Cataloguing Section

Annual report 2003

Scope Statement

The Section is the centre of international developments in cataloguing theory, activities, and standards development within IFLA. The Section analyses the functions of cataloguing activities for all types of materials and media, including both bibliographic and authority information, for the benefit of all users. The Section proposes and develops cataloguing rules, guidelines, and standards for bibliographic information, taking into account the developing electronic and networked environment in order to promote universal access to and exchange of bibliographic and authority information. The Section also provides leadership in the development of various standards and guidelines related to bibliographic activities, such as corporate name headings, authority entries, OPAC displays, and metadata standards.

Membership

The section has 170 members.

The standing committee consists of 20 members and two corresponding members. Eleven members were elected in 2003. Europe, with Russia, and North America are well covered, but we are still eager to have participation from Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America.

Standing committee members at the end of the IFLA Conference in Berlin in August 2003:

Outgoing members 2003:

Deceased 2002
Zlata Dimec (2nd term: 2001-2005)

Corresponding Members:

Officers

Chair and treasurer, elected August 2003:
Gunilla Jonsson
Kungl. Biblioteket, Box 5039, 102 41 STOCKHOLM Sweden
Tel.: *(46)(8)46 34 154; Fax: *(46)(8)46 34 381
Email: gunilla.jonsson@kb.se

Secretary, elected August 2003:
Judith A. Kuhagen
Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., WASHINGTON, DC 20540-4010 USA
Tel. *(1)(202)7074381; Fax. *(1)(202)7076629
Email: jkuh@loc.gov

Information coordinator, elected August 2003:
Patrick Le Boeuf Bibliothèque nationale de France, Quai François Mauriac, 75706 PARIS Cedex 13 France
Tel. *(33)(1)53 79 49 75; Fax *(33)(1)53 79 50 45
Email: patrick.le-boeuf@bnf.fr

Meetings - August 2003, Berlin

The Section's Standing Committee met in two sessions during the Berlin conference, attended by 44 and 45 persons respectively, observers included. The main discussion focused on reports of activities, especially the conference of cataloguing experts that took place in Frankfurt the week before IFLA, the strategic plan, ISBD reports, and routines and plans for future conferences, planned for next year. Special attention was given to the new IFLA co-operative activity called ICABS, which is to supersede the UBCIM programme that has been closed down. The FRBR working group that was established in Glasgow 2002, had its status changed into a review group, that is, it will be an ongoing activity, like the ISBD review group.
The officers participated in the division's officers meeting, held in two sessions, during the conference.

Projects and working groups

For more detailed information, please, refer to the Cataloguing Section's minutes for Berlin 2003.

Publications

1. The Section's newsletter, SCATnews, published two issues for 2003: no.18-19, January and July, respectively.

Conference Programmes

The Section reported on its activities in the Open Forum of the Division of Bibliographic Control. It also had one Open Session devoted as a whole to reports from the International Meeting of Experts on an International Cataloguing Code (IME ICC) held in Frankfurt the week before IFLA. Barbara Tillett made the summary and reported on the statement which resulted from the meeting, which focussed on the provisions for different levels of systematic access to bibliographic and authority information. She also outlined the procedures that will be followed in developing the statement, which will eventually be put up for worldwide review on IFLANET, and the plans for the whole series of future meetings in different parts of the world. There were also reports from the five working groups that dealt with specific topics during the IME ICC: Personal names, Corporate bodies, Seriality, Multivolume/Multipart structures, and UniformTitles and GMDs. These reports were made by Ann Huthwaite, Claudia Fabian and Mauro Guerrini, Renate Gömpel, Gunilla Jonsson and Monika Münnich, respectively.
Close to 300 people attended the programme. Simultaneous interpretation was provided, but translations into other IFLA languages could not be achieved, due to the short time span between the IME ICC and the IFLA conference.

Relationships with other Bodies

Barbara Tillett, outgoing chair of Cataloguing and incoming secretary of the Classification and Indexing Section, as well as incoming chair of Division IV, serves as chair of the planning committee for the series of IME ICCs. She is also the liaison to the UBCIM Working Group on FRANAR. Barbara Tillett also continues to participate in the FRBR review group. There are unofficial links to the EU project LEAF and to the EU project INTERPARTY, now finished. There are also unofficial links to the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) and to LIBER.

For the Cataloguing Section:
Barbara Tillett
Chair

Gunilla Jonsson
Secretary

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