Linked Data at NLM” (so named because ‘we sort of have linked data but we don’t really yet’) addressed the LD4PE [Linked Data for Professional Education] competencies and their relationship to NLM’s internal progress with conceptual and hands-on linked data training. Training projects included PCC
mapping projects, in collaboration with BIBFRAME developers; assigning URIs to MARC, at the request of OCLC; a linked data prototype using Wikidata for digitized postcards from the NLM history of medicine collection; and a SEO project, mapping metadata for two resources to enhanced html with schema.org linked data and comparing usage data before and after for each. Tina concluded with next steps for LD4P2. A lively Q&A and discussion followed the presentations. There was much discussion of understanding BIBFRAME itself, with an audience member reminding us that ‘ugly’ BIBFRAME records are comparable to raw MARC, and may be difficult to grasp without a nice XML viewer and editor. Another audience member asked what specifically they could point to to show LIS students the benefits of BIBFRAME. Suggestions include looking at SHARE-VDE (Casalini), Library.Link (Zepheira), and the Denver Public Library. A summary by Bobby Bothmann and presenters’ slides are available on ​ALA Connect​.

Cataloging Norms Interest Group (CaMMS)

The interest group meeting was held on Saturday, June 22, 2019. The session consisted of three presentations. All presentation ​slides​ are available on ALA Connect.

I. “​Cataloging the Living,” by Joshua Barton (Michigan State University) and Violet Fox (Dewey Decimal Classification). The basic question behind the presentation was, “Have we asked creators if they want to be identified?” This comes from a background in the archival approach of radical empathy. The presenters tackled this question using the case of zines. They note that zines are not necessarily created with a library in mind, which challenges assumptions that library catalogers always ought to identify creators. Primary concerns include privacy (older zines often include full names and postal addresses) and safety (for example, a creator’s family may discover the author’s undisclosed sexual orientation), as well as the preference of authors. The ​Zine Librarians Code of Ethics​ recommends that catalogers refrain from recording more personal information than is necessary. There will be a conflict between the desire of creator and the desire of a user: we may be preventing full search results and full connections from being made. We also need to ask what happens when someone wants info removed. Nonpublic fields are still published online in linked data, and there is limited technological ability to remove information. The only thing preventing later catalogers from adding back deleted information is a “gentleman’s agreement” to respect “prefers not to ….” notes. We also lack a consensus on what authority file is ​for​, resulting in a tension between identity management as every bit of information vs. minimal information required to disambiguate. The presenter offer a few suggestions. One is a “new cataloger’s judgment” that is consistent and contextually aware. In this model, catalogers are “stewards (not scribes) of information” are aware of when identification may be dangerous, and normalize relationships with creators (inquiring about and responding to preferences). They also propose treating creators as stakeholders in the International Cataloguing Principles.

The presenters invited audience members to “push back” during the Q&A time. One attendee wondered if authors needed to be responsible for the content of their statements/publications. The presenters noted that in the context of zines, the internet changed everything. The known consequences of ‘publishing’ a zine were very different before. Would a 14 year-old author in 1990 expect their zine to be so accessible in 2019? There is also a spectrum of self-publishing, ranging from zines with no expectation of lasting access to hugely popular published authors. Violet noted that “right to be forgotten” requests from European authors protected by the GDPR could supersede catalogers’ work. Another questioner wondered how these ethical questions apply to similar, pre-zine publications for creators who are no longer living. That is part of a broader conversation about how much creators’ wishes persist.

II. “Homegrown Outsourcing: A Cooperative Cataloging Pilot Between Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” by Denise Soufi (UNC Chapel Hill) and Natalie Sommerville (Duke University); collaborator Nanako Thomas (Duke University) was unable to attend. The TRLN Collections Council initiated a cooperative cataloging project in 2017 to examine the costs/benefits of TRLN cooperative cataloging versus vendor outsourcing. The project charter outlined the scope: UNC would send 100 titles in Japanese to Duke, and Duke would send 100 Arabic titles to UNC. Their detailed agreement addressed shipping; cataloging standards (BIBCO Standard Record); quality control methods; and spreadsheets to record stats, OCLC number, barcode, peripheral cataloging not provided by vendors (authority work, BIBCO), and time spent on regular and peripheral cataloging work. Of the titles cataloged, Japanese titles required 75 new records and 25 enhanced copy; Arabic required 43 original and 56 enhanced. Data analysis for completed cataloging determined basic costs (cataloging and shipping or scanning) and extras (quality control). Basic cooperative costs for Japanese titles were similar to vendor cost, but costs for Arabic materials were around 50% of the vendor cost. The projected long-term cost comparison showed that the Duke-UNC average would be significantly less in a cooperative agreement, and would also result in NACO work and PCC records. The presenters recommended that libraries considering a cooperative agreement come up with a clear project charter and agreement and select a project with a defined scope and deadlines.

