CMC: Encoding Standards Subcommittee Annual Report 2023

submitted by Ethan D'Ver

Current Roster

  • Ethan D’Ver, Chair (2027)
  • Janice Bunker (2026)
  • Andrea Cawelti (2027)
  • David Floyd (2027)
  • Jessica Grimmer (2026)
  • Kevin Kishimoto (2027)
  • Anna Alfeld LoPrete (2025)
  • Jeff Lyon (2024)
  • Jennifer Olson (2027)
  • Laura Thompson (2025)
  • Hermine Vermeij (2027)
  • Damian Iseminger, Library of Congress Representative
  • Jay Weitz, OCLC Representative

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

  • 1. Continue to monitor and participate in MARC development—particularly in light of pending implementation of official RDA (now expected no sooner than October 2022, and most likely later than that), and with an eye towards the facilitation of BIBFRAME/MARC conversion when possible—and communicate any needs for best practices or other documentation to help music catalogers implement new changes to MARC.
    • In October, the former Chair revised joint MLA/OLAC MARC Discussion Paper No. 2022-DP-07, which examined the possibility of adding subfield $3 (Materials specified) to field 041 (Language code), as a MARC Proposal. ESS (as well as OLAC) subsequently vetted the draft Proposal, after which all members of the Cataloging and Metadata Committee (CMC) and its Subcommittees were invited to do the same. Prior to completing the revision, the former Chair reached out to Thurstan Young (British Library) to ensure that concerns he had raised at the Marc Advisory Committee meetings the previous June were properly addressed. The final Proposal, which became designated as No. 2023-02, was submitted to John Zagas (NDMSO) on November 22.
    • Also in October, ESS began to address a longstanding error in the MARC documentation for field 384 (Key) discovered earlier that year. After determining what the documentation was likely intended to state, all CMC members were given the opportunity to register their opinions on the matter. Subsequently, in early November, the former Chair began a correspondence with John Zagas regarding what would be required to make the necessary changes. It was determined that this change could be made editorially; around February 17, the Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO) of the Library of Congress published the correction.
    • At John Zagas’s invitation, the former Chair met with LC’s MARC Review Group on December 1 to discuss Proposal No. 2023-02. The upshot was that some members of the group found a book example included in the Proposal to be confusing. Subsequently, after the former Chair reached out to the communities that had requested the addition of the book example, she modified Proposal No. 2023-02 to replace the book example with a more suitable and less confusing one.
    • At the beginning of January, the former Chair began gathering comments from ESS and CMC members on the 4 proposals and 4 discussion papers to be considered at the MARC Advisory Committee midwinter meetings set for January 31-February 2, 2023.
    • From January 31 to February 2, the former Chair attended and participated in the virtual midwinter MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting in her capacity as MLA representative to MAC, during which she presented MARC Proposal 2023-02, which was passed. This paper, drafted by ESS and co-sponsored by OLAC, concerned adding subfield $3 (Materials specified) to field 041 (Language code). A summary of the meeting’s business was submitted to the CMC Chair.
    • On March 3, the former Chair presented on MARC updates and other encoding standards topics at the CMC Town Hall session at the MLA 2023 Annual Meeting.
    • In late March and April, based on topics which came up at the MLA 2023 Annual Meeting, the Chair drafted two MARC Discussion Papers, one having to do with suppressing display of former devised titles with harmful language, and the other with accommodating numeric designations of musical expressions. ESS and CMC reviewed the drafts of the papers; after making the appropriate revisions, the Chair submitted the Discussion Papers to John Zagas of NDMSO on May 1 for consideration at the next MAC meeting on June 28-29.
    • In late May and June, ESS and CMC members reviewed and commented on 2 proposals and 5 discussion papers, including  the numeric designations of musical expressions paper submitted by ESS, for consideration at the upcoming MARC Advisory Committee meeting.
    • On June 28-29, the Chair attended and participated in the virtual annual MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting in his capacity as MLA representative to MAC, during which he presented MARC Discussion Paper No. 2023-DP06: Recording Numeric Designation of Musical Expressions in the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Authority Formats and received helpful feedback from MAC.
  • 2. Continue the Metadata for Music Resources Task Group’s ongoing maintenance and improvement of the Metadata for Music Resources site. In addition, consider if and how ESS might better serve the needs of MLA members who use non-MARC metadata in the bibliographic description of music resources, if such can be identified.
    • In fall to winter 2022-23, the Metadata for Music Resources (MMR) Task Group reviewed several resources for potential inclusion in the MMR, approving four new resources for including and writing descriptions for them. The Task Group then worked with the CMC Web Editor to implement all of the changes requested, including addition of the four new resources, the addition of 21 new descriptions for resources previously missing them, and various minor edits and formatting adjustments.
    • In March 2023, all members of the Task Group rotated off. The Task Group now consists of: Jeff Lyon (leader), Jessica Grimmer, Anna LoPrete, and Laura Thompson.
  • 3. Transition to a new Chair for ESS (whose term will begin after MLA Annual in March 2023), and work to keep ESS activities moving smoothly during the transition.
    • Former Chair Karen Peters carried out a smooth transition by meeting with the current Chair to prepare him for the role, and by transferring over all official documentation and communications.
  • 4. Pending future LDWG activity, involve ESS in operationalizing elements of the Performed Music Ontology within BIBFRAME.
    • As a starting point for ESS to get involved with linked data, LDWG Chair Kevin Kishimoto was appointed to the subcommittee.
  • 5. Other Activity
    • Janice Bunker was appointed ESS representative to VS’s Task Group for Deriving Faceted Music Terms.

List of Future Goals

  • 1. Continue to monitor and participate in MARC development—particularly in light of the implementation of official RDA and with an eye towards the facilitation of BIBFRAME/MARC conversion when possible—and communicate any needs for best practices or other documentation to help music catalogers implement new changes to MARC.
    • Goals 1.3, 2.4, 2.6
  • 2. Continue the Metadata for Music Resources Task Group’s ongoing maintenance and improvement of the Metadata for Music Resources site.
    • Goals 2.4, 2.6, 4.2
  • 3. Develop a plan for how the Performed Music Ontology, and linked data more generally, can start to enter into ESS’s purview.
    • Goals 1.3, 2.4, 2.6
  • 4. Continue to monitor the community’s need for ESS to comment and review on non-MARC metadata standards.
    • Goals 1.3, 2.4, 2.6