There are service opportunities on the three Cataloging and Metadata Committee (CMC) subcommittees: Content Standards, Encoding Standards, and Vocabularies, all of which have multiple vacancies. Appointments are for four-year terms, and most subcommittee work is conducted asynchronously throughout the year. We encourage all interested persons to apply for membership.

We will be at the February 15 MLA Get Involved session and are happy to answer questions by email or in person at the conference. You can find more information about the subcommittees and their work here on our website, at the CMC Town Hall session March 1, and at our virtual open business meetings March 6-7.

Brief applications should be in writing and submitted to the CMC Chair (Rebecca Belford) and any of the current subcommittee chairs (listed below) no later than end of day Thursday, March 7, 2024. Applications should state: 1) your specific interest with regards to the subcommittee(s) to which you would like to apply and your order of preference of subcommittees if interested in more than one; 2) your cataloging/metadata background; and 3) your abilities to meet CMC service expectations. 

Please read on for some descriptions of the subcommittees’ duties and expectations for service.

Content Standards Subcommittee

Chair: Keith Knop; Chelsea Hoover will be beginning as Chair March 2024

Tasks of the subcommittee include:

• Maintaining and enhancing the MLA Best Practices for cataloging music in RDA to provide guidance where the subcommittee identifies a need, or it is requested by the community
• Working with MLA files hosted in the RDA Toolkit
• Developing supplemental documentation and plain-language guidance to explain and clarify music cataloging processes
• Proposing additions or changes to RDA through the Core Committee on Cataloging: Descriptive Access (CC:DA)
• Responding to RDA proposals and discussions from other groups
• Staying up to date on changes and additions to RDA and LC-PCC PS
• Responding to requests for comment on music-specific issues from LC, PCC, or other policy bodies

No one is expected to be fluent in Official RDA when starting out, merely willing to learn and ask questions. For those interested in working directly with RDA Toolkit files, prior familiarity with XML is desirable.

Encoding Standards Subcommittee

Chair: Ethan D’Ver 

The Encoding Standards Subcommittee participates in the development and revision of metadata encoding standards and data models used to describe music resources. The Subcommittee reviews and evaluates changes and enhancements to encoding standards, giving particular attention to their impact on the music library community. Working through the appropriate channels and groups, the Subcommittee proposes changes to encoding standards and data models as deemed necessary for access to music resources. The Subcommittee recommends MLA practice for the application of metadata standards to music materials. The Subcommittee works on other matters deemed pertinent by the Cataloging and Metadata Committee and works with other CMC subcommittees or task groups as appropriate. The Subcommittee maintains documentation and MLA best practices related to topics specific to the subcommittee’s work.

Vocabularies Subcommittee

Chair: Janelle West

The Vocabularies Subcommittee participates in developing and revising controlled vocabularies for music resources. Such vocabularies include subject, genre, form, medium of performance, types of composition, and other controlled lists of terms. Subcommittee work is divided among five standing task groups: Types of Composition List Maintenance, Thematic Indexes List Maintenance, LCMPT/LCGFT Vocabularies Maintenance, LCMPT/LCGFT Best Practices Maintenance, and Deriving Faceted Music Terms. The Subcommittee works with other CMC subcommittees as appropriate, and ad hoc task groups are created as needed. Current projects include updating MLA best practices documents for LCGFT, analyzing results of a survey on LCSH, LCMPT, and LCGFT usage, and updating LCSH to LCMPT/LCGFT mappings for the OCLC Music Toolkit.

Subcommittee member responsibilities

Additional details are in the CMC Handbook (PDF)

CMC subcommittee members must:

• Be a member in good standing of MLA, including student members (Not a member yet? You can join MLA here!)
• Complete MLA’s requirements for anti-bias/EDI training
• Adhere to CMC and MLA policies for conduct

 Subcommittee members are expected to:

• Actively participate in group discussions, drawing on personal experience, skills and knowledge
• Volunteer for at least one task group of the subcommittee of which one is a member
• Take assignments seriously and complete them in a timely fashion
• Provide feedback on documentation, proposals, and requests for comments
• Attend subcommittee business meetings: for virtual/hybrid meetings, attendance is expected; for in-person subcommittee meetings held in conjunction with in-person MLA meetings and the member is in attendance, members should attend in person.