Q&A: Q: Why the very high percentage of original cataloging for Japanese titles. A: Natalie suggested it is a smaller area of collecting in US academic libraries, and the selector at Duke is looking specifically for titles that are not owned by other North American libraries. Additionally, even existing copy from the National Diet Library of Japan needs to be converted to US standards and English-language description. Q: How it was possible to create BIBCO records at a lower cost than vendor records? A: The batch of Arabic titles included mostly modern authors so the NACO work was not time-consuming, and across the sample, no SACO proposals were needed.

III. “Coding for Catalogers: A Practical Approach to Programming,” by Carolyn Hansen (Stony Brook University). Why code? Even if you are not a programmer, it is easier to communicate with programmers at your institution when you share a nomenclature. Coding can be used for cataloging when you need to do something manual and repetitive to your data. The easier way is probably to create a script for tasks like bulk formatting, cleaning up tabular data, or transforming data from one standard to another. It ​would​ be good to script searching for all bad diacritics in your IR, but coding is ​not​ for “a​rtisanal metadata.” Instead, it enables catalogers do the intellectual work that isn’t “the boring stuff.” Carolyn detailed tools needed. These include administrative access to your machine, access to the command line, and a text editor of your choice. Of many coding languages, Carolyn’s favorites are Python and Ruby, which are both intuitive and open source. Additional tools are regular expressions, which can be used to make bulk changes and standardize metadata (for example, correctly format MARC field 856); shell scripts, which can manipulate multiple files within a single directory (such as 300 XML files in one folder); and XSLT, ‘style plus functionality’ (use case: converting EAD to MARCXML or XML ETD metadata to CSV). Carolyn recommended GitHub for shared code, the book ​Automate the Boring Stuff with Python,​ and Codecademy, w3 schools, and GitHub CodeCamp for learning the basics. Closing suggestions were to select a real-life project using your library’s data while dedicating a consistent coding time and finding someone to practice with.

Faceted Subject Access Interest Group (CaMMS)

The interest group meeting was held on Saturday, June 22, 2019. ​The session consisted of three presentations.

I. FAST and FAST Policy and Outreach Committee Update (“FAST Forward”), by Judy Jeng. FAST data is in OCLC’s production server and supported by OCLC Research. PCC announced they will expand adoption of FAST. The FAST Policy and Outreach Committee was established September 2018 as an advisory and outreach body. Actions so far include a visit to LC, crafting a vision statement, meeting with OCLC’s FAST team to discuss maintenance and desired features, and outreach to FSAIG, ‘Big Heads’, IFLA, and the UK bibliographic standards group. Current projects include an FAQ compilation, quick guide, training course for library schools, webinar, integration into CONTENTdm, an e-forum, survey, and work with the PCC on training. If you are interested in getting involved, you can subscribe to the listserv, nominate a candidate for the committee, or apply to join a working group. See ​https://www.oclc.org/en/fast.html​.

II. “The OLAC Video Game Genre Vocabulary,” by Rosemary Groenwald (Mount Prospect Public Library). The video game genre vocabulary began when OLAC CAPC convened a working group in 2015 to create white paper to be submitted to LC’s Policy and Standards Division (PSD) documenting the need for video game genre terms. LC agreed that video games are distinct and have specific genre terms that would be appropriate for LCGFT, but was unable to commit to a specific timeline for a project. In 2016, the CAMMS/SAC/GFIS/Video Game Working Group was charged to create a vocabulary that would resulting in authority records. The group would also investigate if the vocabulary could be independently published if not part of LCGFT. The group proposed that OLAC assume ‘ownership’ of the vocabulary, and OLAC agreed. OLAC applied for and received a MARC source code, olacvggt, that allows the code to be used in MARC $2.

