ALA Core Metadata and Collections Section
Subject Analysis Committee
Report from June 2023 meetings
The June 2023 SAC meetings were held virtually on 14-16 June 2023. Relevant documents are posted on the SAC Public Space on ALA Connect.
* Library and Archives Canada is continuing intensive work on headings related to indigenous peoples in Canada. The word "Canadian" has been removed as an adjective from some headings. For example, Canadian literature (English)--Indigenous authors has been revised to Indigenous literature (English).
* Catalogers Desktop is being discontinued as of July 2023. LC documents will continue to be available via Classification Web Plus. Specific family names established in RDA will now be allowed as subjects in addition to the traditional general family names established in LCSH. An advisory group is being formed for LCGFT.
LC will begin to experiment with using genre-form headings rather than subdivisions. The subdivision --Drama will be the test case, beginning later this year (probably) and lasting at least six months. LCSH may eventually be for topical headings only. Precoordinated headings with free-floating subdivisions are difficult to manage in linked data.
* PZ and PN classification numbers for children's literature and graphic novels will soon be added to LC/NAF name authority records.
* Homosaurus version 3.4 will be released this summer.
* Dewey numbers will be added to WorldCat Entities, in support of linked data. OCLC plans to add DDC numbers to millions of bib records based on clustering. The next Dewey Editor in Residence will be working on headings related to LGBTQ and autism headings.
* OCLC may begin controlling FAST headings in OCLC bib records later this year.
* The Controlled Vocabularies for Rare Materials Cataloging, an integration of the former RBMS thesauri for genre, binding, type, printing and publishing, paper, and provenance, was issued in March 2023. CVRMC does not allow subdivisions. The RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Group expects to begin taking proposals for new and revised headings soon. The Prejudicial Materials Working Group presented 50 new and proposed terms dealing with such materials.
* SAC voted to endorse a report from the ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table Metadata and Cataloging Committee on the inclusion of Manga subgenres in the LCGFT.
* The issue of compound genre/form terms in LCGFT will be raised before the now-forming LCGFT Advisory Group.
* SAC is working with the World Jewish Congress on classification number proposals for Holocaust and Holodomor denial literature.
Do not hesitate to ask if you have questions about any of these comments. More information is available in the various reports on the SAC Public Space.
Notes compiled by Sherman Clarke
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(go to other ALA reports: http://artcataloging.net/alagen.html)