Minutes of the 2000 Description Section Meeting
Denver, Colorado September 1, 2000
Welcome from the Chair/Reports from SAA Committees and Liaisons
Section Chair Holly Hodges opened the meeting and welcomed the 65-70 people in attendance. Kris Kiesling, Program Committee representative, announced that the theme for next year's conference is "2001, A Global Odyssey." The focus will be on globalization of archival practices (especially descriptive) and technology. She encouraged the submission of program proposals. Representing the EAD Working Group, Kris reported that it had been a relatively quiet year. They are gearing up to create a mechanism for change to the EAD DTD, and probably will create a web form for submission of suggestions. The EADWG received a NHPRC grant for two years of support, which will allow them to focus on issues and on moving to Version 2. Kris welcomed anyone interested in attending the Sunday morning meeting of the EADWG.
Kris mentioned the EAD Cookbook, which was put on the Web in August. Created by Michael Fox, it is an EAD instruction manual covering software selection to markup. It comes with templates for Author/Editor, XMetal, WordPerfect, and four stylesheets. It is available from the EAD Roundtable web page at http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/ead/.
Kris also reported that SAA submitted to NEH in July a proposal for the reconciliation of RAD, APPM and ISAD(G). It would fund the work of a consultant and representatives from SAA's Technical Subcommittee on Descriptive Standards (TSDS) and the Canadian archival community to create a North American descriptive standard that could be used to generate not only MARC records, but to create finding aids, collection guides, etc.
Dennis Meissner, chair of TSDS, explained that TSDS is the sole subcommittee of the SAA Standards Committee and is responsible for evaluating and being a watchdog for standards that relate to description. While the past year was not as active as the previous one, last year the subcommittee dealt with the idea of adding linking subfields to MARC records beyond 583 and 555, specifically a subfield "u" link in other fields where it might be appropriate and useful. They provided real world examples for consideration. The proposal was approved at the ALA MidWinter meeting in January.
Following the completion of the revised second draft of ISAD(G), the subcommittee was involved with the development of inline examples to illustrate the rules. They also provided full-blown examples of ISAD(G) records.
The only true standard the subcommittee was asked to address on behalf of SAA was the proposed NISO standard for the Dublin Core metadata elements set. After a lively discussion on the CAIE list, they recommended approval of the 15-element set of Dublin Core metadata for use in general high-level resource discovery.
Other business undertaken by the subcommittee included an effort spearheaded by Bill Landis to evaluate SAA's continuing education offerings in description and descriptive standards. They were found to be piecemeal and skewed toward the MARC format and EAD, to lack comprehensive treatment of the principal aspects of description, and erroneously to assume an overall knowledge of the elements of description on the part of working archivists. The findings were forwarded to the Committee on Education and Professional Development.
TSDS sent a representative to the Canadian Committee on Archival Description (CCAD) fall rule revision committee meeting in Ottawa. CCAD has been well-represented in SAA standards bodies for years, and TSDS would like to become more involved and pay closer attention to what's going on in CCAD.
For next year, TSDS plans to articulate a comprehensive continuing education curriculum in the area of archival description, to update the descriptive standards page on the SAA web site, and to conduct a study of the Canadian Rules for Archival Description to get up to speed for work on the reconciliation of APPM and ISAD(G). Dennis closed by asking people to let him or Kris Kiesling know of issues in which the committee should get involved. Bill Landis added that they are hoping to proceed in a way that generates feedback to be sure that the updating actually creates a useful tool. During the year there will be a call, probably on the Archives list, for people to look at it and give feedback. Bill asked for everyone at the meeting to give feedback, because the standards are relevant to what we do.
Michael Fox reported in his capacity as SAA liaison to the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA). He noted that all of the reports he planned to discuss are available on the ALA website. CC:DA oversees the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules for ALA, and focused on three primary areas during the past year. The first area concerned issues relating to the reconceptualization of the concept of seriality, a revision stemming from the Toronto conference. Seriality was recast under the heading of continuing resources, which are subdivided into integrated resources and the more traditional serial, periodicals, journals, and newspapers. Fox pointed out that there is a whole class of documents whose content changes over time; individual components of them may change, making it impossible to identify what is new and what is old. Formerly, this class of documents was represented by manuals, handbooks or looseleafs which required interfiling, but on the web there is a whole series of web pages, databases, etc. that fall into the category of continuing resources. Fox suggested reading Jean Hiron's reports on the ALA web site.
In CC:DA's second area of focus, the taskforce on metadata (in which Fox participated) completed its work reviewing the relationship between traditional cataloging and other tools such as Dublin Core and EAD, in what is described as the resource description environment. Discussion of this issue is ongoing with the library community. The cataloging community is taking seriously the fact that they no longer have the final word on description, and that MARC is no longer the only tool available.
