Everyone,

I'm very pleased to announce that the Report of the PCC Access Points for Expressions Task Group has been has been accepted by the Policy Committee and is available at:

http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/rda/RDA%20Task%20groups%20and%20charges/PCCExpressionTGFinalReport.docx.

Many thanks to the members of this Task Group chaired by Matthew Haugen.  The topic was very complex and the report creates a great foundation of practice.  Thank you for the comments we received during its review period.  All were carefully read by the Task Group and the Policy Committee before the revised version of the final report was accepted.  I think that it's important to note that this is a complex area and that these recommendations are first steps.  The PCC Standing Committee on Standards will soon survey the PCC listserv in what areas (if any) the membership wishes to go in creating (and maintaining) differentiated expression level NARs.  As we gain more experience our policies can morph with it.  The recommendations in the report will be folded into current PCC documentation.

I'd like to make special note of comments wishing that PCC could specify a preferred order for qualifying elements and that new subfields be created to articulate these elements.   After a good bit of internal discussion, we realized that, unfortunately, no single, prescribed order could be developed.  Comments regarding more specific subfielding have come up in a number of contexts recently and we hope to take a more holistic approach to this issue later in the year.

The Policy Committee is also currently reviewing the reports of the Hybrid Records Task Group and the Task Group on Relationship Designators.  We hope to have these, and their recommendations, out to you by the end of March.

Philip

-- 
Philip E. Schreur
Chair, Program for Cooperative Cataloging
Head, Metadata Department
Stanford University
650-723-2454
650-725-1120 (fax)