ALCTS Network News v2n06 (September 6, 1991) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/ann/ann-v2n06 ISSN: 1056-6694 ALCTS NETWORK NEWS An electronic publication of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Volume 2, Number 6 September 6, 1991 In this issue: IFLA REPORT (PART TWO) IF YOU NEED TO SCHEDULE A MIDWINTER MEETING ... DEADLINE SET FOR CLAIMING STOLEN BOOKS ************************************************************************** IFLA REPORT (PART TWO) Editor's Note: This is the second of two IFLA reports in AN2. The first described the political events in Moscow during the week of the IFLA Conference; these reports summarize some of the working meetings of the Conference. There will be substantially longer reports in the ALCTS NEWSLETTER. Standing Committee on Serial Publications Report by Ruth Carter I attended IFLA in Moscow as a member-to-be of the Standing Committee on Serial Publications, a section of the Division of Collections & Services. The Committee met twice during the Conference and also sponsored a program. Review of the Section's Medium Term Programme (MTP) 1992-1997 was a key activity. Eight goals for the MTP have been established including: provide continued support for the ISDS International Centre and developing countries through expanded support for the OSIRIS Project; promote the importance of the acquisition, retention, storing, cataloging and access of serial literature to a country's historical record; continue involvement with ISBD and MARC-related work; continue to identify studies relating to union catalogues of serials; explore and evaluate appropriate methods for the ongoing revision of the International Directory of Serial Experts; reassess the definitions and concepts of serials in light of new technologies; contribute to the development of guidelines for authorities and references as they relate to serials; and work with publishers, vendors, authors, and other IFLA Sections to promote cooperation as it relates to fair pricing for and distribution of journals. Most meetings the last two days of the IFLA Conference were canceled due to the extraordinary circumstances of events in Moscow and the fact that some delegates left early. IFLA Politics and the Standing Committee on Cataloguing Report by Nancy John Aside from the marvelous way the Russian hosts dealt with activities far beyond their control, the conference was a great success. Americans infiltrated the Executive Board with president and member, Bob Wedgeworth and Bob Stueart; three American Professional Board members: John Day, Sally McCallum and Nancy John. Professional programs were held and working groups met to move the work of the association forward. The 1992-97 Medium Term Plan was approved and the management of the Core Programmes was streamlined. The Standing Committee on Cataloguing adopted changes for the handling of corporate names consisting of acronyms or initials and for the qualification of names which are not associated clearly with a single location, agreed to pursue simplified ISBD descriptions for monographs, and to continue work on problems of multiscript and multilingual files. The Division of Bibliographic Control is working on several conferences on bibliographic control to be held jointly with UBCIM. Probable locations are Trinidad, Botswana, Dakar, and Romania. The Division is also working toward the realization of the resolutions passed at the 1990 Seminar on Bibliographic Records including a study of the comprehensiveness of national bibliographies, a survey of national libraries to determine the kinds of external agreements for services they have, and a study of the functional requirements of the bibliographic record. Much of its work in the next several years will relate to name authorities. It is also considering the need to revise and consolidate the standards for national bibliographies. Section on Bibliography Report by Robert P. Holley The open session of the Section on Bibliography had the theme "National Bibliography as Witness of National Memory." Marcelle Beaudiquez, France, gave the keynote address with responses from Barbara L. Bell, United States, Alexander Dzhigo, USSR, and an Algerian whose name does not appear in the program. National bibliographies often don't record certain types of material. Third world countries have special problems in finding the money to produce an acceptable product. Ms. Bell pointed out seven reasons for "memory losses." Ms. Beaudiquez suggests using the new technologies to include additional information such as tables of content, summaries, etc. Mr. Dzhigo described the highly centralized rules that govern production of the USSR national bibliography. The Section on Bibliography continues to work on name authority control. It hopes to sponsor a workshop in New Delhi on the possible revision of the IFLA recommendations entitled "Names of Persons." Section on Classification and Indexing Report by Dorothy McGarry The Section on Classification and Indexing had its program meeting slightly shortened because we waited for people to arrive at the conference center. All speakers appeared: one paper on the BBK by a Soviet colleague, one on classification and indexing in Africa, and on by the organizer of the first International Study Conference on Classification Research which had been held in Toronto in June. Our working group dealing with principles for the construction of subject heading had three meetings and that on the Guidelines for Subject Authority and Reference Entries had two--the draft guidelines will be sent out for worldwide review within a couple of months. AACR, Art Section, and the Section on Acquisition and Exchange Report by Karen Muller Each year the chief executives of the "author" organizations hold a meeting on issues related to AACR, this year was no exception. The major topic of discussion was the status of the development of a machine-readable version of the code. The plan developed by the publishers of AACR following the hearing on the concept of a machine readable code during the Atlanta conference has been approved and development should be underway in the next year. Art Section tours of 1) the State Central Theatre Library and 2) the All-Union State Library of Foreign Literatures occurred as planned on Tuesday. At the Theatre library, our group was the first to view two exhibits of costumes, one of Boyar costumes for a movie, and another of 19th century dresses and hats, prepared based on research completed in the library. At the Foreign Literatures