The third issue addressed by CC:DA was Rule 0.24, the cardinal rule of AACR2 that mandates cataloging by form of material. Increasing numbers of multi-media documents pose problems for catalogers. How to describe a serially issued electronic cartographic object? A recommendation on Rule 0.24 went forward to the Joint Steering Committee, proposing to reorganize the cataloging rules not by form of material but by area of description. The concept was accepted by the JSC in principle but will require a multi-year process of rule rewriting. Fox announced that Susan Hamburger will be participating in that process as the new SAA liaison to CC:DA.
Fox also reported to the section meeting as the SAA liaison to MARBI, the ALA committee dealing with MARC21. He is a voting member of the committee as a representative of the ALCTS division of ALA, in essence giving the archival community a vote. MARBI also had three principal areas of activity. The first involved discussion papers about the issues of seriality being raised by restructuring and its accompanying rule revisions. The second related to creation of hyperlinks within catalog descriptions. Subfield "u" in the 856 field was renamed from "uniform resource locator" to "uniform resource identifier," bringing it in line with current usage and making obsolete subfield "g," the "uniform resource name." Subfield "y" was added in field 856 to allow text appearing as part of a hyperlink to be broken up, permitting the creation of a more attractive display. Subfield "u" was added to allow creation of hyperlinks from a variety of fields in the descriptive record, not just field 856. Thirdly, a new subfield code was added to field 583 (Action Note) allowing the identification of a specialized thesaurus from which action terms (e.g. microfilmed, deacidified) may be derived. This initiative originated in the preservation community, which is promoting a standardized vocabulary of preservation terminology. Fox suggested that it would be helpful for the archival preservation community to correspond with library colleagues so that archivists can adopt some of the same terminology. Archivists should also provide input in areas of archival action, such as processing terminology.
Fox closed by mentioning his work with the International Council on Archives' Committee on Descriptive Standards and announcing that ISAD(G) was issued as a second revised draft at the Stockholm meeting last year and would be ratified at the ICA plenary in Seville. He urged section members to look at it, particularly given the discussion of reconciling APPM, RAD and ISAD(G), in order to improve their understanding of what colleagues worldwide see as the common data structure standard for archival communication. The standard can be seen at www.ica.org/.
Holly Hodges called attention to the handouts provided by OCLC representative Susan Westberg, who was unable to attend the section meeting. Holly then introduced Debra Day, the incoming co-chair of the Awards Committee. Debra called for nominations, which are due in February, and asked that section members consult the procedures on the web site.
Section Reports
Ann Hodges, Descriptive Notes editor, reported that two issues of the newsletter were produced last year, down from three the previous year. She requested that section members send her information and articles for the newsletter, and stressed the need for representation from all areas of the country.
Karen Spicher reported for Diana Smith on the section's web site. She reminded the audience that the site is linked to the SAA page, and supplied handouts containing the site's address. In future Diana will make announcements on the Archives list of newly posted newsletters, and will also post liaison reports. Diana would like to make the liaison reports more complete, and asked that any liaisons whose reports are not on the web site send them to her. Karen stressed that comments and suggestions for the site are welcome and should be sent to Diana.
Bill Landis, section vice chair, reported on the 2000 Finding Aids Fair. He encouraged visits to and feedback on the fair, which focused on ISAD(G) and use of the elements in the United States. He encouraged everyone to fill out the survey in order to generate a sense of what archivists think are the important elements, both for us and for users.
Bylaws
Section Chair Holly Hodges reminded meeting attendees that this was the first year the section had operated under the bylaws. She reported that things had gone smoothly, with the exception of the absentee voting procedures. The steering committee struggled to stay within the bylaws and still make the absentee ballots available early enough to be returned in time to be counted. Holly asked members to be aware of the problem and to a look at the pertinent section of the bylaws and give comments. Steve Hensen noted that problems with SAA's internal management software this year had made it difficult for the SAA office to provide the section's membership list, and that it would be easier to obtain in future.
Publication and Program Proposals
Kathleen Roe announced that she had almost completed negotiations to revise Frederic Miller's Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts. During the coming year she will be working on the revisions. Negotiations are ongoing as to whether the SAA publications committee will be willing to publish it electronically rather than in print. Kathleen asked for comments regarding what the Miller manual did well and for suggestions on areas that it did not address. Messages should be directed to her home address of KRoe122@aol.com.
Holly reiterated her hope to get good program proposals for 2001, and asked people to stay after the meeting to discuss ideas for next year's program.
Election for Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Holly offered the candidates, Susan Hamburger and Mary Lacy, the opportunity to add to their statements, which were printed on the reverse of the ballots. When both declined, the ballots were executed and collected. After tabulating the ballots, vice chair Bill Landis announced that Mary Lacy had been elected incoming vice chair. He thanked both candidates. Bill had no further announcements, but mentioned the number of good description sessions being presented this year and encouraged attendance and feedback. He noted that he would like to have a program at next year's section meeting. He warned that if people don't submit ideas, it will be on whatever he and Mary find interesting! He can be contacted at landis@uci.edu.
