ALC Cataloging Committee Meeting
San Francisco -- Westin St. Francis Hotel (Tower Salon B)
Thursday November 16, 2006 -- 3:30-5:00pm
(draft of Dec. 7, 2006)

Present: Ruby Bell-Gam (UCLA), Fehl Cannon (LC), Miriam Conteh-Morgan (Ohio State), Andrew deHeer (NYPL), Greg Finnegan (Harvard), Gracie Gilliam (LC-Coop Cataloging), Miki Goral (UCLA), Pamela Howard-Reguindin (LC-Nairobi Office), Margaret Hughes (Stanford), Bassey Irele (Harvard), Joe Lauer (Michigan State, ALC Cataloging Committee chair), Bob Lesh (Northwestern), Peter Limb (Michigan State), Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol (U. of Wisconsin), Lauris Olson (U. of Pennsylvania), Laverne Page (LC-AMED), Loumona Petroff (Boston U.), Shoshanah Seidman (Northwestern), Gretchen Walsh (Boston U.).

Began with introductions; followed by the approval of the agenda and the minutes of the Spring meeting (sent to list on May 11; 9/16 version at http://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/afs/alc/catm106.html).

LC/SACO report (Gracie Gilliam)
Report distributed at meeting included the following points:
1) There will be an election in FY 2007 of a SACO (Subject Authority Cooperative Program) representative on the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Policy Committee (PoCo).

2) A basic SACO Web-based course is scheduled to be unveiled at the 2007 ALA Annual Meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. This new web based course could make the "Basic Subject Cataloging using LCSH" Workshop usually given at ALA a thing of the past.

3) As of November 13, classification proposals can be submitted online via Classification Web. Those institutions that do not currently subscribe to Class Web can still submit proposals following current procedures until further notification. Hughes, an early tester, said the new online method is quick and easy to use; a vast improvement over the old fax method. Gilliam said proposals sent via fax it will take longer to process because Coop will have to key them into the new system before submitting them to CPSO. Dewey libraries are not required to propose LC classification.

4) Recently revised classification schedules: PL-PM (Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania) was published in 2006 by the Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS). Class Web: the classification schedules and table databases are now being updated daily instead of weekly.

5) Adjectival form of Côte d'Ivoire was changed to Ivoirian. LC has updated all records affected by this change.

6) SACO contributions for FY06 saw a 22% increase. The Africana funnel is one of the largest SACO funnels in terms of contributions. SACO proposals submitted for ethnic groups and language headings should be subdivided geographically, with a 952 to indicate a pattern.
Citation of references: in response to our concerns, LC thinks Wikipedia is a good reference source because it has not one but many authors. You can also use Google and cite the number of hits in a 670. Someone asked about other search engines like Yahoo; LC prefers Google. Limb questioned relying on Google. Hughes: SACO participants are trained to check multiple reference sources not just one.

7) ISO 639-3 (in draft form at http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/default.asp) extends -2 codes to cover all known human languages. LC will continue to use the ISO 639-2 MARC list but will possibly make some use of the new code in the 041 field. Lauer noted that fixed field language codes had recently been changed to match ISO, which is maintained by SIL International.

8) Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, is talking to school deans and library heads about the future of bibliographic control and ways to streamline bibliographic control.

9) Procedures followed when chronological subdivisions on existing headings are changed (e.g., Malawi--Politics and government--1964-), closing off an open-ended heading: Records with this heading are changed on a one-to-one basis by the Data Improvement Unit.

10) In response to a query about delayed postings of the tentative or Unapproved weekly lists, it was noted that the Coop team now has 7 catalogers, down from 12; and the Subject Headings Editorial Team (SHED) at the end of FY06 consisted of one team leader with 3 other staff members.

11) LC is aware of OCLC's development of FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology). They do not expect LCSH to be abandoned although some revisions to subdivisions practice (e.g., pre and/or post coordinating) are expected.

