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Annual Report from the Chair: 2019

Annual Report, July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019

Submitted by: Tracey Snyder

Group Name: Cataloging and Metadata Committee

Group Members

  • Tracey Snyder, Chair, Cataloging and Metadata Committee (2020)
  • Hermine Vermeij, Incoming Chair, Cataloging and Metadata Committee (2023)
  • Mary Huismann, Chair, Content Standards Subcommittee (2020)
  • James Soe Nyun, Chair, Encoding Standards Subcommittee (2019)
  • Karen Peters, Chair, Encoding Standards Subcommittee (2023)
  • Rebecca Belford, Chair, Vocabularies Subcommittee (2022)
  • Elizabeth Hille Cribbs, Secretary/Webmaster (2019)
  • Joshua Henry, Secretary/Webmaster (2022)
  • Christopher Holden, Editor, Music Cataloging Bulletin (2020)
  • Linda Blair, BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator (2020)
  • Mark Scharff, NACO-Music Project Coordinator (2020)
  • Nancy Lorimer, SACO Music Funnel Coordinator (2020)
  • Susan Vita, Library of Congress Representative
  • Jay Weitz, OCLC Representative, MLA Citation winner 🙂

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 to participate in explorations of BIBFRAME and other Linked Data ontologies, especially the Performed Music Ontology.
    • We met this goal through the work of the MLA Linked Data Working Group (LDWG), an informal MLA working group convened by CMC. LDWG completed a review of the Performed Music Ontology (PMO), a component of the Linked Data for Production (LD4P) grant project. LDWG plans to test PMO in Sinopia, the linked data editor being developed as part of Linked Data for Production: Pathway to Implementation (LD4P2). LDWG Chair Hermine Vermeij is a member of the Sinopia Users Group and has been taking part in biweekly conference calls.
  2. Continue refinement of the Music Toolkit and work on problem-solving related to more widespread conversion of music subject headings to medium of performance (LCMPT), music genre (LCGFT), demographic group, geography, and other controlled, faceted terms.
    • We met this goal through the work of the Vocabularies Subcommittee. Please see the subcommittee report for more detail.
  3. Provide expert comment on RDA revision proposals created by the RSC Music Working Group, ALA, and other constituencies, as well as other documents issued for community review.
    • We typically meet this goal through the work of the Content Standards Subcommittee, although most RDA work has been on hold due to the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project. Please see the subcommittee report for more detail.
  4. Propose LC-PCC Policy Statements relating to RDA music cataloging as needed.
    • We typically meet this goal through the work of the Content Standards Subcommittee, although most RDA work has been on hold due to the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project. Please see the subcommittee report for more detail.
  5. Contribute to continuing MARC21 developments through the MARC Advisory Committee. Communicate with the LC MARC Office on MARC issues related to music and RDA.
    • We met this goal through the work of the Encoding Standards Subcommittee. Please see the subcommittee report for more detail.
  6. Maintain cataloging best practices documents (including RDA, LCMPT, and LCGFT best practices).
    • We met this goal through the work of the Content Standards Subcommittee and the Vocabularies Subcommittee. Please see the subcommittee reports for more detail.
  7. Maintain the Metadata for Music Resources site, Types of Composition list, Thematic Indexes list, LCGFT, and LCMPT, and vet music-related terms for LCSH.
    • We met this goal through the work of the Encoding Standards Subcommittee, the Vocabularies Subcommittee, and the SACO Music Funnel. Please see the subcommittee reports for more detail.
  8. Leverage committee members’ expertise by providing educational and training presentations, such as program sessions, webinars, and workshops, as opportunities arise.
    • We met this goal through webinars and MLA program sessions. In summer and fall 2018, CMC representatives presented revised versions of webinars from 2015 on music cataloging basics and applying faceted vocabularies and music cataloging. CMC is in the process of scheduling and planning revised versions of four other music cataloging webinars from 2014 and 2015 as well as two new webinars, as part of a partnership between MLA and ALA Editions.At MLA 2019, CMC sponsored three program sessions (Cataloging and Metadata Town Hall; a session about representing diverse musical content in metadata models; and a session about inclusiveness in developing, applying, and teaching controlled vocabularies for music, which was co-sponsored by the Public Services Committee). CMC also co-sponsored a session developed and sponsored by the Instruction Subcommittee about music information literacy. At MLA 2020, CMC will sponsor Cataloging and Metadata Town Hall and two additional program sessions. In one session, co-sponsored by the Digital Humanities Interest Group, invited guests will speak about two innovative frameworks for descriptions of resources and entities that enable enhanced discovery of relationships and social networks in cultural heritage collections. In another session, developed in collaboration with and co-sponsored by the Instruction Subcommittee and the Reference and Access Services Subcommittee, catalogers and reference/instruction librarians will come together to learn more about each other’s current work and share perspectives that will inform each other’s future work.
  9. Collaborate as appropriate with other MLA, ALA, and music-related groups and PCC.
    • We met this goal through our participation as liaisons to PCC and various ALA groups and through our collaboration with various MLA and music-related groups. Related to PCC, the past year saw continued growth in the membership of the BIBCO Music Funnel and the NACO-Music Project as well as graduations to independent contributor status. The BIBCO Music Funnel coordinator, Linda Blair, attended the annual PCC Operations Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. The NACO-Music Project coordinator, Mark Scharff, coordinated NMP statistics collection in the new PCC directory. The SACO Music Funnel Coordinator, Nancy Lorimer, worked with the CMC Vocabularies Subcommittee and the Library of Congress to vet proposals for new and revised terms for LCGFT, LCMPT, and LCSH, submitted by members of the cataloging community. The funnel coordinators prepare summaries of funnel activities each year for MLA, which are available on the funnels’ respective pages on the CMC website. CMC recruited new coordinators for the BIBCO and SACO music funnels; their terms will begin after MLA 2020, at the conclusion of the current coordinators’ terms. (The NMP coordinator will begin a second term.) Related to ALA, the committee chair and subcommittee chairs attended ALA conferences as MLA liaisons, where they represented the perspective of the music cataloging community on ALA committees and interest groups related to cataloging (including but not limited to Authority Control Interest Group (ACIG), OLAC’s Cataloging Policy Committee (OLAC-CAPC), the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA), the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC), the Metadata Interest Group (MIG), the Metadata Standards Committee (MSC), and the Subject Analysis Committee (SAC)) and in PCC-related sessions. Reports from relevant ALA meetings and program sessions are published in the Music Cataloging Bulletin and are also available on the CMC website. Related to MLA, CMC maintains a list of developments related to cataloging standards and vocabularies that may play into future revisions of Music Discovery Requirements (MDR) (managed by the MLA Emerging Technologies & Services Committee), and we work with MLA groups such as the Public Services Committee, Instruction Subcommittee, Reference and Access Services Subcommittee, and Digital Humanities Interest Group, to develop and co-sponsor MLA program sessions. Representatives from CMC worked with IAML’s Cataloguing and Metadata Committee to create mappings between LCMPT medium of performance terms and UNIMARC medium of performance codes. 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.
  10. Complete migration of the CMC website to a new platform.
    • We are on track to meet this goal in time for MLA 2020. The CMC Secretary/Webmaster worked with the MLA Web Manager to transfer website content to a new platform, with input from the CMC Chair on content, organization, and layout. Work continues and is nearing completion. Meanwhile, we routinely post CMC-related business meeting notes, summaries of CMC- sponsored MLA program sessions, and reports on ALA committee meetings and program sessions, in addition to submitting this material for inclusion in the Music Cataloging Bulletin and MLA Newsletter. The CMC Handbook is available on the site. The CMC Blog is used as needed for sharing documentation such as business meeting agendas, promoting events such as MLA program sessions, announcing resources such as task force reports, and detailing updates to various best practices documents (such as for LCGFT, LCMPT, and RDA), vocabularies (such as LCGFT and LCMPT), content standards (such as RDA), and encoding standards (such as MARC). The CMC Channel is used for hosting screencasts that describe the work of the CMC and demonstrate how to find and use various CMC resources as well as how to apply standards and vocabularies according to the most up-to-date practices.