Program Sessions and Proposals
Susan Hamburger noted that Session 7, "User Studies in the Digital Age," was the most highly checked for intent to attend, and had a good turnout. She is looking forward to doing more research.
Kate Bowers reported on Session 5, "Image Access: Three Approaches to Cataloging and Image Collection Management," and summarized the three approaches presented. Denver Public Library uses traditional MARC cataloging into an OPAC, done at the item level. The Henry Ford Museum has a proprietary database, using item level description for individual images and a prototype for series of similar images. They also do records at the collection and folder levels. The Bancroft Library describes images in EAD, at all levels, by inserting item level description into the EAD finding aids. Their presentation included a table of encoding analogs, illustrating the ability to import and export the records in any form.
The floor was opened for suggestions on proposals. Kathleen Roe said that her organization has been debating how to use EAD and why are others are not using it. She would like to hear a discussion of why people are or are not using it. A suggestion was made to examine interoperability of data and how archivists can share information with libraries and museums.
Rob Spindler expressed interest in practices for administrative metadata related to digitization of visual images. It would be useful to identify what models are being used and to compare what information is being gathered by projects. Michael Fox suggested looking at the RLG preservation metadata set; Susan Hamburger suggested Berkely's MOA2 project as an example.
Elizabeth Dow called attention to the Burlington Agenda, which outlines eight areas needing research and suggests strategies. Steve Hensen noted the increasing proliferation of collaborative projects, and suggested studying the potential scenarios for integrating projects into a searchable national system.
Other Business
Tom Frusciano announced the creation of the Journal of Archival Organization. It is another venue for publication and an opportunity for students to publish research. He is soliciting articles. The meeting was declared adjourned.
August 27, 1999
Section Chair Rob Spindler welcomed the members in attendance. In summarizing the work done by the section during the past year, Rob noted that bylaws had been drafted for the section and that the section had sponsored several sessions at the 1999 conference. He thanked past chair Heather Heywood and at-large steering committee member Susan Hamburger for their respective contributions to those efforts. Rob also pointed out that the reorganization of the Technical Subcommittee on Descriptive Standards (TSDS) provides the Description Section an opportunity to become more vital to SAA and to the profession.
First on the agenda were reports from SAA committees, representatives and liaisons. Michael Fox reported from the International Congress on Archives (ICA), Committee on Descriptive Standards. He reported changes to the International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD(G)) including the creation of a statement of principles, the consolidation of the number of elements, the addition of new elements, and the fact that the use of the creator element has been made mandatory. He noted that the committee is to meet in September in Sweden to finalize changes for the ballot to be presented at the ICA plenary in 2000. All rules are to be incorporated into a single code regardless of format. The rules presently contain additional information for treatment of various formats.
In his role as SAA's representative to the ALA Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) Michael was a member of the Task Force on Rule 0.24 (the AACR2 rule that governs the choice of cataloging rules for multi-faceted works, e.g. an electronic map). The task force is reviewing changes to the rule, which may be of great potential interest to the archival community as well as providing an opportunity for archivists to get more involved in the discussion of the rules. The outcome of the task force's work will have a bearing on the proposed revisions to the Rules for Archival Description and on any future revisions to APPM and/or integration of the two. The task force's report will go forward to the Joint Committee for the Revision of AACR.
As SAA's liaison to ALA's Committee on Machine Readable Bibliographic Information (MARBI), Michael commented on the issue of nonfiling zones (tag 245, indicator 2) and the need to exclude other areas from filing. An example of the use non-filing indicators within the text of a field as well as the beginning would be to exclude from indexing a cataloger's comment inserted into a transcribed title such as [sic] that indicates a typo in the source document. A proposal has been made to create characters that would be embedded in fields to indicate that material which follows them should be excluded. The issue is still under consideration within MARBI as Discussion Paper 118. The discussion paper itself and the summary minutes of the MARBI meetings themselves are available at http://www.loc.gov/marc.
Linkage from the 856 field (Electronic Location and Access) to the 555 (Cumulative Index/Finding Aids Note) and 583 (Action Note) fields has been approved. A subfield for the URL was added, creating a direct link from field to finding aid. The addition of other fields was suggested, and such a proposal will be made at ALA Midwinter. Nicole Bouch³ is a member of the ALA Committee on Descriptive Standards and is coordinating solicitation of submissions. Submissions require the identification of fields, provision of a rationale why they should be linked, and provision of real examples. Michael will coordinate submission to the LC office. It is expected that submissions will also be made by members of the cartographic community.