12) Series training materials have been updated to reflect LC's new series policy. LC catalogers have not reported any impact by the new LC series policy. There are some PCC libraries that have decided to follow LC.
Gilliam and others mentioned that Gary Strawn at Northwestern is working on a program to automatically check 490 fields against an authority file-- using a sample of records he found 85% were able to be resolved automatically.
In response to a query from Olson, Hughes reported that Cassalini has begun selling its records to libraries under the condition that they not be exported to the utilities; this goes against our tradition of shared cooperative cataloging.

Africana Subject Funnel report (Lauer):
Lauer mentioned disappointment with handing of Hamites; and notes on various statements about Hamites were distributed (See Appendix A). Use of the term (which has had various and nefarious meanings) was thoroughly discredited in the 1960s, though several reviews have noted its persistence in popular works. No post-1960 scholarly works using this term were found in a brief review of JSTOR, but the term lives on in some reference works, including the Columbia Encyclopedia which began recycling older views in its 1975 edition. [Most newer works (e.g., Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience, edited by Appiah and Gates) do not have an entry for Hamites.]
This led to a lengthy discussion about the reliability of various sources, including Wikipedia. Lauer pointed out that articles in Wikipedia are almost as good as Britannica and probably better than other encyclopedias because all of them have been written in the past few years while many of the entries in print reference works were written decades ago. Conteh-Morgan mentioned reporting an error (about a Malian author being identified as Sudanese) to Britannica and getting no response. Limb noted regional differences in what is considered acceptable terminology. E.g. "native" is acceptable at some places outside of Africa; "Bushman" is back in vogue. Goral questioned the value of the number of hits in Google. Bell-Gam: Does popularity equal definitiveness or correctness? Pejoratives should be avoided, and the 1XX should be the authoritative form. Page asked if there is still a reference collection for catalogers at LC. Answer: not really; more use is made of electronic sources. DeHeer raised the issue of emerging terminology. Goral: professors at UCLA prohibit their students from citing Wikipedia.
Lauer asked whether signed articles are better than anonymous ones? Yes. Are refereed articles better than non-refereed? Yes. There was one dissent [and the statement at the meeting should be modified to "generally better"]. As long as CPSO continues to review signed subject proposals, it is inconsistent to regard Wikipedia's unsigned, unedited articles as authoritative.
Updating bibliographic records when changes are made to the subject heading - Usually not done; but see 9) in LC report above.
"Post-apartheid era" in LCSH is problematic because it deviates from LC practice; subject headings for SA-History-1994- SA-Politics and government-1994- SA-Social conditions-1994- and SA-Economic conditions-1994- now exist. Should Post-apartheid era be made a cross-reference to one or all of the above headings or should it be invalidated as a heading? Hughes will propose a change and submit to the list.
Tukulor/Toucouleur or Halpulaar(en): Lauer said he plans to follow up on his 2004 proposal and request change from Toucouleur to Tukulor despite usage of Halpulaaren in recent titles. Halpulaaren also could be used for all Fulbe (Fula in LCSH).
Comments on "Reference works as false idols" (ALN #119) -- none

Sharing experiences or best practices:
Contents notes in bib. records: links vs. attached; enhanced vs. simple - Lauer does simple Contents notes for edited volumes; LC-Nairobi, during FY 2006, scanned 115 tables of contents of English-languages books and added electronic links (that Bell-Gam noted were not keyword searchable). Northwestern purchases 505s from a vendor.
Cataloging electronic materials (using MARC21) - Work at Stanford and in the U. of California system was mentioned.
Experience with relevancy ratings - bad results with both Innovative and Voyager systems.
Use of Autocat - DeHeer subscribes. No one knows who will host after Buffalo.

