SACO Proposal Workflow

SACO proposals submitted to COOP are processed by two distinct sections within LC: the COOP Section in the Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division (COIN) and the Data Integrity Section of the Policy and Standards Division (PSD). SACO proposals must go through the editorial process in order to be incorporated into the controlled vocabulary of Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Generally, all approved subject proposals are processed, the approved list is posted to the Web, and records are distributed to MARC Distribution Service: Subject Authorities subscribers within 5 to 6 weeks after initial receipt by the Library of Congress.

The following is a detailed description of the workflow.

SACO Processing

Week 1:

A SACO proposal is submitted using the online form

SACO proposals are downloaded daily into LC's Voyager ILS by a COOP staff member

The proposal is assigned a control number in MARC 21 field 010; the control number begins with the prefix "sh" (for example, sh2008465727)

The caption [proposed] appears at the end of the 1xx field

The proposal is searchable in Library of Congress Authorities the day after it is downloaded.

Proposals are reviewed by a SACO specialist in COOP to assure that basic Subject Headings Manual guidelines are correctly applied (for example, correct field 008 coding; MARC 21 tagging, diacritics are used; adequate source citations are provided; and appropriate Broader Terms and/or Related Terms are provided)

At the end of this COOP review, an additional MARC 21 field, 019, is added to the proposal; the number recorded in the 019 field is identical to the control number in the 010 field, except the prefix in the 019 field is "sp", not "sh".

This 019 field will be viewable in the proposal if you search Library of Congress Authorities

If you see this 019 field, you will know that the proposal has left COOP and is now in the hands of Policy and Standards Division (PSD)

As proposals are completed in COOP they are sent daily to the Data Integrity Section of PSD.

If you need to change something on a subject proposal after you have submitted it, you should send an e-mail message to the SACO account, noting the specific changes needed. COOP staff will make the changes to the online record and notify you when this has been done.

Once COOP has completed its work on the incoming SACO proposals (normally within five work days) they are sent to the Data Integrity Section to put into the editorial workflow for inclusion on a weekly list of proposed subject headings. Within the Data Integrity Section proposals are collected Monday through Friday for a particular tentative list. This may mean that a SACO proposal sent to COOP late in one week may not get on the weekly list being processed for that same week, because it was received by the Data Integrity Section early the next week.

Editorial Processing in PSD

Week 2:

The Data Integrity Section of PSD processes all incoming proposals received Monday through Friday, and compiles the tentative weekly list. (Note: because of limited staff, regularly scheduled days off, and any leave taken, it is possible that a proposal received late in one week will not be put on the list being compiled that week, but will go on the next weekly list).

Once work has been completed in the Data Integrity Section tentative weekly lists are posted to the Web early the next week. The editorial meeting for that list will be held on a Wednesday one week after the tentative list is posted. This allows anyone to study the list and make comments and suggestions to PSD.

Week 3:

LC employees, SACO participants, and other constituencies examine the tentative list and make comments or suggestions to the subject policy specialist in charge of the weekly list.

The Subject Policy specialist in charge of the list examines all the proposals in great depth for conformance to policies as stated in Subject Headings Manual H memos, and responds to comments submitted.

Week 4:

The editorial meeting is held every Wed. At the meeting, proposals are either approved, changed according to the subject heading policies, not approved, withdrawn, or marked resubmit. All proposals that were approved at the editorial meeting as submitted are approved and a copy is sent to the Library of Congress Voyager database, which can be viewed the next day. The MARC records for these approved headings are distributed on the following Tuesday. All other proposals on the tentative list that were not approved are held in the Data Integrity Section until the issues are resolved.

Week 5-6:

After all the remaining proposals on the tentative list are corrected online by the Data Integrity Section, the approved copy of the list is posted to the Web.

A Summary of Decisions from the weekly editorial meeting is posted on the SACO website.

Proposals that were not approved, or were marked resubmit, are included in this summary If a proposal is marked "resubmit," a 667 field reading: "Resubmit, Weekly List [number of weekly list]" will be added to the original proposal. The proposal will remain in the LC Voyager database for two weeks. You may resubmit the proposal by sending a message to the SACO account, indicating any changes to the original proposal. At this point, the six-week review period will restart. If you have not resubmitted the proposal within two weeks of the Subject Editorial Meeting, the original proposal will be deleted from the LC Voyager database.

You should consult the Summary of Decisions - COOP staff will not contact you directly regarding proposal status.

Remember: COOP and PSD staff will not contact you regarding the status of proposals. You can monitor the progress and status of your proposal by:

1. -- searching Library of Congress Authorities
2. -- looking at the Subject Headings Tentative Weekly Lists
3. -- looking at the Subject Headings Approved Weekly Lists
4. -- looking at the Summary of Decisions from the Weekly Editorial Meeting

Please do not use the SACO email address to inquire about the status of a proposal; instead, track the proposal as aforementioned.

Thank you for your cooperation! COOP staff is committed to timely and efficient processing and review of all SACO proposals!