Executive Board Minutes

Wednesday, March 24, 1993

Administrative Conference Room

University Research Library, UCLA

Present:

Members of the OCLC CJK Users Group Executive Board:

Teruko Kyuma Chin, James Cheng, Karl Lo, Joy Kim

OCLC Asia Pacific Services staff:

Hisako Kotaka, Andrew Wang

The meeting was chaired by Karl Lo, since the Chair's arrival was delayed due to a snowstorm in Boston. Mr. Wu later joined the group at the dinner, hosted by Andrew Wang, where discussions continued.

Minutes of the November 7, 1992 Executive Board meeting were approved.

Plans for the Program Committee meeting and the General membership meeting were reviewed.

I. Program Committee Meeting

1. Cooperative Analytical Cataloging

James Cheng said that, if each of the 10-15 largest OCLC and RLG libraries volunteers to analyze one set, it will have a significant impact on the project. At the Program Committee meeting on March 26, 1993, he hoped to identify 10-15 major sets, and decide which libraries will be responsible for which titles.

After the CEAL Plenary Session on March 25, 1993, the Task Force members, along with Eugene Wu and Karl Lo, will meet with their RLG counterparts.

2. Cooperative Recon

Karl Lo said that, at the Program Committee meeting, he would like to solicit opinions on the following points: logistics (how to do it), funding possibilities, and what else the Group should do. James Cheng said that he wanted to see some concrete action plans. Karl Lo responded that, after gathering all information, ideas and comments, a committee will be formed to formulate concrete plans.

II. OCLC Reports

Andrew Wang reported on the progress of various OCLC initiatives.

1. Call Number Enhancement in RLIN Records

Work begun in March 1993 to address the issue of retaining the call number in RLIN records. A new program has to be developed in accordance with OCLC's quality control standards, and Mr. Wang did not know how long it will take. Mr. Wang was asked if writing to the OCLC President would help to expedite the process. Mr. Wang said it would. James Cheng said that he will make a motion at the Program Committee meeting for the Chair to write a letter to Dr. Wayne Smith.

2. Loading of Foreign Tapes/Database Expansion NCL Records

Mr. Wang said that, to date, nobody had loaded any foreign CJK tapes in the U.S. databases. The OCLC-NCL Records Exchange Agreement was signed more than 6 years ago, but little progress has been made. The major hurdles are technical differences in internal codes, character sets, and cataloging standards and practices.

Chinese National Bibliography of the Republican Era. Mr. Wang said that OCLC is still a leader. By "importing personnel" rather than tapes (the only feasible way up to now, according to Mr. Wang), OCLC has added over 10,000 records into the database under the Chinese National Bibliography of the Republican Era, 1911-1949 project.

Waseda University Tapes:

Mr. Wang had two formal and numerous informal meetings with Waseda University. Real progress has been made towards loading Waseda's 300,000 Japanese records into the OCLC database. Kinokuniya, co-owner of the Waseda database, must co-sign. Mr. Wang was highly optimistic about this project.

Japan MARC Tapes:

As of the morning of the meeting, Susan Tarr of LC was still negotiating the pricing issue with Kinokuniya for the Japan MARC tapes.

Shen-lien Tapes:

Having learned a lesson from the OCLC-NCL tape exchange, Mr. Wang expected that nothing will happen until technical problems are resolved.

3. OCLC CJK Plus

OCLC completed a field test for CJK Plus, with ten participating libraries. Ninety-nine percent finished, the production version is anticipated to be released in May, 1933. CJK Plus will feature a new Pin-yin to Wade-Giles conversion program. This new feature is based on the conversion algorithm developed by Mr. Karl Lo who has generously given it to OCLC in order to benefit the entire CJK community.

4. New CJK Members

UC Berkeley has officially signed for three CJK workstations. UCB will do its entire cataloging on OCLC, but continue to use RLIN for records maintenance.

III. Other Business

The proposed change in the name of the Group (from OCLC CJK350 Users Group to OCLC CJK Users Group) and the proposed amendments in the By-Laws were approved. These changes will be submitted to the general membership for a vote.

(recorded and respectfully submitted by Joy Kim)