Other reports:
a. ALA's CC:AAM (Lesh) -- See Appendix B.

b) Progress with RDA:
Lesh: RDA (to be published in 2008) is becoming more transparent in response to criticism by releasing drafts and background documents. Lauer: the term "oriental" has been removed from draft of RDA; "transliteration" will replace "romanization." A change will be made to the rule about hierarchy of languages starting with European.
CC:AAM's RDA task force also received a call for specialist cataloging manuals. No one from ALC submitted any, but there were two Africana titles on the list that was distributed:

1) African Legislative and Ministerial Bodies: List of Uniform Headings for Higher Legislative and Ministerial Bodies in African Countries (IFLA, 1980)

2) Anonymous Classics: African Literature: Epics and Assimilated. Compiled by Nadine Boddaert. (2005 version available online at: <http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/pubs/AnonymousClassics_Africa_Draft.pdf>
Lauer questioned value of separate volumes now that NACO is available for consultation and editing.

c) Non-standard capitalization in corporate names:
CPSO told Jeffrey Myers-Hayer that although the new rule ("for corporate names with unusual capitalization ... follow the capitalization practice of the body.") was written for "eBay," etc., it can be applied to African corporate names such as KwaZulu.

APPENDIX A
HAMITES IN RECENT LITERATURE
Notes by J. Lauer (Nov. 14, 2006)

ARTICLES IN JSTOR (selective, post-1960)

Donald Crummey, review of J. Young, Peasant revolutions in Ethiopia (1997), Canadian Journal of African Studies, v. 32 (1998): p. 438: Hamites are a putative group which one had hoped was long since dead; but it keeps showing up.

Nancy Hafkin, review of Were & Wilson (1971), Intl. Jo. of Afr. Hist. Studies, 1973, p. 519-522:
Despite authors' claims to be writing new history, "they resurrect the ubiquitous Hamites that many felt had finally been banished with J.E.G. Sutton's succinct discussion of the Hamitic myth in Ogot's and Kieran's Zamani." [Settlement of East Africa, in Ogot/Kieran, 1968, pp. 96-98]

Herbert Lewis in review of Posnansky's Prelude to East African history (1966) {American anthropologist, v. 70, p. 155-156; 1968]
It seems clear, furthermore, that East African historiography is going to get along without the Hamites from now on." No references to Hamites except for Kirkman's application of the term to the Galla and Somali.

Edith R. Sanders, "The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective," Journal of African History, v. 10 (1969): pp. 521-532:
p. 531 (end of article): "Such an individual [a Hamite] does not exist. The word still exists, endowed with a mythical meaning; it endures through time and history, and like a chameleon, changes its colour to reflect the changing light. As the word became flesh, it engendered many problems of scholarship."
p. 532 (Summary): The anthropological and historical literature dealing with Africa abounds with references to a people called the 'Hamites'. 'Hamite', as used in these writings, designates an African population supposedly distinguished by its race--Caucasian--and its language family ...
There exists a widely held belief in the Western world that everything of value ever found in Africa was brought there by these Hamites, a people inherently superior to the native populations. ... This [Hamitic] hypothesis was prece3ded by another elaborate theory. The earlier theory, which gained currency in the sixteenth century, was that the Hamites were black savages, 'natural slaves'--and Negroes. This identification of the Hamite with the Negro, a view which persisted throughout the eighteenth century, served as a rationale for slavery, using Biblical interpretations in support of its tenets. ...
The Hamitic concept had as its function the portrayal of the Negro as an inherently inferior being and to rationalize his exploitation.

Thomas Spear, review of Beachley, History of East Africa (1996), African Studies Review, 1998: marred by outmoded racial stereotypes, such as "Hamites" (pure-, half- & Nilo-)

Richard Waller, review of Beachey, History of East Africa (1996), African Affairs, 1996, p. 625-6: A book that could have been written in the 1930s. Nilo-Hamites are here, and so are wiley Zanzibaris and Bantu tribes... (p. 625)

HAMITES IN MONOGRAPHS

Adamo, David Tuesday. Africa and Africans in the Old Testament, 2001, p. 43n:
African scholars emphasize that "the so-called Hamitic race which some anthropologists and Egyptologists created from the Bible myth of Genesis 9:25, was an attempt to support their prejudices and myths that the Black has not made any contribution to the world and cannot be responsible for such a massive ancient civilization of Egypt and the Nile Valley."

