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61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Section on Classification and Indexing


Annual Report 1994

Donna Duncan
Technical Services
McLennan Library
McGill University
3459 McTavish St.
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1Y1
Canada
Fax: (1-514) 3988919
e-mail: duncan@libl.lan.mcgill.ca
is Chair of the Section on Classification and Indexing.

Dorothy McGarry

University of California at Los Angeles
8251 Boelter Hall
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90024-1598
USA
Fax (1-310) 2063908
e-mail: ecz5cit@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
is Secretary.

Standing Committee and Membership

The Standing Committee has 18 members from 13 countries, plus five corresponding members and one observer. Section registration totals 83. Ia C. McIlwaine (UK), editor-in-chief to the UDC (Universal Decimal Classification) Consortium, has replaced Alan Gilchrist (UK) as the FID observer on the Standing Committee. Next year being an election year, nominations for the Standing Committee are encour aged from countries not represented on the Standing Committee. At present members are from Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Senega, Spain, UK, and USA wit h corresponding members from Brazil, Croatia, India, and Russia.

Projects

Working Group on Principles Underlying Subject Heading Languages

Ines Lopes (Portugal), Chair of the Working Group, distributed the version of the draft document that was developed at the Lisbon and Portugal meetings, and requested and received rules and examples illustrating the various underlying principles from five different subject heading systems: Canadian, German, Iranian, Portuguese and American. A revised document was then prepared, with part one, pr oviding background definitions and the principles, and part two, illustrative principles from real systems. This revision was discussed at two meetings in Havana. Plans are underway to expand the dra ft document by illustrations from Brazil, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain and the UK, and the MeSH subject heading system. The revised document will be distributed to Working Group members for comments in spring 1995, and then discussed in Istanbul. By the end of 1995 it should be distributed for a worldwide review.

Requirements for a UNIMARC Format for Classification

A draft document, prepared by the Joint Working Group on a Classification Format, was distributed to members of the Standing Committee of the Sections on Classification and Indexing and Information T echnology for comments. It was discussed briefly at the Section's Standing Committee meetings, and members had until the end of December to send comments to Joan S. Mitchell (USA), Chair of the Worki ng Group. Julianne Beall (USA), Pilar Benedito Castellote (Spain) and Nancy Williamson (Canada) represented the Section on the Joint Working Group.

Cooperative Projects

The Section continues to cooperate in IFLA projects with other Sections and Divisions. Dorothy McGarry participated in the Seminar on Universal Bibliographic Control and UNIMARC held in Vilnius, Lith uania 2-4 June 1994. She also serves on the Task Force on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. Poori Soltani (Iran) represented the Section on the Names of Persons projects, Pilar Bened ito Castellote on the UDC Editorial Board, and Mariétou Diongue-Diop (Senegal), Ines Lopes, and Pat Molholt (USA) in planning the 1997 International Conference on National Bibliographic Servic es.

Publications

Guidelines for Subject Authority and Reference Entries (GSARE)

The Section's first international standard was published in the autumn of 1993.

Subject Indexing: Principles and Practices in the '90s

Was expected to be published in the autumn of 1994.

Newsletter

The Section distributed 144 copies of the Newsletter to its 83 members, Standing Committee members and observers, and others interested in classification and indexing. Contributions are always most w elcome.

Future Conferences

Beijing 1996

The Section is considering a seminar prior to the Beijing Conference, possibly to be held in Thailand.

Havana Meetings

The Section contributed to the Open Forum of the Division of Bibliographic Control with reports from Donna Duncan on Section activities for the year. Section officers also participated in the Divisio n's Havana workshop entitled "Follow-up to the First International Seminar on Universal Bibliographic Control, Rio de Janeiro, March 1993".

Approximately 70 people attended the Section's open meeting where the following papers were presented:



Sociological Aspects of Classification
by GERHARD J.A. RIESTHUIS



El proceso de construcción de tesauros y de indización automatizada de documentos fotográficos en la Biblioteca Nacional del Brasil
by SERGIO APELIAN VALERIO, MONICA CARNEIRO and GRAZIELLA PIGOZZO

Abstract
El objetivo del Proyecto de Preservación y Conservación del Acervo Fotográfico de la Biblioteca Nacional/PROFOTO es el desarrollo integrado de actividades destinadas a la identif icación de imágenes, catalogación, e indexación automatizada, reproducción fotográfica, conservación, acondicionamiento y cuidado del acervo. En 1992 el PROFOTO empezó sus trabajos de indexación automatizada con las imágenes de la más importante colección fotográfica de la institución, perteneciente s a la Colección Thereza Christina Maria, donada por el Imperador D. Pedro II a los Biblioteca Nacional en 1891. Como fue imposible ubicar tesauros satisfactorios en lengua portuguesa, se ha e mpezado la traducción/elaboración de vocabularios exclusivos para indexación de temas tópicos, caracteristicas fisicas y genéros de los documentos fotográfic os. Para superar las dificultades ocurridas, además de asegurar compatibilidad con la lista de encabezamientos de materias de la Biblioteca Nacional, se han establecido reglas específic as, resumidas en el presente trabajo, que también ataca la utilización de los campos dedicados a la indexación en el sistema desarrollado en el Micro CDS/ISIS para catalogaci&oac ute;n/indexación automatizada, cuyo formato de registro es compatible con el formato MARC para materiales visuales.



Tendencias actuales de la clasification y la indizacion en Cuba
by YOLANDA ARENCIBIA

Abstract
An overall view is given of the principle trends in classification and indexing in Cuba, with examples of libraries and documentation centres that maintain bibliographic exchange with libraries in th e region and which represent what is happening in other institutions in the field of indexing and classification.