Introductions
Introduction by Chair, Marcy Flynn, of herself and incoming Chair, Kate
Bowers
Roundtable participants introduced themselves and stated their institution's
policy and practice for item level cataloging of visual materials. A variety
of practices were evident: from those institutions with collection-level
control, to those with "group" control, to those using only item-level
control, to those using combinations of all three.
Visual Materials Section
Catherine Johnson, incoming Chair of the SAA Visual Materials Section (VM)
announced SAA program proposals are needed for 1998 in Orlando, and that
she is forming a working group to review SAA publications related to visual
materials.
Publications
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SAA Publications BoardThe SAA Publications Board solicited suggestions
for new or revised publications. The board is looking for: new editions
of older books, new titles with a strong market (the board prefers to receive
author suggestions along with suggested titles); books with a market outside
the professional archival community. Ritzenthaler. Archives and manuscripts
: administration of photographic collections was mentioned as a potential
project for the SAA Publications Board because it needs updates including
electronic cataloging, digitizing, and legal issues.
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Art and Architecture ThesaurusThe Art and Architecture Thesaurus
is now available on the World Wide Web.
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Moving image cataloging resourcesJudi Hoffman from the Library of Congress
(LC) Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) made
three announcements concerning resources for cataloging of moving images.
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The Association of Moving Image Archivists Cataloging and Documentation
Committee is producing a compendium of practice.
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A new resource for genre terms, the Moving Image Genre/Form Guide,
is soon to be available. The genre terms guide has been produced by MBRS,
its first draft approved, and has been given the designation in MARC field
655 subfield 2 of "migfg". It will be maintained by MBRS, and in the future
will be available through LC's world wide web site and as a part of Cataloger's
Desktop, distributed by LC's Cataloging Distribution Service. Those interested
may contact Brian Taves of MBRS at (202) 707-9930 or via email at btav@loc.gov.
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Archival Moving Image Material : a cataloging guide (AMIM) is in
need of revision. The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) of LC
has agreed to take on this task. Initial comments and suggestions were
due to CPSO by October 15, but the revision process will provide other
opportunities for comment.
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Graphic materials cataloging resourcesNews from the Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division (P&P).
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A second edition of Graphic Materials is available on Cataloger's
Desktop. Paper copies of the revisions were made available after the meeting
by Marcy Flynn.
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The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials newest additions and revisions
are also available. They can be found on the LC web site at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1
and http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm2. There is also an FTP site for this
information.
Website
Guidelines for SAA websites now available. It was decided to produce a
small website for the roundtable, incoming Chair Kate Bowers will develop
it.
Task Force on Organizational Effectiveness
We discussed recommendations from the SAA Task Force on Organizational
Effectiveness (TFOE). Peter Hirtle, the VMCAR liaison from the SAA Council,
discussed the TFOE recommendations, which had been received, but not endorsed
by the Council. One of the proposals would have made the VMCAR a working
group within the Visual Materials Section. The Council put forth a counter-
proposal. The counter-proposal is to form Member Interest Groups (MIGs).
More discussion on this issue will occur at annual meetings in the future,
and the Council will continue to consult with roundtables as to the best
organizational arrangement for their activities. No changes to the organizational
structure of SAA have been decided upon, nor have any been instituted,
but there are three new task forces: Dues and Services, Diversity, and
Annual Meeting.
Derogatory Titles
LC P&P posed a problem to the group: "What to do about derogatory titles?"
The problem arises when, for instance, a caption on a work being cataloged
includes a derogatory expression referring to a minority group. Complaints
are received when such titles appear on Web pages available to the general
public. The dilemma that the group discussed, but could not solve, is how
to leave the historical record intact and yet deal responsibly with the
offensive titles and the public reaction to them.