library, we saw the art collection, the children's room, and the stacks where the formerly banned books were kept. These were kept in a simple alphabetical by author sequence, and our group, which included librarians from all over, exclaimed (in a variety of languages) over the quite ordinary materials found in the collection. The reasons some, such as monographs on Chagall, were included could be explained, but others mystified us. While in the children's room, we had some time to talk about common problems. Our hostess wanted to know if we could help her with techniques to reduce the mutilation of materials, something she was dismayed to find out continued even after a copier had been made available (we assured her it was a worldwide problem and no number of copiers would solve it), how copyrights could be protected, and how to work with a locally-developed classification system that was becoming difficult to maintain. The Standing Committee on Acquisitions and Exchange held one of its two scheduled meetings during the Conference, sponsored a program, and planned for a Workshop on the International Exchange of Non-official Publications. Review of the Section's Medium Term Programme (MTP) 1992-1997 was a key activity. The MTP establishes continued investigations into pricing issues and exchange problems as the permanent goals of the Section's activities, along with new media and barriers to the acquisition of library materials in developing countries. Other topics to be investigated more closely are resource sharing, weeding and de-acquisitions, and acquiring "grey" literature. The work on pricing issues will be undertaken in conjunction with both the Standing Committee on Serial Publications and the Standing Committee on Statistics. The Section elected Ulrich Montag as Chair and Marjorie Bloss as Secretary. Only two of the scheduled three papers at the Section's program were presented, including a paper by Sam Demas on "New Media in Collection Development," which was read by Judy McDermott. The Workshop on the International Exchange of Non-official Publications was not held. Because its original organizer, Ulla Hojsgaard, had not been able to work on it during the spring due to illness, final arrangements were a bit tenuous even before the coup. Due to the coup a number of meetings were not held as scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Workshop and the second meeting of the Standing Committee were among them. ************************************************************************* IF YOU NEED TO SCHEDULE A MIDWINTER MEETING ... Attention chairs of ALCTS committees, subcommittees, discussion groups, etc.: The ALA Conference Services Office has recently sent out the First General Mailing for the Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio. Included in this mailing are the meeting request forms used to schedule your group's meetings. These forms are due back to the Conference Services Office no later than September 30, 1991. If you have not received this first general mailing, and you wish to schedule a meeting of your ALCTS-sponsored group, please call Amy Katzenberger, Conference Programs Manager, at 800-545-2433, ext. 3221. ************************************************************************* DEADLINE SET FOR CLAIMING STOLEN BOOKS The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has notified OCLC that it has established October 18, 1991 as the deadline for filing claims for materials stolen from libraries by Stephen Blumberg and confiscated by the FBI. The Book Return, a 16,000-record inventory of the stolen materials, has been searchable on the EPIC service, OCLC's online reference system, since March. Libraries from which materials may have been stolen by Mr. Blumberg have been searching the database, which contains a bibliographic description and a list of holdings for each recovered item. After October 1, The Book Return will be removed from the EPIC service. Libraries that would like to access The Book Return before the deadline will need an EPIC service authorization, which can be obtained through OCLC-affiliated regional networks or OCLC. Access fees for this database are nominal since OCLC has waived all search charges and connect-hour fees. Of the two available record formats, there is no charge for viewing the brief format and a 30-cent fee for the full records, which includes holdings. Telecommunication charges are additional. The EPIC service is available via the Internet, as well as through dial-access terminals and any terminals/workstations on the OCLC dedicated-line network. If, after searching The Book Return, a library believes materials are from its collections, a claim should be sent, in writing, to Special Agent Jerry A. Tucker, FBI, P.O. Box 548, Omaha, NE 68101. Claims should include: author, if known; title; publication date, if known; OCLC record number; value of item being claimed; any other unique detail that may prove book ownership, such as book note, autograph, book number, etc. A copy of a catalog card, system printout, and/or other proof of ownership should also be included for each item. The FBI will verify all claims. Questions should be referred to Special Agent Tucker at (402) 348-1210. ************************************************************************* ALCTS NETWORK NEWS (ISSN 1056-6694) is published irregularly by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. Editorial offices: ALCTS, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; Arnold Hirshon, President; Karen Muller, Executive Director. Editor: Karen Muller (u34261@uicvm); Contributors to this issue: Robert P. Holley, Nancy John, Ruth Carter, Alex Bloss, Dorothy McGarry, and Ann Swartzell. ALCTS NETWORK NEWS is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the division. News items and requests for back issues should be sent to the editor at Bitnet address u34261@uicvm. To subscribe, issue the network command "tell listserv@uicvm sub alcts [your account] [your name]." ALCTS NETWORK NEWS is also available on ALANET through the PUBS menu or the command ALANET4. Send questions about membership in ALCTS to the ALCTS Office, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611. All materials in the newsletter subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or education advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting or redistribution or translations, address requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. *************************************************************************