The ALA ALCTS/CCS Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) met twice during the ALA Annual Conference in New York. As usual, much of the Committee's work was delegated to its various subcommittees.

The SAC Subcommittee on Subject Authority File Recommendations was formed after the 1995 annual conference in response to a request made by the Cooperative Cataloging Council's Subject Authority File Task Group. The Task Group referred to SAC two recommendations for further discussion and study; these recommendations became the Subcommittee's charge:

» "Investigate ways of recording the history of heading changes in authority records"

and

» "Identify changes to authority records for main headings and subdivisions needed to accommodate coding that will allow automatic validation of heading-subdivision combinations."

Regarding the first part of the charge, the Subcommittee concluded that:

1. [The c]ataloging community wants information on changes in subdivision usage.

2. Not only are topical and subdivision cross reference structure essential, but reference records on obsolete headings.

3. Programming is needed which will identify obsolete split headings for human review.

4. Current reference records need more detail.

The Subcommittee also concluded that changes in MARC content designation need to be identified to accommodate the automatic validation of heading-subdivision combinations. The Subcommittee will continue to work on its charge during the coming months. The Chair (Diane Casey of Governors State University) plans to set up an Internet mailing list for Subcommittee members in order to facilitate their discussions.

The SAC Subcommittee on Subject Relationships/Reference Structures is charged with investigating the kinds of relationships that exist between subjects; how these relationships are or could be recorded in authorities and classification formats; and options for how these relationships should be presented to users of online and print catalogs, indexes, lists, etc. While the group has made substantial progress toward fulfilling its charge, the Chair (Gregory Wool of Iowa State University) requested that the Subcommittee be given additional time to investigate the varied and complex issues surrounding the charge. Those who are interested in the work of this group may subscribe to the Subcommittee's Internet mailing list, SSRRS. To subscribe, send the command subscribe to

ssrrs-request@iastate.edu .

At the Midwinter Conference in 1995, at the urging of the SAC Subcommittee on Subject Access to Computer Files, SAC voted to recommend to the Cataloging and Classification Section Executive Committee that ALA not reissue the 1986 Guidelines on Subject Access to Microcomputer Software. The Subcommittee believed the guidelines were too out of date to be used for current cataloging. The recommendation has been accepted and the Guidelines are no longer available for purchase. The Subcommittee will be working on a white paper which the members plan to have ready for the 1997 ALA annual conference in San Francisco.

In other news related to computer files, LC recently announced that it is discontinuing use of field 753 (System Details Access to Computer Files) in monograph cataloging, on the grounds that it contains information that is also present in other fields of the record, notably the 538 System Details Note. LC monographic computer file records created after mid-April 1996 will not have the 753 field. The Cataloging Policy and Support Office plans to recommend that a proposal be written to make the 753 field obsolete in the USMARC bibliographic format.

The fifth edition of the Subject Cataloging Manual : Subject Headings, scheduled for distribution this fall, will include two new instruction memos pertaining to computer files. H 1520 will provide guidelines on the assignment of subject headings to databases, to works about databases, to certain related materials, and on the assignment of the free-floating subdivision --Databases. H 1580.5 will provide guidelines on the assignment of subject headings to electronic serials. I can provide copies of these new instruction memos for those who are interested.

The SAC Subcommittee on Form Headings/Subdivisions Implementation is charged with "work[ing] with interested and involved parties on the widespread implementation and use of 'explicitly coded' form data in bibliographic databases (the subfield v and the 655 field) ... The committee should publicize the availability of the explicitly coded form tagging and encourage implementation." Pursuant to their charge, the Subcommittee has established a World Wide Web site where documentation on this issue may be found. The URL is:

http://www.pitt.edu/~agtaylor/ala/alac.htm

Although subfield v for form subdivisions has been established in the USMARC format, LC has not yet implemented it. A group at LC has been formed to investigate the issues surrounding implementation of subfield v and field 655 (Index Term-Genre/Form) in the USMARC bibliographic format, and field 155 (genre/form headings) in the USMARC authorities format.

Lynn El-Hoshy of the Library of Congress updated the Committee on various other developments at LC:

» All LC classification schedules except for some subclasses of K have been converted into machine-readable form. Newly available schedules are: B-BJ, N, Q and U-V. These schedules are to be included in the third release of Classification Plus, LC's Windows-based CD-ROM product that also includes the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Among the new schedules expected to be issued either later this year or in 1997 are H (with HJ revisions) and KF. More information about the LC classification schedules may be found on the Web at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/cds/.

» Due to budget constraints, the Cataloging Distribution Service at LC will be discontinue some of its CD-ROM products, as of sometime in early 1997. These products are: CDMARC Subjects, CDMARC Names, CDMARC Serials, and the Music Catalog on CD-ROM.

The 19th edition of the Library of Congress Subject Headings has just been published. New topical subject headings have been established for names of decades in the 20th century; e.g., "Nineteen fifties." In an upcoming project, LC will be updating headings that contain the word "man," e.g., Man, Prehistoric.

» The soon-to-be-published fifth edition of the Subject Cataloging Manual : Subject Headings will consist of four binders, and will incorporate many of the improvements suggested by participants in a user survey recently conducted by LC. The text will feature examples showing USMARC content designation and there will be better referencing between instruction memos. Form subdivisions will be identified by a diamond in the margin of the pages on which they appear. Of particular interest to law catalogers will be a new instruction sheet with guidelines on how to deal with split or merged jurisdictions.

» Also of interest to law catalogers are the proposed revisions to class K form division tables. A draft of the proposed revisions appears in no. 72 (spring 1996) of the Cataloging Service Bulletin. LC invites users of class K to submit their comments on the proposed revisions to Barbara Tillett, Chief of CPSO, Library of Congress.

» LC is considering a request from a Ukrainian library to move law of Ukraine from Eurasia to Europe, i.e., out of KLP and into KKU.