The ALA CORE Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) Subdivision Continuity Working Group is looking for members.
Building on the findings of past SAC groups such as $v Retention and the Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies, this working group will examine the technical feasibility of maintaining Library of Congress subject heading subdivisions, should they be discontinued or no longer maintained by LC.
Possible options for retention that have been mentioned include sustaining a fork of LCSH subdivisions by a non-LC body, adopting non-LC alternative vocabularies, or working with vendors to retain and maintain records with the subfields pending a long-term resolution. The group will conduct a vendor capability assessment with OCLC and ILS vendors and review existing implementations of alternative or forked vocabularies. Findings will be weighed against resource requirements and implementation burden, and the group will present a comparative assessment of each pathway's feasibility to the committee.
You do not need to be a SAC member to participate. We'd love volunteers from libraries of all types and sizes to help ensure we understand perspectives from institutions big and small. If you have been curious about the next steps for libraries as subdivisions are being discontinued, then this is your opportunity to help us explore the options.
If you're interested in joining or have any questions or feedback, please contact me, the working group chair (Sasha Frizzell, SFrizzell@binghamton.edu). I'd appreciate expressions of interest before April 15, but welcome folks to reach out after that point as well. Thank you for considering!
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Sasha Frizzell
Catalog / Metadata Management Librarian
Binghamton University
She/Her/Hers,They/Them/Theirs
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