ALA Midwinter Meeting 2015, Chicago
Report from OLAC-CAPC (Online Audiovisual Catalogers–Cataloging Policy Committee)Submitted by Ray Schmidt, Chair, MLA-BCC Authorities Subcommittee

CAPC Chair Mary Huismann called the meeting to order.

Announcements

OLAC is sponsoring a pre-conference at ALA Annual 2015, “Video Demystified: Cataloging with Best Practices Guides,” and is co-sponsoring two other pre-conferences, one on cataloging special formats of children’s materials and another on XML, XSLT, XQuery and PyMARC coding for Library Data.

CC:DA report (Kelley McGrath).

McGrath summarized items from the JSC meeting held in November 2014, particularly on proposals 6JSC/ALA/32, concerning the statement of responsibility for performers, and 6JSC/ALA/36, clarifying RDA instruction for recording duration. For more details, see the MLA CC:DA liaison report. McGrath then put forward three questions for discussion related to content types in RDA 6.9, and asked whether OLAC should consider drafting a proposal to address these issues:

The distinction in RDA between content type terms “two-dimensional moving image” and “three-dimensional moving image” is not clear, and catalogers are having difficulty in applying the terms correctly. Is the distinction an important one? Video games present a particular challenge because producers of video games apply the label “3D” in a much more general sense.

• Discussion: The phrase “intended to be perceived as” either two-or three-dimensional seems to be a key aspect of the term definitions in RDA. Another important distinction is whether viewing the moving image requires a device, e.g. 3D glasses (but note that this would not be considered “mediated” in RDA terminology).

Video games are considered to be “moving images” in RDA, but this does not fully bring out the interactive nature of video games. Should there be an additional content type that incorporates the term “interactive”?

• Discussion: There was general agreement that “interactive” is a significant aspect of a content type. It would be possible to propose an approach where “interactive” modifies existing content types like the paired terms “text” and “tactile text.” The
  challenge would be to clearly define just what is meant by “interactive.”

It is unclear how to apply the content type “three-dimensional form.” Some of the examples given for the term (sculptures, models) could be considered both tactile and visual, and the terms are not applied consistently by catalogers. Is the distinction between “three-dimensional form” and “tactile three-dimensional form” necessary?

• Discussion: The distinction is confusing to catalogers, and can seem like an unnecessary technical distinction. However, although there is overlap in the terms, e.g., art pieces such as sculpture may have both a tactile and visual aspect, the point of “tactile” is that it is specifically intended to be touched, and that this has been extended to several types such as text and notated music for the visually impaired community. While it is true that intended audience and accessibility content may also be recorded elsewhere (RDA 7.7 and 7.14 respectively), a tactile form such as braille is a content type because it isn’t a question of casual
  perception—braille can only be read by those trained to do so.

In general, if the distinctions in RDA 6.9 aren’t clear, the best approach is to propose a better definition, rather than attempt to remove a content type from RDA.

Library of Congress report (Janis Young).

See LITA/ALCTS Authority Control Interest Group liaison report.

OCLC report (Jay Weitz).

OCLC has acquired Sustainable Collection Services (SCS). SCS analyzes data on libraries’ print collections to assist in decision-
making related to collection development, discards, and resource sharing.

On January 27, 2015, OCLC and the Library of Congress released a white paper, “Common Ground: Exploring Compatibilities
between the Linked Data Models of the Library of Congress and OCLC.” It is intended to explain the relationship between Schema.org and BIBFRAME, according to Weitz, and should put to rest some of the concerns about how the two data models will be aligned.

MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) report (Cate Gerhart).

Gerhart reported on proposals under consideration by MAC at ALA Midwinter (see report of the MAC liaison).

Additional Reports (Mary Huismann on behalf of various OLAC members and Task Forces)

Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG). The upcoming MOUG meeting in February will include a preconference training on LCMPT and LCGFT. MOUG is working on a new web presence, and has set up membership functions for renewal. There should be an updated web site by spring 2015.

Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). Work continues on a revised edition of the AMIA Compendium of Moving Image Cataloging Practice. RDA Revision Proposals Task Force. This Task Force has been retired, and Huismann thanked the members
for their efforts. In the future, any needed RDA revisions will be handled by CAPC as a whole.

DVD/Blu-Ray Disc RDA Guide Task Force. The guide has now been completed. Huismann thanked the many people involved, including advisors to the Task Force, Greta de Groat, Kelley McGrath, and Jay Weitz. There will be an announcement shortly
when the guide is made available online.

Streaming Media/Video RDA Guide Task Force. This document has also been approved, and an announcement will be made
when it is available on the OLAC website.

Video Games RDA Task Force. The work of the Task Force is nearing completion, and will include provisional recommendations for preferred titles and game genre headings. Separate task forces will work out policies in coordination with the Library of Congress. The Task Force has made a proposal to add “game developer” as a relator term.

New Business

A new group is forming to address the issue of video game genres; Cate Gerhart and Greta de Groat will co-chair this group. The group’s goal is to write a white paper in time for ALA Annual 2015, to convince LC that videogames have genres.

Another group is working with the CaMMS Subject Analysis Committee to address games headings in LCSH more generally.

Other RDA Guides or Best Practices documents under consideration: CDROMs; DVDROMS; playaways. CAPC has an AACR2 playaway guide. Beth Iseminger has indicated that MLA-BCC would be willing to work on an RDA guide for playaways. A future possibility is that the various guides be combined and coordinated. It was noted that CAPC’s typical 5 year review period doesn’t really work anymore, with the frequency of RDA updates. General operating procedures for review of documents should be reassessed.