The group began by compiling large list of potential terms from gaming sites. They group terms and made decisions about specificity, such as using “sports video games” instead of creating a term for each sport. They found multiple literary sources for citations including the ​Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies,​ the ​Game Developer’s Dictionary,​ and articles in the journal Science Fiction Studies​. Gaming sites include mobygames.com, which uses genre terms extensively. The vocabulary is based on literary warrant. The group created authority records using the LCGFT manual and attempted to include three citations in each authority record. The resulting vocabulary is a closed list of 666 terms. It is syndetic; each term references a broader term, with the top term of “Video games.” The vocabulary is accompanied by application guidelines, which recommend always assigning Video games, with additional terms as preferred. The terms are available from in text on a single web page and downloadable in MARC-8 and UTF-8. The group added the vocabulary to the Open Metadata Registry, and an audience member noted that it is also in Wikidata. The vocabulary is in current use and has been fully retrospectively implemented at the Mount Prospect Public Library for its collection of approximately 1800 video games. Before the video game vocabulary was available, games were collocated by the LCGFT term “Puzzles and games.” The vocabulary, record sets, and documentation are available on OLAC’s website at https://www.olacinc.org/olac-video-game-vocabulary​.

III. “FAST Headings at the Smithsonian Libraries,” by Heidy Berthoud and Jackie Shieh (Smithsonian Libraries). The Smithsonian Libraries Discovery Services Division project to add FAST headings and linked data elements afforded the libraries opportunities to enhance their data and expose MARC records to the web while building staff skills. The approximately 200,000 bibliographic records selected represented book format monographs published before 1923, which would enable discovery in particular of items that may already have been digitized. Records were harvested from their local catalog with Z39.50, and batch searched in WorldCat from extracted OCLC numbers. All data enhancements were in batch at scale. Jackie and Heidy decided to make multiple enhancements in addition to adding FAST headings. They update MARC coding, added URIs to subfield $4 and 1xx and 6xx fields, and removed ISBD punctuation from descriptive elements. They also made enhancements to their authority data.

Challenges along the way included loading multiple files into their system, post-load reconciliation process, and developing a batch process authority workflow. Opportunities for identity management were semantic relations (sameAs, closeMatch, relatedMaterials), coordinates and GeoNames, and creating new identities in Wikidata for headings that were not found in LC, VIAF, FAST, or Wikidata. They decided to use Wikidata to obtain URIs because of its lower barrier to participation and ease of crowdsourcing. One impact on staff was breaking old habits. Communication and policies among multiple sites had diverged. The new workflow required skill development for staff at every level and developing consistent training was a challenge. Specific skills include regular expressions, MarcEdit, OpenRefine, and TextPad. The project team opened development to ​all ​interested staff including original catalogers, copy catalogers, and technicians. See presentation ​slides​.

Subject Analysis Committee Meetings

SAC met Sunday, June 23 and Monday, June 24, 2019. Written reports submitted in advance of the CaMMS SAC meetings are posted on the ALCTS section of ALA Connect, linked from SAC19-AN/ numbers below.

“Illegal aliens” LCSH update: Kristin Martin, president of ALCTS, joined SAC to provide an update. ALCTS representatives met with LC on June 21, 2019.

• LC shared documentation where they were directed to use language used in the US Code (citing Committee on Appropriations report​ ​114-594​ on the legislative appropriations bill 2017 and Congressional Record​ ​House vol. 163, 76.3, May 3, 2017​). LC had been working with the Congressional committee on appropriations to find an alternative, but they were not able to reach a consensus. Martin’s interpretation is that LC has not canceled their proposal but cannot move forward without reaching consensus with the congressional oversight committee, meaning the proposal is on hold indefinitely.
• At this point, Martin shared that ALA is reframing the question as how ALA/ALCTS can move forward without LC in order to support libraries who want to enhance or replace their subject headings. Ideas include approaching OCLC regarding when FAST might diverge from LCSH and offering ILS scripts for libraries to implement changes in their local system (recognizing that this may not be feasible for smaller libraries). Martin recommended that procedurally, SAC consult with CaMMS on future steps, as this is an ALA-wide issue that would benefit from publicity and coordination of effort. There is a CaMMS cataloging ethics steering committee forming that may also address this issue. Martin confirmed that this information shared with SAC is able to be shared publicly. [For background, see: SAC Working Group report at https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/9261​ and the 2016​ ​ALA Council resolution​.]