Together, the subcommittees are responsible for the content and maintenance of a number of indispensable resources, including Metadata for Music Resources, Types of Composition list, Thematic Indexes list, thesaurus of musical genre and form terms (LCGFT), thesaurus of medium of performance terms (LCMPT), comprehensive best practices documents for these two thesauri and for RDA, and the logic that underlies programmer Gary Strawn’s Music Toolkit (which uses music subject headings to generate LCMPT, LCGFT, and other controlled, faceted terms in bibliographic records). Subcommittees also participate actively in the development of RDA, LC-PCC PS, and MARC. CMC members routinely field questions on electronic mailing lists about application of MARC, RDA, LCMPT, LCGFT, and more.

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.
  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. Assist MLA in recruiting a new Music Cataloging Bulletin Editor; transition to a new CMC Chair, CSS Chair, BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator, SACO Music Funnel Coordinator, and Music Cataloging Bulletin Editor. (Goal areas: Organizational Excellence, Value of the Profession)
  4. Unveil and publicize new CMC website; continue to share and promote CMC resources and other reports and documents using the CMC website, CMC Blog, CMC Channel, and electronic mailing lists. (Goal areas: Organizational Excellence, Value of the Profession, Technology)
  5. Revise the CMC Handbook. (Goal areas: Organizational Excellence, Value of the Profession)
  6. Submit CMC materials to the MLA Archives. (Goal areas: 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.