Cataloging and Metadata: Vocabularies Subcommittee Annual Report 2019

submitted by Rebecca Belford

Current Roster

  • Rebecca Belford, chair (2022)
  • Anne Adams (2023)
  • Kirk-Evan Billet (2019)
  • Reed David (2019)
  • Jenée Force (2022)
  • Ralph Hartsock (2019)
  • Joshua Henry (2021)
  • Marty Jenkins (2021)
  • Morris Levy (2019)
  • Jeff Lyon (2020)
  • Leonard Martin (2023)
  • Allison McClanahan (2023)
  • Jennifer Olson (2023)
  • Treshani Perera (2022)
  • Jacob Schaub (2019)
  • Ann Shaffer (2019)
  • Kyle Shockey (2021)
  • Hannah Spence (2019)
  • Jennifer Vaughn (2019)
  • Nancy Lorimer (SACO Music Funnel Coordinator)
  • Mark Scharff (NACO-Music Project Coordinator)
  • Maarja Vigorito (LC Representative)
  • Jay Weitz (OCLC Representative)

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

1. Complete LCGFT Reductions (Music) and Improvisations (Music) projects; commence 1-3 other projects to be determined – promotes core values of collaboration, expertise of members, and access

  • Formal response on Reductions (Music) with alternative proposal submitted to LC
  • Improvisations (Music) submitted and approved
  • Began work on proposal for new term, Studio recordings

2. Continue to serve as a vetting body for the Music SACO Funnel – promotes core values of collaboration, expertise of members, and access

  • LC Medium of Performance Thesaurus: No major projects
  • VS continues to serve as a vetting/managing body for additional controlled vocabularies:
  • Types of Composition List Maintenance for use in Authorized Access Points for Music: The following new or modified terms were vetted (alphabetical order): Beweging; Duettino (revision); Equale; Fantasi; Fantasia-suites; Kappaletta; Kehtolaulu; Konzertsatz; Lessons (revision); Pavanilla; Předehra; Quotlibet; Tuutulaulu; Zamba.
  • Thematic Indexes List: Completed changes or additions: Mendelssohn (Wehner); Bax (Parlett); Scarlatti (Rostirolla; rejected by VS); Tarrega (Rodríguez); Chaminade (Citron). Under consideration: Beethoven (Kinsky2014); Galuppi (Burde); Margola (De Carli); Palmgren (Poroila); Portugal (Marques)

3. Continue to support refinement of Music Toolkit in response to user feedback – promotes core values of collaboration, expertise of members, and access; supports increased visibility under goal area value of the profession

  • Because of ongoing work expanding, refining, and testing the algorithm, the task group Deriving Faceted Music Terms from LCSH was a standing task group of VS, renamed Deriving Faceted Music Terms, as of the 2019 meeting.
  • The Music Toolkit, programmed by Gary Strawn and developed with ongoing direction from VS, continues to be updated. Following testing and exchanges with VS, updates were posted and publicized October 2018 and January 2019. Each release added and refined mappings and provided bug fixes.
  • The latter part of the FY was spent developing and testing new functionality to generate RDA Format of Notated Music terms (MARC 348), by user request.

4. Commence revisions of LCMPT and LCGFT best practices — promotes core values of expertise of members, and access; supports increased visibility under goal area value of the profession

  • Extensive revisions to each document submitted to CMC for discussion at the MLA 2019 meeting, to be incorporated into version 1.2 of Best Practices for Using LCGFT for Music Resources and version 1.4 of Best Practices for Using LCMPT. Changes include clarification and additional examples requested by the music cataloging community, as well as some formatting and accessibility changes. Discussion at the meeting prompted continued conversation and moved toward resolution of open issues. (Note: Documents went live shortly after the close of the FY, in July 2019.)

[Additional activities]

  • Belford served as liaison to ALA/CaMMS/SAC (Subject Analysis Committee), representing MLA at ALA Midwinter and Annual. Reports from the meetings were posted to the CMC blog and published in the Music Cataloging Bulletin.
  • Belford continues to serve on SAC’s Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies (SSFV).

List of Future Goals

  1. Continue with defined project list for LCGFT (recordings and moving image projects in particular) and LCMPT (areas identified by best practices revisions) (goal area: value of the profession; MLA FY action 19-20, “Engage with Other Fine Arts Professional Organizations”)
  2. Continue to serve as managing body for the Types of Compositions list and vetting body for the Thematic Indexes list and any proposals referred from SACO to VS (goal area: value of the profession)
  3. Continue to refine and expand the Music Toolkit; serve as consulting or collaborating body as appropriate for other groups looking to explore similar capabilities (goal area: value of the profession; possibly technical services counterpart to MLA FY action 19-20, “Engage with Other Fine Arts Professional Organizations”)
  4. Continue to maintain LCMPT and LCGFT Best Practices documents (goal area: value of the profession)
  5. Review and document internal procedures for each standing task group to facilitate succession and changes in membership (goal areas: organizational excellence; technology)