The ALA Core Subject Analysis Committee Working Group on $v Retention was formed in March 2025, in response to the Library of Congress' https://www.loc.gov/cds/downloads/ModernMARC.pdf. Click or tap if you trust this link." rel="noopener noreferrer" data-linkindex="0" data-auth="NotApplicable">announcement in January 2025 that it would be discontinuing the use of $v form subdivisions when assigning subject headings in "Modern MARC," in favor of only including separate genre/form headings (MARC 655 field).
Our group has concentrated on two tasks to date:
1) Creating a survey to be distributed to library staff to gauge possible impacts of the proposed change on their collections, catalogs, patrons and staff (with a link to an accompanying informational statement that will be updated whenever we learn new information). The survey will hopefully be sent to libraries in mid-to-late August.
2) Compiling a list of questions to send to the Library of Congress regarding the proposed change, to get more information to share broadly with the library community. We're currently soliciting co-signatories to the questions from other library organizations with particular interest in the effects of the discontinuation of $v, and hope to send the questions to the Library of Congress sometime in September.
If you have any questions about the Working Group's activities, want to join the Working Group, or would like to review our questions for the Library of Congress and discuss having your organization be a co-signatory, please feel free to contact the group's chair, Deborah Tomaras, at Deborah.Tomaras@marist.edu.
------------------------------
Deborah Tomaras
Metadata and Resource Management Librarian
Marist University, James A. Cannavino Library
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------