HAMITES IN REFERENCE WORKS

Britannica, 2005: 29:807: History of western Africa, by J.D.F[age]: mentions Libyan Berbers or Hamites; dismisses Hamitic hypothesis

Academic American Encyclopedia 1996: Article by Brian Spooner (vol. 10, p. 29): "Hamite has been used to denote" speakers of Hamitic languages. Theory of pale-skinned peoples.

World Book 2001
E:369 Hamites are speakers of Cushitic languages.
H:33: Wade C. Pendleton, "Hamites": repeats old myths; focused on Ethiopia.

Wikipedia, viewed March 23, 2006: The term Hamitic refers to peoples traditionally believed to have been descended from Ham, one of Noah's sons. ... During the Middle Ages and up until the early 19th century the term 'Hamitic' was used by Europeans to refer indiscriminately to Africans. In the 19th century the definition was refined. A Hamitic language group was proposed, uniting various, mainly North-African, languages. A Hamitic race was also identified, referring to those Africans that Europeans considered "advanced", or most similar to themselves and to Semitic peoples. Today the Hamitic concepts have been widely discredited and are often referred to as the Hamitic Myth. The term itself is considered by many to be pejorative. The Hamitic language group is no longer considered a useful concept, though the phrase Semito-Hamitic is a dated term for the Afro-Asiatic group. The notion of a Hamitic race is similarly problematic.

Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (2000), viewed online:
Hamites: African people of caucasoid descent who occupy the Horn of Africa (chiefly Somalia and Ethiopia), the western Sahara, and parts of Algeria and Tunisia. They are believed to be the original settlers of N Africa. The Hamitic cradleland is generally agreed to be in Asia-perhaps S Arabia or possibly an area farther east. The Hamites entered Africa in a long succession of migrations, of which the earliest may have been as far back as the end of the pluvial period. They are commonly divided into two great branches, Eastern and Northern. The Eastern Hamites comprise the ancient and modern Egyptians, the Beja, the Berberines, the Oromo, the Somali, the Danakil, and most Ethiopians. The Northern Hamites include the Berbers of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria; the Berbers of Morocco; the Tuareg and Tibu of the Sahara; the Fulbe of the Western Sudan; and the extinct Guanche of the Canary Islands.
[Entry by unknown author first appeared in 4th ed. (1975).]

APPENDIX B
Report on CC:AAM Meeting (New Orleans, June 2006)
by Robert Lesh
(Oct. 30, 2006; mailed to ALClist, Nov. 7; edited by J. Lauer)

CC:AAM (Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Materials) met in New Orleans as part of the annual meeting American Library Association.
1. Resource Description and Analysis (RDA) and CC:DA (Committee on Cataloging: Description and Analysis): Keiko Suzuki reported that CC:DA was working hard to finalize its responses to the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) by the late March deadline. The JSC has decided to be more transparent and RDA documents are now available at: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/working1.html. The revised document on internationalization, which LC drafted for submission to JSC, is also available at that site. CC:DA is soliciting comments on the internationalization document.
In response to a question, Keiko observed that there were strongly worded complaints, but that did not reflect a high level of resistance to the new RDA cataloging code.

CC:AAM Task Force on RDA: The Task Force has completed its review of the drafts of chapter 1-3 of RDA as well as of the LC document on internationalization, and comments were forwarded to CC:DA. On June 20, the draft of Part A, chapters 6-7 became available, and the committee began work on them. The RDA schedule still calls for publication in 2008.

