Thursday, July 10, 2003 Fellow PCC Participants, Throw another shrimp on the barbie, a steak on the grill, and toss that fresh garden salad before sitting down to read the summer news from the PCC! The fair city of Toronto held a spectacular joint ALA/CLA Annual Conference and the PCC held its Participants' Meeting on Sunday night, June 22nd, 2003; however, the meeting was far from the usual fare. It was a celebration in honor of CONSER's 30th birthday and coincided with the retirement of the current CONSER Coordinator, Jean Hirons. The guest speakers were a delight and the evening was a great success. For the full report on the evening's highlights, please visit the PCC Web site at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/pccpart03a.html The PCC Task Group on SACO Program Development, chaired by Jimmie Lundgren (University of Florida), has submitted its eagerly-anticipated interim report. It has been posted to the SACO Web site at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/saco/tgsaco_rpt603.html and lives up to its promise to be an interesting read for both SACO contributors and PCC members alike. The Task Group on International Participation has submitted its interim report to the Standing Committees on Standards and Training and has been posted to the PCC Web page at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/tgip_interrpt603.pdf The group was charged with 6 definite tasks and was instructed to include findings, recommendations, and implementation guidelines. This interim report is packed with substantive suggestions and recommendations, and is enlightening as well as informative and holds much in store for the global expansion of the PCC. The PCC Task Group on Assessment has also been quite busy in carrying out its charges under the leadership of Jim Stickman, University of Washington. The Task Group on Assessment is charged with identifying data that would be useful to the Policy Committee in assessing the effectiveness of the PCC in meeting the needs of libraries for cataloging records and authoritative headings. The Task Group will submit its report to the PoCo in time for discussion at the November 2003 meeting. A document has been posted to the BIBCO Home Page addressing the options for handling the change in mode of issuance on integrating resources (IRs) and what impact the changes have for the distribution and maintenance of bibliographic records for IRs and what catalogers must do prior to implementation of code "i". These distribution issues are identified and contained in the document at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/dstrbut_irs.pdf. The BIBCO and CONSER Operations Committees are still seeking input; recommendations will be funneled to the PoCo before the November 2003 meeting, when final decisions will be made. As always, please send any corrections or changes in contact information directly to me at [log in to unmask] Yours truly, John N. Mitchell