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NACO/CONSER/SACO
Richard A. Lammert, Concordia Theological Seminary

ABSTR AC T Annually, the Operations Committee (OpCo) of the 
Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) presents a two-day meet-
ing in Washington, DC, to advise participants in the PCC programs 
of what they need to know to work cooperatively with all the other 
catalogers in the program. This year, as last year, an online meeting 
replaced the in-person meeting, but the purpose was the same. This 
Listen and Learn session will update Atla participants in the NACO, 
CONSER, or SACO funnels with the information that was presented 
at OpCo, so that their work in the Atla funnels will adhere to the 
current practices in the PCC programs. The session also presents 
news of changes coming in programs and tools that funnel partici-
pants use.

At the outset, let me review how much Atla institutions have contrib-
uted through the Atla funnels to the various programs in the Program 
for Cooperative Cataloging. During the Library of Congress’s last 
fiscal year (October 2019–September 2020), Atla catalogers contrib-
uted 683 new authority records and 226 modified records. Extending 
into the current fiscal year, October 2020 through May 2021, almost 
as many records have already been contributed (589 new and 192 
modified). Those numbers cause no concern. A different number, 
however, does cause concerns. Last fiscal year, Atla had nine active 
institutions (those that contributed at least one record). This year, 
that number is eight, due to the retirement of an active NACO cata-
loger. We can expect the number of active institutions to continue 
to drop, as several NACO catalogers are approaching retirement in 
the next several years. Most Atla institutions have only one trained 
NACO cataloger; when that person retires, the position usually disap-
pears. So any encouragement you can give to colleagues to become 
active is important.

The contributions in the CONSER program are similar to NACO. 
Last fiscal year, 287 new records and 325 modified records were 
contributed. From October 2020 through March 2021, the numbers 
are 104 new records and 176 modified records. All of these contribu-
tions are by one CONSER cataloger, who is leaving his current posi-



316  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

tion. As of the writing of this article, it is uncertain whether he will be 
able to continue in his role as a CONSER contributor under the Atla 
funnels. So there is certainly a place for any new CONSER catalogers 
in the Atla funnels.

SACO is a smaller funnel, so the numbers are smaller. During the 
last fiscal year, four new subject headings and one changed subject 
heading was contributed. From October 2020 to date, there are seven 
new subject headings and one new LC classification number. As subject 
headings continue to move to a linked digital environment, there are 
many opportunities for Atla institutions to get involved in this funnel.

The Operations Committee of the Program for Cooperative Cata-
loging is held in May each year. This meeting is the primary source 
of updates that are pertinent to the various PCC programs. The rest 
of this presentation is based primarily on notes from this year’s 
meeting, held online May 6–7, 2021. The agenda for the meeting is 
posted online (https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/OpCo-2021/
Agenda-OpCo-2021.pdf)—you can find links to most of the presenta-
tions at that page.

The Standing Committee on Applications looks at issues related to 
applications, technologies, and automated processes. This past year 
the committee has created various mapping tables (between various 
ISO 639 code lists; and between Wikidata properties and MARC 21 
authority format) and updated the guidelines for minimally punctu-
ated MARC bibliographic records. The committee is working on an 
ISNI-to-Wikidata mapping table.

The Standing Committee on Standards works to develop and 
recommend standards, policies, and applications of use to PCC cata-
logers. During the past year, the committee worked on including 
guidelines for MARC 385 and 386 fields in DCM Z1. The committee 
received two requests for possible exceptions to the Provider-Neutral 
Guidelines, which they are considering. The committee also began 
discussing a proposal to allow the use of subfield $i in the MARC 370 
field in authority records (to create more ability to indicate the rela-
tionship of the place name to the named entity).



Listen and Learn Sessions  317

The last of the three standing committees, the Standing Commit-
tee on Training, identifies needs for training programs and develops 
them as necessary. Of most interest to Atla catalogers is the work 
of the RDA 3R Training Task Group. This task group is developing 
training to catalog print and electronic monographs using the new 
RDA Toolkit, LC-PCC Policy Statements, and metadata guidance docu-
ments. The initial training is targeted for release in fall 2021, while 
the complete training will be available no sooner than June 2022. The 
committee mentioned one important date in their report: The PCC 
will not implement the new RDA Toolkit before July 2022.

The group charged with updating policy statements for the new 
RDA toolkit reported that all original RDA LC/PCC policy statements 
have been analyzed and transferred, in accordance with the guide-
line given to them of making as few changes from the current RDA 
toolkit as possible. New LC/PCC policy statements have been (or are 
being) written for all options. Over 7,000 new LC/PCC policy state-
ments have been created, a number related to the increase in options 
in the new RDA toolkit. The group expects to complete metadata guid-
ance documentation by November 2021.

A substantive update that the PCC made during the last year is 
in the method of cataloging partial compilations for works. Catalog-
ers who catalog such works (selected novels, or two works by one 
person under the same cover, as examples) will need to consult the 
new “PCC Policy for Partial Compilations of Works by One Agent” on 
the NACO portion of the PCC website.

The Task Group on Identity Management in NACO gave an 
update on the Wikidata Pilot. The purpose of the pilot is to deter-
mine whether or not, and how, Wikidata might be used for creating 
name authorities. The presentation ended with a discussion (always 
somewhat difficult in an online environment) about the use of Wiki-
data in lieu of the Library of Congress Name Authority File. Executive 
summary: there is no unanimity on this question among PCC catalog-
ers. Of particular note to Atla catalogers: Christa Strickler, Wheaton 
College, is participating in the pilot. If you have specific questions 
about the pilot, she should be able to answer them for you.



318  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

Robert Bremer and Cynthia Whitacre presented the OCLC update. 
OCLC regularly updates their processing to keep aligned with new 
fields and subfields, as well as obsoleted fields and subfields, in the 
MARC record. OCLC continues to make maintenance of records easier 
by adding to the list of fields that can be added by non-PCC libraries, 
as well as by adding the ability to modify some fields that are already 
in a BIBCO record. This summer, OCLC will run controlling software 
over all the WorldCat bibliographic records (more than 510 million). 
This will control all controllable headings, update headings as appli-
cable, and apply subject heading enrichment to the records. OCLC 
estimates that three-quarters of all WorldCat records will be updated.

The other two PCC programs in which Atla catalogers partici-
pate are here briefly noted. SACO is open to any individual member 
of Atla who wishes to participate. Training is much less stringent 
than with NACO, since the ultimate control lies with the Library of 
Congress: the Library of Congress approves or disapproves of any 
proposed subject heading or LC classification proposal. With the 
continued move to linked data and the discontinued use of “multi-
ples” subject headings, the Atla Funnels Coordinator believes that 
there is certainly a spot for Atla institutions to be actively involved 
in this area.

As for CONSER, as already noted in the first few paragraphs giving 
statistics, the Atla CONSER Coordinator (the only active Atla CONSER 
cataloger) is leaving his current position. Exactly how much he can 
continue to be involved in CONSER cataloging is not known; it is 
probable that he will not be able to do any CONSER work at all. So, 
the floor is open to any cataloger who wishes to begin CONSER work.

For any questions in general, or about any of the Atla funnels 
specifically, please feel free to contact me at richard.lammert@ctsfw.
edu.


