Cataloging and Metadata Committee Annual Report 2020

submitted by Hermine Vermeij

Current Roster

  • Tracey Snyder, Chair, Cataloging and Metadata Committee (2020)
  • Hermine Vermeij, Incoming Chair/Chair, Cataloging and Metadata Committee (2023)
  • Mary Huismann, Chair, Content Standards Subcommittee (2020)
  • 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)
  • Christopher Holden, Editor, Music Cataloging Bulletin (2020)
  • Kirk-Evan Billet, Editor, Music Cataloging Bulletin (2025)
  • Linda Blair, BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator (2020)
  • Casey Mullin, BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator (2025)
  • Mark Scharff, NACO-Music Project Coordinator (2025)
  • Nancy Lorimer, SACO Music Funnel Coordinator (2020)
  • 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.

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

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 three new members thus far in 2020, and bade farewell to one member who retired. Funnel members authenticated nearly 1,200 bibliographic records for musical scores and sound recordings during the PCC fiscal year. 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 continues to accept new members and adjust to the new statistics reporting system. The Advisory Committee met virtually and worked out some guidelines for coordinating the NMP application process with the PCC. A significant event this year was the retirement of Chuck Herrold (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh), likely the most prolific NMP contributor of authority records ever.
  • The SACO funnel continues to accept proposals for new and revised terms from MLA members and others. The SACO funnel coordinator is working closely with the Vocabularies Subcommittee Maintenance Task Group and the Library of Congress to develop new and revised terminology, including a project regarding gender in vocal music LCMPT vocabulary.

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.

  • The Music Cataloging Bulletin Editor search was successful, resulting in the selection of Kirk-Evan Billet. At the close of MLA 2020, Hermine Vermeij assumed the duties of CMC chair, and Keith Knop became CSS chair. We also held successful searches for BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator (Casey Mullin) and SACO Music Funnel Coordinator (Beth Iseminger). Many thanks to past MCB Editor Christopher Holden, past CMC Chair Tracey Snyder, past CSS Chair Mary Huismann, past BIBCO Music Funnel Coordinator Linda Blair, and past SACO Music Funnel Coordinator Nancy Lorimer for their service.

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.

  • CMC Secretary/Webmaster Joshua Henry and past MLA Web Manager Katie Buehner completed their work of migrating the website to its new Wordpress home (http://cmc.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/), with significant  input from past CMC Chair Tracey Snyder on content, organization, and layout. Tracey also promoted the new website on relevant electronic mailing lists.
  • 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.

5. Revise the CMC Handbook.

  • We met this goal during the early days of the pandemic. Past chair Tracey Snyder started revisions, and current chair Hermine Vermeij coordinated further revisions and review in March and April 2020. The handbook on the CMC website (http://cmc.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/04/CMC-Handbook.pdf) reflects CMC’s current practices.

6. Submit CMC materials to the MLA Archives.

  • There is currently a moratorium on submissions to the MLA Archives, but we are currently preparing our materials.

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.

  • Through the fiscal year 2019-2020, the Linked Data Working Group’s activities toward its goals were mostly on hold due to outside reasons. The group was chaired for the first eight months by Hermine Vermeij. During this time, Sinopia software development had a number of issues and delays, thus not enabling LDWG to perform its test of the Performed Music Ontology. In February 2020, Kevin Kishimoto took over as LDWG Chair, at which time Sinopia development looked to be reaching specific milestones that would allow the group to start its work on the PMO test. However, two weeks into March 2020 COVID-19 restrictions began affecting many libraries across the U.S., causing much disruption and change to most library employees’ work and home lives from which many are still trying to recover. Kevin is optimistic that the coming months will allow LDWG to finally begin taking steps toward its goals.

8. Leverage committee members’ expertise by providing educational and training presentations, such as program sessions, webinars, and workshops, as opportunities arise.

  • CMC sponsored one program session at MLA 2020 (CMC Town Hall), and co-sponsored two sessions (The People, the Music, and the Context: New Frameworks for Discovering Relationships in Cultural Heritage Collections (with the Archives and Special Collections Committee and the Digital Humanities Interest group); and Toward Mutual Enlightenment: An Information-Sharing Forum for Catalogers and Public Services Librarians (with the Instruction Subcommittee and the Reference and Access Subcommittee). Three CMC-sponsored program sessions have been accepted from MLA 2021. And CMC member Keith Knop will be teaching 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 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 subcommittee chairs attended ALA 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. 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.

List of 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. 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. (Goal areas: Education, Organizational Excellence, Technology)

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. Evaluate the new CMC website via a user study. (Goal area: Organizational Excellence)

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.