Sears List of Subject Headings. No report; no formal representation with publisher.

LC Policy and Standards Division (now the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs
Division) (Janis Young). The full written report, ​SAC19-AN/1.4​, is available on ALA Connect. LC’s ​full briefing for ALA annual​ is on LC’s website. Young encouraged Annual attendees to visit the LC pavilion and attend tours and demos from ABA. Selected updates:

• Staffing. Judith Cannan, chief of the former Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division (COIN), became chief of the new Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs (PTCP) Division when it was established on June 9, 2019, through the merger of COIN and the former Policy and Standards Division.
• Name changes. Macedonia and Swaziland changed as a PSD project, with changes reflected in the authority file, LCSH, and LCC. Young noted catalogers should check which form of name is appropriate for a time period and noted that the descriptive access points Macedonia (Republic) and Swaziland are no longer valid for subject use. Instead, North Macedonia and Eswatini, respectively, should be assigned as subject headings and geographic subdivisions. See SHM H 708 [linear name changes] for more information.
• The PCC OpCo meeting in May 2019 was live streamed; a copy of the agenda, with links to the presentations and WebEx recordings, is posted at http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/OpCo-2019/Agenda-OpCo-2019.pdf.
• LD4P is moving forward; their sandbox will eventually be open to all PCC members.
• Improvements are being planned for Cataloger’s Desktop.
• ClassWeb’s new interface will be live late summer or early fall of 2019.
• Update on LCSH subdivision “–Religious aspects.” Catalogers should not
  assume all multiples still exist. All replacements must have an authority record.
• New instruction sheets. Two new instruction sheets were published in June 2019,
  SHM instruction sheet H 1629.5, Forenames and Surnames, and CSM
  instruction sheet F 177, Translations.
• Notable new headings include 5G mobile communication systems; Christchurch
  Mosque Shootings, Christchurch, N.Z., 2019; Emotional support animals; Hula
  hoop toys; Overtourism; and Robocalls.
• Art genre/form terms. The art genre/form project was a collaborative effort of the
  Cataloging Advisory Committee of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and LC. The first terms were approved for use in February 2019. Since then, some additional terms have been approved as a follow-up to the project. An instruction sheet for the draft genre/form manual will be published this summer, and PTCP will begin to accept proposals for new and revised art genre/form terms after the draft instruction sheet is published.
• Demographic group terms. Moratorium on proposals is still in place.
• Q&A. Q: What is going on with draft manual for LCGFT? A: LC is collecting
  comments and would like to revise soon, and they are aware more sheets are needed, as is the LCMPT manual. Q: When do you plan on fully implementing new vocabs? A: Moving image and recorded sound have implemented LCGFT; music division has implemented LCGFT and LCMPT; ABA is using cookbooks and their NTs. No date for general ABA; training materials need to be developed first.

CC:DA liaison (Robert Maxwell). See ​SAC19-AN/1.5​.

SAC Research and Presentation Working Group (Paromita Biswas). There will be a
program on subject metadata and faceted access before the SAC II meeting on June 24.
The group needs a new member and a chair. See ​SAC19-AN/1.6​.

Music Library Association liaison (Rebecca Belford). Maxwell noted that RDA 3R will
have a new medium of performance for choreographic expressions, and recommended
that SAC have someone talk about this new topic. See ​SAC19-AN/1.7​.

Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) liaison (Sherman Clarke). Century subdivisions for Photography, artistic are available to follow patterns for other fine art
headings, and without geographic subdivision. Best practices for cataloging exhibition
publications is on hold until post-3R RDA. See ​SAC19-AN/1.8​.

American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) (Cate Kellett). See ​SAC19-AN/1.9

SAC Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies (Casey Mullin). The subcommittee has
added a representative from PCC, Kelley McGrath. The group is looking for new
members; ALCTS membership is required. See ​SAC19-AN/1.10​.