Bill Landis reported from the SAA Technical Subcommittee on Descriptive Standards (TSDS). TSDS has participated in reviews of ISAD(G), the draft of the EAD Application Guidelines, and the draft of LC's Archival Moving Image Materials. In the latter case, TSDS reviewed both the cataloging guidelines and the extensive commentary provided by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). The Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information published guidelines for best practices in the use of Dublin Core in the museum community; TSDS gave input from the archival perspective. The Canadian Committee on Data Structure Standards (CCDSS) requested commentary on a draft RAD/EAD Matrix accompanied by suggestions for additional EAD tags. TSDS participated in providing comments at the invitation of Kris Kiesling, chair of the EAD Working Group. Michael Fox, SAA's MARBI liaison, invited TSDS to provide examples of how the archival community would use a linking field in the USMARC 555 field for finding aid notes. TSDS provided examples, which were incorporated into MARBI Proposal 99:8.
Bill also reported that TSDS had discussed processes at its August 25th meeting. He noted that the scope of TSDS is different than was that of CAIE. Standards are submitted to TSDS from different areas; it gets requests for review from the standards committee and also gets requests for comment from SAA and external groups. TSDS discussed a process that would ensure participation of at least two subcommittee members in all reviews that TSDS agrees to undertake. Bill encouraged interested section members to join the SAACAIE listserv in order to observe the work of TSDS and the Standards Committee. Section members may contact him at blandis@uci.edu to request to be subscribed to this list.
Bill reported that, as the parent of the EAD Working Group, TSDS had renewed EADWG's charge for another year; that TSDS also participated in the proposal to MARBI of additional fields for linking, as reported by Michael Fox; and that Dennis Meissner of the Minnesota Historical Society is the incoming chair of TSDS. Bill added that TSDS and the Committee on Education and Professional Development (CEPD) will undertake a review of SAA's continuing education offerings relating to description. He called for feedback on description workshops, which he will funnel to the reviewers. Comments may be sent to blandis@uci.edu
Helen Tibbo, SAA Council liaison for the coming year, gave a welcome from Council. She emphasized that Council recognizes how hard groups within SAA are working and that Council wants to facilitate the work of those groups.
Kris Kiesling, Chair of the EAD Working Group, noted that EADWG meetings are open to all who would like to attend. Kris reported that the EAD Working Group last year received an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to draft a new version of the EAD Application Guidelines. A subcommittee of the EADWG met at Bentley to redraft the guidelines. Last year the Tag Library was published; the new publication is a guide to EAD from head to toe. Kris noted that the working group would be discussing at its upcoming meeting the possibility of repositioning the group, including increasing its international participation and becoming involved in fundraising.
Second on the agenda were Section Reports. Ann Hodges, Descriptive Notes newsletter editor, renewed her appeal for contributions to and feedback on the newsletter. Diana Smith, coordinator for the section's web site, noted that the Description Section's site is the most extensive among SAA section sites. She also asked for contributions and feedback, and noted that she had reorganized the home page during the past year. Holly Hodges, Section Vice Chair, reported on the Finding Aids Fair and thanked Jon Reynolds for his assistance in establishing a site for the electronic finding aids and Debra Mills for arranging for an ethernet connection. Rob encouraged section members to visit the Fair.
Before turning to agenda item three, discussion of program proposals, Rob announced that he will be the section's liaison to the program committee for the next year. Session proposal forms were to be left with Holly Hodges, incoming Section Chair, and were available in the conference packet as well as on the SAA web site. Deadline for submission of program proposals was October 8. The 2000 conference has no formal theme, but proposals that look toward the future of the profession and reflect its diversity are requested. Rob noted that sessions may take several formats, and urged consideration of all possibilities.
Returning to his role as Section Chair, Rob opened discussion of ideas for session proposals to be sponsored by the section. He stressed the importance of keeping descriptive issues on the SAA program, given the fast-changing nature of descriptive issues. In contrast to last year's fruitful discussion, no proposal ideas were presented during the formal meeting.
Agenda item four being the nomination and election of a Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Rob presented Bill Landis and Susan Hamburger as the nominees. Each gave a brief summary of his/her qualifications for the office. Ballots were counted by Vice Chair, Holly Hodges, and Rob announced that Bill Landis had been elected. He will serve the section as Vice Chair for the coming year and will become Chair the following year.
Agenda item five was approval of the new Description Section bylaws. The bylaws were published twice in Descriptive Notes (a first draft and a slightly revised version) and were posted for most of the year on the section's web site, during which time comments were requested. The bylaws were also distributed at the section meeting. Upon the motion for their approval being seconded, the bylaws were approved by acclamation in a voice vote. Rob thanked Heather Heywood, past Chair, for her fine work on preparing the bylaws. The meeting was adjourned.