Encoding Standards Subcommittee Annual Report 2018

submitted by James Soe Nyun, Chair

Current Roster

  • James Soe Nyun, Chair (appointed 2015)
  • Anne D. Adams (2015)
  • Margaret Corby (2016)
  • Matt Ertz (2017)
  • Chelsea Hoover (2018)
  • Nancy Lorimer (2016)
  • Thomas Pease (2015)
  • Karen A. Peters (2015)
  • Felicia Piscitelli (2017)
  • Tomoko Shibuya (2018)
  • Amy Strickland (2018)
  • Kimmy Szeto (2016)
  • Hermine Vermeij (2015)
  • Damian Iseminger, LC Representative
  • Jay N. Weitz, OCLC Representative

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

  • Complete work on Discussion Paper examining validating subfield 3 in recent 3XX Fields lacking the subfield. Present at MARC Advisory Committee meeting at Midwinter, 2018.
    • Discussion Paper authored by ESS working group and presented at the MAC meeting. The paper was converted on the spot to a formal proposal and passed MAC. See more extended discussion above.
  • Work with OLAC to examine the music community’s use of Subfield n to demarcate qualifying dates. Develop proposals or papers in support of any agreed-upon changes.
    • ESS discussed whether we would like to pursue integrating music practices into the larger community model. In the end it was clear that our practice, which had its roots in the 1970s MARC Music Format and pre-dated format integration, could not be abandoned without significant degradation of the semantics of many title access points. ESS Chair corresponded with requestor in October, 2017 that we would not support a change. No further developments as of this writing.
  • Remain engaged in MARC developments to allow removing ISBD punctuation from MARC records, and solicit and organize feedback from the music community as appropriate.
    • Provided two cycles of feedback on removing ISBD punctuation as mentioned above.
  • Stay abreast of efforts to harmonize the medium of performance vocabularies in UNIMARC with the Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus, and look for opportunities to contribute expertise.
    • These efforts were undertaken under the umbrella of IAML’s Cataloging and Metadata Section, so ESS was not directly involved. At least two ESS members participated as individuals, however, including Kimmy Szeto, who chaired the working group. We will include links to any final documentation on the ESS maintained Music and Metadata Resources pages.
  • Stay up to date on developments in BIBFRAME, and look for opportunities to contribute to its evolution. 
    • As with item 4 above, ESS has not had a project directly involving BIBFRAME development or implementation. ESS has tried to keep BIBFRAME in mind as we work on MARC projects, however, and the recent MARC paper 2018-DP03 did have in mind a background notion that clarifying relationships within a MARC record might help with transformations into BIBFRAME or other more linked data-friendly formats. MLA’s Linked Data Working Group organizationally sits outside of ESS, though ESS members have participated extensively, most recently to provide feedback on the data modeling of the Performed Music Ontology.
  • ISO/TC 46/SC4/WG16 to revise Dublin Core will be getting under way next year. Look for ways to facilitate music community engagement with the work through providing links on the MMR site and/or other ways as appropriate.
    • This is essentially a 5-year documentation review, and no changes may result. Still, with DCMI as a baseline metadata standard the work merits monitoring. ISO has established a working group to develop ISO/NP 15836-2, Information and documentation — The Dublin Core metadata element set — Part 2: DCMI Properties and classes. The project’s convener has a term that extends to the end of 2019, and a concrete recommendation to review should be available as the group wraps up their work.

List of Future Goals

  • Transition to a new Chair for ESS in February 2019, and work to keep activities moving smoothly during the move.
  • Look for opportunities for ESS to be involved in operationalizing elements of the Performed Music Ontology within BIBFRAME.
  • Continue to monitor and participate in MARC development, and communicate any needs for best practices or other documentation to help music catalogers implement changes to MARC.
    • All of these goals promote core values of access, collaboration, and expertise of members.