Report Title: Cataloging and Metadata Committee Annual Report, July 1, 2020-June 30, 2021

Submitted by: Hermine Vermeij

Group Name: Cataloging and Metadata Committee

Group Members:

• Hermine Vermeij, Chair, Cataloging and Metadata Committee (2023)
• Keith Knop, Chair, Content Standards Subcommittee (2024)
• Karen Peters, Chair, Encoding Standards Subcommittee (2023)
• Rebecca Belford, Chair, Vocabularies Subcommittee (2022)
• Joshua Henry, Secretary/Webmaster (2022)
• Kristi Bergland, Incoming Secretary/Webmaster (2025)
• Kirk-Evan Billet, Editor, Music Cataloging Bulletin (2025)
• Casey Mullin, BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator (2025)
• Mark Scharff, NACO-Music Project Coordinator (2025)
• Beth Iseminger, SACO Music Funnel Coordinator (2025)
• Susan Vita, Library of Congress Representative
• Jay Weitz, OCLC Representative

The committee encompasses three subcommittees and three music-specific Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) funnels (NACO, SACO, and BIBCO); the chairs of the subcommittees and coordinators of the funnels serve on the committee. The funnel coordinators also participate as ex officio members of the relevant subcommittees. The work of the subcommittees is carried out by smaller task groups coordinated by the subcommittee chairs and other members. Specific duties of the various members of the committee, subcommittees, and funnels are outlined in the CMC Handbook, which can be found on the CMC website.

Previous Goals:

1. Continue subcommittee work in areas related to RDA, MARC, LC controlled vocabularies and other controlled lists, and music cataloging tools (such as the Music Toolkit) and resources (such as best practices documents), as outlined in individual subcommittee reports.
   • We met this goal through the work of the subcommittees; please see their reports for details.
2. Continue to train contributors to the BIBCO Music Funnel and the NACO-Music Project; continue to encourage proposals for new and revised vocabulary terms through the SACO Music Funnel.
   • The BIBCO Music Funnel has welcomed two new members since summer 2020, and bade farewell to one member who left their position (but expects to reapply from their new institution). Funnel members authenticated nearly 1,200 bibliographic records for musical scores and sound recordings during PCC FY20 (which ended September 30, 2020). To date in FY21, funnel members have authenticated an additional ~400 records. This is a marked decrease from FY19, though entirely understandable in light of the pandemic and the resulting work-from-home protocols. In happier news, the lifetime total authentications from the Funnel is approaching 10,000!
   • The NACO-Music Project welcomed a new Chair for the NMP Advisory Committee after the 2021 MLA meeting. Jacob Schaub (Vanderbilt University) replaces Mary Huismann (St. Olaf College). Mary has served with steadiness, grace, and efficiency for five years. Jacob has stepped into the role of Chair while also heading the SEMLA chapter. Cate Gerhart (University of Washington) has joined the NMP Advisory Committee as a member-at-large, replacing Casey Mullins (Western Washington University). While she is a relatively new NMP member, she has been active in authority work through OLAC. Keith Knop (University of Georgia) is the liaison from the Cataloging and Metadata Committee, replacing Tracey Snyder (Cornell University). Both Tracey and Casey contributed greatly to NMP and will be missed. NMP welcomed four new personal members, and three new institutional members during the past fiscal year. One of the new institutional members came from the move of an NMP member to a new job. The Advisory Committee made some revisions to the application documents. NMP Coordinator Mark Scharff attended the PCC Participants meeting for ALA Annual 2020, which took place virtually in July of that year.
   • The SACO funnel continues to accept proposals for new and revised terms from MLA members and others. Contact the SACO funnel coordinator to submit a new or revised proposal. The SACO funnel coordinator works with the Vocabularies Subcommittee Maintenance Task Group and the Library of Congress to develop new and revised terminology. During the 2020-2021 year, the funnel successfully proposed 17 new genre, medium, and subject terms, as well as 25 revision proposals. The bulk of these terms formed the base of a project addressing gendered medium of performance terms. New vocal terms identify vocal groups and voice ranges that were previously missing; revised terms address misleading or inappropriately stated gender in vocal terms.
3. Provide support to music catalogers during COVID-19 pandemic by providing remote access to training and documentation, maximizing participation in committee meetings held virtually, and helping to make digital scores discoverable.
   • The Cataloging and Metadata Committee maintains a robust web presence at https://cmc.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/, including links to all our available training and documentation. In addition, this year Keith Knop developed and taught a four-week introductory music cataloging course in January-February 2021 as part of a collaborative package between MLA and ALA eLearning.
   • Holding our committee meetings and CMC Town Hall online during the MLA 2021 annual meeting allowed us to involve members who would normally not be able to travel to an in-person meeting. We hope to continue the ability to include virtual participants in the future.
4. Contribute to the MLA Electronic Scores Working Group via work on the Steering Team and the Cataloging Team.
   • CMC members Keith Knop and Hermine Vermeij are on the Steering Team of the Electronic Scores working group, and several members have expressed interest in the Cataloging subgroup. The Cataloging subgroup’s work will focus on creating best practices, taking into consideration which metadata elements should be included when cataloging electronic scores, advice on applying PCC provider-neutral guidelines, and recording licensing and/or restriction information.
5. Evaluate the new CMC website via a user study.
   • ESS’s Metadata for Music Resources Task Force performed a usability test of that subset of the CMC website in spring 2021. We may consider doing a larger study on more of the website.
6. Submit CMC materials to the MLA Archives.
   • This will continue as a goal for next year.
7. Continue to participate in explorations of BIBFRAME and other linked data ontologies as appropriate; test Performed Music Ontology (PMO) in native linked data inputting environment.
   • This fiscal year (July 2020-June 2021), the MLA Linked Data Working Group has begun to experiment with creating, querying, and analyzing native linked data for music. Kevin Kishimoto, LDWG Chair, has designed a 8-month project during which he calls monthly LDWG meetings to discuss BIBFRAME, the Performed Music Ontology, RDF, Sinopia, and linked data tools, among other topics. Between each meeting, the group members complete ‘homework’ which allows each to gain experience creating linked data and build toward a group understanding of linked data theory and practice. Kevin works between meetings to create Sinopia templates and devise relevant assignments.
   • Prior to the start of the LDWG meetings in May 2021, Kevin and a small group of other MLA members (Nancy Lorimer, Stanford; James Soe-Nyun, UC San Diego; Damian Iseminger, LC) began revision of some aspects of the 2016 version of the Performed Music Ontology, with an eye toward simplifying the ontology to allow for practical use in a production setting. So far this small group has worked to revise the ontology in the areas of medium of performance and aggregates; work is ongoing.
8. Leverage committee members’ expertise by providing educational and training presentations, such as program sessions, webinars, and workshops, as opportunities arise.
   • CMC sponsored three program sessions at MLA 2021: the Cataloging and Metadata Town Hall, Provider-Neutral Cataloging for Digital Scores, and Meeting the Need for Metadata Accessibility and Usability: Ergonomics and Adaptive Technology for Producers and Consumers. Two CMC-sponsored program sessions have been accepted for MLA 2022. And CMC member Keith Knop taught an eCourse (Introduction to Music Cataloging) beginning in January 2021 as part of the Getting Started with Music Librarianship eCourse bundle, a collaboration between the MLA Education Committee and ALA Publishing.
9. Collaborate as appropriate with other MLA groups, other music-related groups, ALA groups, other library- or information-related groups, and Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC).
   • We met this goal through our participation as liaisons to various groups and through our collaboration with various MLA and music-related groups. CMC prepared formal responses to two documents: a draft of the Best Practices for Recording Faceted Chronological Data in Bibliographic Records (produced by the SAC Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies); and the report of the LC-PCC Task Group on Aggregates in Beta RDA (now Official RDA) Toolkit, part 2, specifically to comment on how to record authorized access points for aggregated expressions with a single creator and a collective title. The subcommittee chairs attended meetings as official MLA liaisons (the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA), the Subject Analysis Committee (SAC), and the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC)), as well as meetings of other groups as either members or unofficial liaisons. Reports from relevant meetings and program sessions are published in the Music Cataloging Bulletin and are also available on the CMC website. A representative from CMC serves on the IFLA ISBD Review Group, representing the music cataloging community in the ISBD revision process. A representative from CMC serves on the NISO Video & Audio Metadata Guidelines Working Group, representing the music cataloging community in the codification of guidelines for metadata for video and audio assets.