2. Discussion of LC changes in series tracing practices: impact on area studies cataloging.
In a brief discussion, members expressed feelings that the changes in LC series practices (no more series records, no more tracings of series) would not seriously affect access to area studies materials. However, most of the participating libraries are continuing their previous series practices.

3. CC:AAM's PCC (Program on Cooperative Cataloging) Program.
Approximately thirty-five people were in attendance. Following the four presentations, there was a lively discussion by people from all types of libraries and of all levels of experience in PCC as well as non-PCC members. The general feeling was that participants profited greatly from the program.
Suggestions for future CC:AAM programs: Joyce Bell suggested a program about adding non-Roman script to authority records. Given the success of the recent Unicode program by CC:AAM, it was suggested that a program featuring discussion of the scripts in one or more aspects of cataloging would be very useful. William Kopychi said that we need to encourage catalogers to contribute records including non-Roman scripts. CC:AAM decided to form an interest group of members who would consider the transition to non-Roman cataloging. William agreed to take the lead in organizing this idea with the goal of having a program proposal for submission to the ALCTS Program Committee by ALA Annual 2007. By that time important LC documentation on the subject should be issued.

4. Non-English Access Task Force submitted its report to the ALCTS Board. The contents of the report could not be discussed at the time of the CC:AAM meeting, but it will be made public. [See: http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/newslinks/NewsLinks.htm.]

5. UNICODE news. It was reported that LC will adopt Unicode in cataloging in 2008. Until then, they plan to use RLIN21 as long as it exists. Training is a big issue at LC so they don't want to switch cataloging tools until they are able to do non-Roman cataloging in Voyager. The development of non-Roman cataloging is a project that Endeavor (Voyager) and LC have been working on for two years. One member reported doing some non-Roman cataloging on Voyager, but some extra manual entry is required.

6. CC:AAM meeting time. It was agreed to continue with the time, Sunday afternoon at 1:30-3:30, that was instituted a year ago.

Reports submitted via email: LC; OCLC; UNICODE bibliography; ALC Cataloging Committee; CEAL; CONSALD; MELA.
Reports anticipated but not submitted: CORMOSEA,.RLG & DDC proposal on Indonesian provinces.

AFRICANA SUBJECT FUNNEL REPORT
ALC CATALOGING COMMITTEE
Fall 2006

A total of 18 new and 17 revised subject authorities have been submitted to the Library of Congress since the last update (Spring 2006). The proposals originated with Lauer (Michigan State), Janet Stanley (Smithsonian), Shoshana Seidman (Northwestern), and Margaret Hughes (Stanford).

Tabwa language was revised because in 2004 we overlooked Kitabwa language.

The major disappointment was the rejection of some of the changes previously proposed. In the case of Hamitic languages, a near-synonymous term for Afro-Asiatic languages, the principle involved with Western Europe (use Europe), Spanish America (use Latin America) or Tropical Africa was not followed, despite the lack or recent literary warrant. In the case of Hamites and Cushites, the attempt to limit these terms to Biblical peoples was rejected because: “Current encyclopedias do not support the proposals to limit the use of the headings Hamites and Cushites to ancient peoples.” (CPSO editorial meeting, June 28, 2006) For this case, there is a clearly a need for a comparison of the usage in current journals (e.g., from JSTOR) with the entries in different reference works. I am finding that sometimes the unedited, anonymous articles in Wikipedia are better than traditional signed articles.

51 headings needing attention were added to my review file. Of these, 22 were vetted and submitted to LC. The appendix lists the 104 new approved subjects submitted by non-funnel sources, including 51 by LC.

APPENDIX: NEW NON-FUNNEL AFRICANA SUBJECT HEADINGS

The Weekly List 14-39 (Apr.-Sept. 2006), of LC’s Cataloging Policy and Support Office, included the following newly approved headings that came from other sources. The submitting library’s MARC21 code appears at the end of each entry (except for those from LC). There were also revised authority records that are not included here.

Page Updated February 5, 2007