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Exhale.  Thank you, Mark. 

I think the real lesson here is that cataloging is very expensive, even 
when done cooperatively, and authority control is *really* expensive, 
and therefore we are all vulnerable.  While I regret that LC had to do 
this and had to drop it like a bomb on everybody, including its own 
staff, I do sympathize with their plight.  Whenever LC has tried to cut 
back on anything (remember simplifying the bibliography note?) and 
consulted the cataloging community, they have been greeted with the same 
outcry about the decline of cataloging, etc... I wish we could stop 
doing this.  We all know that every part of the bibliographic record 
serves somebody's needs somewhere, but if we make it difficult to 
economize in small ways, we may not be able to ward off desperate 
measures like this one.  I would now gladly give up all bibliography 
notes, rules and rule interpretations about capitalization, punctuation 
and other things that may seem important in some contexts but *really* 
aren't crucial, to keep even a limited amount of series authority control.

Maybe part of our strategic thinking should include an effort to try to 
identify what is not crucial and how we can stop doing those things to 
reclaim time for the important ones.  Breathe.

Celine Noel
UNC-Chapel Hill
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Mark Watson wrote:

>I want to encourage the PCC community to take a deep breath.  Some of the
>rhetoric surrounding the series announcement strikes me as a bit "hot" and
>even somewhat paranoid.  For the record, the PCC Steering Committee as well
>as the Policy Committee was not given a "heads up" on this issue.  Les and
>Carolyn have also indicated that they were not consulted.  This might sound
>bad and we could read all kinds of dire implications into this, but I
>encourage everyone not to do this.  My opinion is that cooperative
>cataloging is not mortally imperiled.  We need to accord LC with the rights
>and privileges that we all enjoy in our own libraries to make internal
>changes.  At the same time, I think we all recognize that these changes (and
>more to come?) will ... must ... affect LC's relationship to the PCC.  Many
>of you have already pointed out implications, questions, issues, etc. that
>need to addressed.  At the same time, although the two entities are very
>intertwined, LC is not the PCC, and the latter can survive changes to the
>former.  We are currently engaged in developing a new strategic plan for the
>PCC.  Instead of playing "Chicken Little," I hope this announcement will
>spur everyone to really engage in helping think out the future of
>cooperative cataloging and how the PCC will be a part of that.  Your
>Operations representatives will be meeting in D.C. this week, and the
>dialogue will continue in earnest.  Your participation in developing the
>future is vital and important
>http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/pcc2010.html).
>
>Mark Watson, PoCo Chair 2006
>Associate University Librarian for Collections & Access
>UO Libraries
>1299 University of Oregon
>Eugene, Or.  97403
>(541) 346-1896
>  
>