Future Goals:

1. Continue subcommittee work in areas related to RDA, MARC, LC controlled vocabularies and other controlled lists, and music cataloging tools (such as the Music Toolkit) and resources (such as best practices documents), as outlined in individual subcommittee reports. (Goal areas: Value of the Profession, Education)
2. Continue to train contributors to the BIBCO Music Funnel and the NACO-Music Project; continue to encourage proposals for new and revised vocabulary terms through the SACO Music Funnel. (Goal areas: Value of the Profession, Education)
3. Investigate ways in which CMC can become more involved in ethical cataloging policy-making. (Goal areas: Education, Organizational Excellence)
4. Contribute to the MLA Electronic Scores Working Group via work on the Steering Team and the Cataloging Team. (Goal areas: Value of the profession, Education)
5. Increase the virtual community of CMC, potentially including an off-season unconference or open virtual committee meetings multiple times a year. (Goal areas: Organizational Excellence, Membership)
6. Submit CMC materials to the MLA Archives. (Goal area: Organizational Excellence)
7. Continue to participate in explorations of BIBFRAME and other linked data ontologies as appropriate; test Performed Music Ontology (PMO) in native linked data inputting environment. (Goal areas: Value of the Profession, Technology)
8. Leverage committee members’ expertise by providing educational and training presentations, such as program sessions, webinars, and workshops, as opportunities arise. (Goal areas: Value of the Profession, Education, Technology)
9. Collaborate as appropriate with other MLA groups, other music-related groups, ALA groups, other library- or information-related groups, and Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). (Goal areas: Value of the Profession, Education)

CMC goals and past/present/future work also relate to MLA core values of access, collaboration, and expertise.