ALCTS Continues Criticism of LC

Says consultation needed about bibliographic changes

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 7/15/2006

Says consultation needed about bibliographic changes Following criticism by the American Library Association Executive Board about a Library of Congress (LC) decision to stop performing series authority work for the bibliographic records it creates, the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has also stated its concern. The decision was announced on April 20 for implementation May 1, but it was delayed one month. The statement, drafted by the Cataloging and Classification Section, with input from the Serials Section on behalf of the ALCTS Board of Directors, was forwarded to LC.

“Aside from the nature of the decision itself, what is perhaps most disconcerting is the manner in which that decision was communicated. It has always been recognized that LC’s cataloging policies are, in the final analysis, most pertinent to LC’s own environment and operations,” ALCTS stated. “In this instance, there was neither sufficient lead-time nor broad communication. As a result, even with the implementation date moved forward one month, there is barely time for the many users of LC’s cataloging data to develop coherent policy responses of their own.” ALCTS warned that “[l]ibraries accepting unedited LC copy will now lose controlled series access in their catalogs. If they elect to take on this task themselves, it will mean a great deal of labor-intensive checking and editing of records—labor that was not previously needed.”

Further, ALCTS observed that “it will no longer be possible to collocate books in one given series” without significant additional effort in searching; this likely could lead to duplicate orders and gaps in holdings. ALCTS asked for a 90-day comment period before implementation of the changes.