September
10, 2002
Minutes
The
meeting began at 9:05 a.m. Present
were Karen Hackman, Joanne Kelly, Merdy Smith, and Lucy Webb. Mary Wilkes Towner and Mary Bissey
arrived later.
The
agenda for the meeting was passed out.
There were no changes to the agenda.
The
minutes of the June 4, 2002 Database Standards Committee meeting were approved
as written.
Accelerated Reader note: Study Program Information Note (MARC
526)
Merdy reported on her latest attempts to obtain Accelerated Reader
information from Renaissance Learning.
The company had indicated they would send 20 CDs with all the AR titles,
levels, points, etc. on them, but nothing was ever received.
Merdy has talked with several schools and public libraries over the
past several months, finding out
how they handle AR information.
The majority of the schools and public libraries she has spoken with are
cooperating by the school giving
its list of AR titles with the library and the library putting special marking
on the AR books they have or physically locating them separately from the rest
of their collection.
Because putting AR information in the bib record could mislead
patrons (in that they might think their school has the test for that title just
because the AR information is in the bib), Merdy examined the holdings record
to see if it would be possible to put AR test information there in order to
indicate which schools had which tests.
There is not an appropriate field in the holdings record. Mary Towner suggested using the call
number field (e.g., putting Test or Quiz at the end of the cutter) or using the
copy/volume field. The committee
discussed the patron education that would be needed if AR information was put
in the bib record and/or the holdings record.
It was the consensus of the committee that putting AR information in
the bib record and/or the holdings record, or distributing a general list of AR
titles to libraries, would be more likely to mislead patrons than help
them. In light of the cooperation
demonstrated between many existing school and public libraries, the committee
decided to neither put any AR information in a bib record or holding record,
nor to try to disseminate a general list of AR titles. The committee suggested that LTLS
consultants, in their walkaround visits, encourage cooperation between school
and public libraries in the area of AR information.
The committee then discussed the possibility of a Continuing
Education event related to AR: what is the AR program, how to manage your
accelerated readers (marking books in a public library, communicating between
school and public libraries), where to find information regarding reading
levels, etc. The possibility of a
pamphlet with this information was also suggested. Karen will contact her elementary librarians to see who is
active in AR and if they are cooperating with local schools re AR. JoAnne, Karen and Merdy may cooperate
on drafting a pamphlet.
Mary Towner passed out a document outlining her thoughts on taking a
broader look at the original idea of allowing subject heading in the Spanish
language in bib records in LINC.
Mary suggested that the committee propose a policy which would establish
a procedure for allowing other subject thesauri to be used in LINC, i.e.
granting authority to add subject headings from acceptable controlled
vocabulary lists. The committee
agreed to this approach and Mary Towner will prepare a draft policy proposal.
Merdy presented a report on the Database Standards Committeešs
activities to the Policy Council on August 29, 2002. She reported on the committeešs: 1.) continuing efforts to
learn about MARC, XML, AACR2 and Dublin Core; 2.) consideration of the handling
of Accelerated Reader information in LINC; 3.) consideration of the addition of
subject headings in the Spanish language to bibliographic records in LINC; and
4.) proposal to add movie ratings in bibliographic records in LINC. The Policy Council received copies of the
proposed policy: Cataloging Target Audience Note (MARC 521) and Background
information on the proposed policy.
Merdy also handed this information out to committee members at todayšs
meeting. The Policy Council is
considering the proposed policy.
Merdy indicated that Jan would like the Database Standards Committee
to continue its pursuit of learning about Dublin Core. The committee has been requested to
look at Dublin Core (DC) and how to implement it should Lincoln Trail migrate
to an automated system that can implement DC. Merdy
distributed two handouts to committee members: The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (ISSN 1041-5653) and Library Application Profile (DC-Library
Application Profile), a possible application profile that clarifies the use of
the Dublin Core metadata element set in libraries and library-related
applications and projects. The
latter document is not suggested as a standard to adopt or follow, but is given
out as one illustration of how a library might apply DC. The committee examined the two
documents. After discussion it was
decided that the committee should first learn about what is in use now (i.e., MARC21)
in order to have a basis for proceeding with the study of DC and how LTLS might
use it.
The next meeting, devoted to learning about MARC, will be held October
2, 2002 at 9:00 a.m. at the Lincoln Trail Libraries System.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:33 a.m.
Prepared by Merdy Smith