BIBCO Program Parameters

When applying to join BIBCO, institutions agree to a set of membership and record contribution requirements.

To maintain BIBCO Membership Requirements thoughout their participation in the program, member institutions must continue to:

• Be active, independent NACO contributors
• Be proficient in following descriptive instructions, procedures, and guidelines contained in the RDA, LC-PCC Policy Statements, MARC 21 Bibliographic Format and the MARC 21 Authority Format
• Be proficient in applying established subject and classification systems (i.e. LCSH, MeSH, LCC, etc., and their supporting documentation)
• Have access to the online bibliographic and authority files, including the Library of Congress name and subject authority files
• Support the possible service of attendance of BIBCO representatives to the PCC Operations Committee meeting (OpCo). OpCo meets annually for a Thursday/Friday in the spring in Washington, DC.

To meet BIBCO Record Contribution Requirements, member institutions:

• Designate their BIBCO records with MARC field “042 pcc,” but are not required to designate all of their cataloging as BIBCO records.
  
• Contribute a minimum of 100 bibliographic records annually
• Make their BIBCO records available in a timely manner as a mark of quality
• Support all access points on BIBCO records with authority records. (Note: controlling series access points is a local option.)
  
• Use the following documentation:
  
  • RDA Toolkit
  • LC-PCC PSs
  • PCC RDA BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) Metadata Application Profile
  • MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data
  • ALA-LC Romanization tables
• Assign at least one or two subject headings (at the appropriate level of specificity) from an established thesaurus or subject heading system recognized by the MARC 21 Format on BIBCO records e.g., ATT, MeSH, LCSH
• If using LCSH, follow current LC documentation (Note: Certain topics may require multiple headings; 10 is the maximum, cf. Subject Headings Manual H 180)
  
• Assign a classification number on BIBCO records for textual or cartographic materials from an established classification system supported by the MARC 21 format e.g., Dewey, LC Classification (LCC)
• If using LC Classification, follow current documentation issued by LC or in commercially available versions of the schedules
• If not tracing series, are exempt from creating series authority records for unestablished series and may code these series as MARC field 490 first indicator 0 on BIBCO records
• If tracing series on BIBCO records, follow the series policies and procedures as stated in the LC Descriptive Cataloging Manual Z1 supplement to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data and the LC-PCC PSs
  

For more information contact BIBCO Coordinator.