FAST steering committee (Judy Jeng). Jeng asked SAC to consider their preferences for
a representative when the Chair rotates this year. See ​SAC19-AN/1.11​.

Dewey Classification Editorial Policy Committee liaison (Deborah Rose-Lefmann).
Selected updates to tables and schedules: provision for ‘Sexual orientation and gender identity’ as a general concept; provision to optionally arrange books on chess openings by chess opening code; ‘Programming’ and ‘Computer programs’ changed to ‘Software development’ and ‘software’; and removal of “hot” and “not hot” spice distinction. See SAC19-AN/2.1​.

Dewey Section liaison (Caroline Saccucci). Classifiers are assisting with editorial projects for time periods for China and Brazil. PrePub Book Link allows sort by subject. ECIP contract underway for subjects and Sears headings. Caroline will be presenting at IFLA on PrePub. See ​SAC19-AN/2.2​.

Dewey Decimal Classification and OCLC Dewey Services (Alex Kyrios).There is a concerted effort to reach out to Dewey community members who want to get involved in editorial process including a regular poll for the community to rank importance of projects. They conducted a large survey in May. See ​SAC19-AN/2.3​.

SACO liaison (Paul Frank).

MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) (Adam Schiff). See ​SAC19-AN/2.5​.

IFLA liaison (George Prager). See ​SAC19-AN/2.6​. Genre/Form Working Group: Prager
will continue to be a member after term as chair ends. IFLA 2020 location will be announced in July. Section election results will be updated on the IFLA website.

Co-chairs of SAC (Chris Long/Rocki Strader). The updated SSFV charge was approved and posted. The chairs thanked Paromita and Jennifer for arranging the presentation; SAC interns Karla and Violet, and members rotating off: Paromita Biswas, Jennifer Bromley, Netanel Ganin, Anna Goslen. The incoming chair will be Brian Stearns. Chris will be continuing as a member and Rocki is completely rotating off. One new intern and two volunteers for the research and presentation working group are needed; open to all ALCTS members.

New Business. 1) Conversation returned to “Illegal aliens” LCSH and the possibility of a working group. Discussion at SAC: One example of what ALA might offer could be a working group that provides scripts for libraries to replace “Illegal aliens” with SAC-recommended alternatives from its earlier proposal. Options for libraries unable to remove LCSH terms (such as those bound by OCLC master records) would be to add alternate terms from Sears or MeSH. There will still be challenges for smaller libraries without the ability to make these edits in their ILSs. It was noted that the final proposal from LC was not identical to Dartmouth’s SACO proposal. LC received several thousand public comments after the tentative list was posted, and the Senate needs to approve all bills from the House Committee on Appropriations. The motion to convene a SAC working group passed; a call for volunteers will be posted to open participation to those unable to attend the SAC meeting in person. 2) Rocki urged SAC members and others that are part of the open SAC ALA Connect Community to confirm their signups after July 1.

Open Discussion. Rosemary Groenwald asked whether there has even been an OLAC liaison or representative to SAC and whether it would be feasible. If there is interest, the preferred method would be for OLAC to approach SAC with an offer to provide a rep/liaison. Bob Maxwell added that the dance community might also be interested in a relationship with SAC.

SAC Presentation

The SAC Research and Presentation Working Group’s invited speaker was Dr. Oksana Zavalina (UNT), who gave a talk titled “Examination of Quality and Change in Subject Metadata.” Dr. Zavalina presented a research project conducted by the team of faculty, librarians, and students at the University of North Texas. Their study was a qualitative and quantitative analysis of fields identified as ‘subject’ in both descriptive and name authority records, before and after changes to those records. Change comparison requires access to versions; in WorldCat they collected data at intervals, and for digital libraries they were able to access metadata versions. They looked at four data sets: 1) 931 RDA-based MARC21 bibliographic records for DVD videorecordings 2) approximately 401,000 name and uniform title records 3) 150 Dublin Core records from aggregated content of the UNT Digital Library and 4) 400 Dublin Core records form the Texas Patents Collection. For each, they analyzed three categories of change: addition, deletion, and modification. Specific data the team is analyzing are the frequency of field occurrences, types of changes, fields and subfields in which change occurs the most, and how the volume of change relates to record age, number of editing events, fluctuations in record length, and overall metadata quality. Some results have been published, and additional analysis is still in progress.

