Technical Services Special Interest Section

The ALA ALCTS/CCS Subject Analysis Committee and its subcommittees held meetings June 26-29 during the ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Various subcommittee and liaisons gave reports at the two SAC meetings. One of the most popular reports is given by the Library of Congress Cataloging Policy and Support Office's liaison to SAC, Lynn El-Hoshy. She reported that the subdivision --Biography is no longer valid under authors unless it has been printed in LCSH. --History--To 1500 is now free-floating under topical headings. Bibliography--Bibliography has been replaced by Bibliography of bibliographies and Bibliographical literature. [topic] in television headings have been changed to [topic] on television headings. Opening statements (Law) has been approved for use as a subject heading. In the fall, LC will begin to include geographic names subdivision forms in MARC tag 781 linking fields. These fields will be added to new and revised subject heading authority records for geographic names. Gary Strawn from Northwestern has provided LC with a file of geographic subdivisions and this data will be used to add linking fields to the existing subject authority records. Mr. Strawn is from Northwestern University Library and has done a lot of work on using authority files in OPAC's At the end of 1998, there should be new editions or versions of some of the history schedules, K, KD, KE, KF, KJV-KJW, K form tables, and Class M. There will be a 1998 edition of KZ later this year that should clarify how to subarrange treaties and which will provide more numbers for peace and boundary treaties which used to be in D-F. LC is working on a revision of HM for sociology. Many of the revised schedules should appear in the last update for 1998 of Classification Plus which will be on a newer version of Folio.

The Form Headings/Subdivisions Implementation Subcommittee heard from Tom Yee, Acting Head of CPSO. He reported that LC will be using Gary Strawn's subdivision authority file as the basis for creating authority records for free-floating subdivisions. The files will be edited by LC which hopes to distribute them in the fall. The subdivision authority files for form subdivisions should also be distributed in the fall. LC hopes to begin using subfield v in bibliographic records in November. The guidelines for assigning form subdivisions will be included in 1998 Update Number 2 to the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings which should be published in the fall. The creation of authority records for 155 form headings will occur sometime in the future. Watch the CPSO home page for developments. Some libraries, such as Curry College in Massachusetts, have created search indexes for form headings. These headings and subdivisions will be useful if our OPAC's display them well. The subcommittee plans to have an educational forum in Philadelphia on form headings and subdivisions.

The Subcommittee to Promote Subject Relationships/Reference Structures is working on a program for ALA New Orleans to promote the better use of existing subject references in OPAC's. Some systems display narrower and used for terms but few display broader and related terms. There is a wealth of information available in subject authority records which should be displayed in a friendly manner to the users.

The two SAC Metadata subcommittees continued to learn about Metadata in anticipation of making recommendations concerning the applicability of subject headings and class numbers to Metadata. The subcommittee dealing with classification and Metadata will be reviewing some of the sites listed in Gerry McKiernan's Beyond Bookmarks site to see how they use classification.

The general subcommittee on the use of subject analysis in Metadata discussed the subject field in the Dublin Core Metadata record which allows for keywords, controlled vocabulary, and classification. Subject analysis in other types of Metadata records will be reviewed later. The subcommittee will begin to study the use of controlled vocabulary in the records. Issues to be examined include single or multiple vocabularies, metathesaurus, specificity, syntax, term relationships, consistency, application guidelines, etc. The two subcommittees have a site at http://www.govst.edu/users/gddcasey/sac/metadata.htm. These are going to be interesting subcommittees which warrant watching.

Marie E. Whited
Lillian Goldman Library at Yale Law School
marie.whited@yale.edu