SAC Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies

The subcommittee (“SSFV”) met on Saturday, June 22, 2019.

Brief updates

• LC (Janis Young): The new combined ​Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs ​division means that LC vocabularies policy and PCC policy are now in the same division.
• Rosemary Groenwald: The OLAC video game vocabulary is available. Rosemary will be presenting at the Faceted Subject Access Interest Group
• SSFV Chair (Casey Mullin): The SSFV revised charge is up on the ALA website; future terms will be staggered two-year staggered appointments. Current members are eligible to be reappointed for two years in 2020.

Task groups. At Midwinter 2019, SSFV adopted a task group model. Each group reported on work completed since Midwinter, and discussion time was allotted to determine road maps for the next 6-7 months. Casey will be setting up Trello boards for each group to organize and track work.

Genre/Form Group (Rosemary Groenwald). Since Midwinter, the group went through instruction sheets to collect form subdivisions, types, and corresponding LCGFT. The are tracking these on a spreadsheet modeled off the mappings used by MLA’s collaboration with Gary Strawn. They are now looking at topical headings that imply genre/form. As an alternative to working through the manual, Janis Young suggested that records are available from id.loc.gov, which is updated at least monthly. Priority next steps identified through discussion are consistent formatting of the master list, including LCCNs, mapping fixed fields, and identifying ‘easy’ conversions. Later work may include creating sublists of 1:1 and complex mappings, identifying overlooked subdivisions used only with a single authority record, and looking at LCGFT that did not have mappings. Janis noted that it isn’t necessary for every resource to have a genre heading, and Casey noted that some subdivisions are meaningful only in context. Kelley McGrath suggested that the spreadsheet could be used for batch searching, enabling the group to harvest records instead of entering information manually. That sort of harvest could also include Y/N for geographic subdivisions. A later stage of the group’s work might be considering additions or revisions to the LCGFT manual.

Demographic Group (Rebecca Belford). Since Midwinter, the group began an environmental scan of ethical issues surrounding demographic metadata. Most of the literature focused on creators. Currently the list is partially annotated. Priority next steps identified: 1) Locating existing institutional or local documentation. Casey noted that Orbis-Cascade is working on documents. Rebecca noted that a listserv search might turn up policies, and catalogers might share local information that hasn’t been posted if we redact institution names. 2) Closer reading and annotation for the sources identified. Charlene Chou offered to share information on a related group at LD4 that is looking at gender, birth year, and privacy. 3) Looking for front-end systems that can use authority data. 4) Compiling feedback from LIS students who are already looking at these issues; Charlene offered to contact U. Washington students about their recent work. Additional discussion: this group should be collaborating with other groups including the CaMMS cataloging ethics group. The group might prioritize critical issues. Janis suggested a model in work on Canadian First Nations groups. WorldCat Identities might be an option for a proof of concept.

Geographic Group (Lisa Cavalear). Since Midwinter, the group looked at use cases for
deployment of MARC field 370 in bibliographic records (including interrelationship with field 386). These include thinking about the catchall 370$f, locations when work is created or published in different location than the creator’s, location of terms (bibliographic vs. authorities), and where/how compilations and single works are treated differently. There was discussion about considering both what might be lost if a topical $z subdivision were not present as well as whether everything we currently record in $z is actually useful for access. If we decide something is important to record, MARC matters: country of producing entity, place names, and demonyms all can be accommodated but in different areas. Priority next steps are developing an operational distinction between subfields $c, $f, and $g; developing more use cases; and looking at how to avoid lossy conversion while deciding what we do want to record.

Chronological Group (Casey Mullin). Since Midwinter, the group drafted high-level best practices for 046 and 388 fields in bibliographic records. They are compiling use cases for recording chronological interest other than publication or topic and used Orbis-Cascade’s best practices as a starting point. Priority next steps are discussing the Orbis-Cascade document, further developing scenarios and use cases, and possibly looking at FAST headings drawn from LCSH $y subdivisions as a starting point.