Library of Congress

Program for Cooperative Cataloging

The Library of Congress > Cataloging, Acquisitions > PCC > Library Directors
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Program benefits

PCC membership connects your institution and staff to a global network of libraries

Responsibilities and Guidelines for Involvement

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging welcomes library leaders to shape the direction of this member-governed body.

Library directors/leaders are expected to:

  • Become familiar with PCC governance
  • Vote for program representatives to the PCC Policy Committee
  • Read program descriptions prior to applying for membership
  • Designate a local contact to maintain a healthy program
  • Maintain continuity among program contacts during staffing changes
  • Provide resources for initial training and practice applying record elements
  • Support access to cataloging/metadata standards with subscriptions to appropriate documentation
  • Incorporate PCC record contribution into local workflows
  • Support staff attendance at meetings and conferences
  • Encourage career development opportunities for staff as PCC trainers, committee members, leaders

Library directors are encouraged to:

  • Attend the Speakers Series at PCC Participants’ Meetings at ALA, Sunday 4-5:30 pm
  • Follow news on the PCC web pages
  • Share PCC experiences with prospective PCC members

Costs

All PCC members reap the benefits of the shared investment of time and skills to produce records for all to use. As you budget, please consider:

  • Institutions pay no PCC membership fees
  • PCC institutions provide trainers and reviewers
  • Institutions receiving training cover travel costs of PCC-supplied trainer (cost estimates available upon request from the LC Coop Programs Section)
  • Institutions sending trainees to a training event follow local travel policies
  • Trainees download and photocopy training manuals locally
  • Documentation is included in Cataloger’s Desktop or by print subscription
  • OCLC contributors incur costs for PCC-related searches of bibliographic files but not authority files; searching the LC catalog and authority files is free

Decision Making

  • The PCC Steering Committee voting members include the three PCC chairs, a Library of Congress representative, and an OCLC representative; this committee serves as the executive board of the PCC Policy Committee
  • The Steering Committee approves new member applications.
  • The PCC Policy Committee governs the Program as a whole; develops, reviews, and approves long term strategies, plans, goals, and objectives
  • Other PCC committees make recommendations for approval by the PCC Policy Committee.
  • The Cooperative Programs Section staff and its chief, the Secretariat, conduct annual elections for the PCC Policy Committee, and provide administrative support to the rotating elected PCC leadership and PCC members.

Learn more about PCC governance, committees, and task forces

PCC Community

The PCC is committed to cataloging through cooperation. Immense benefits are derived by the world wide library community through cataloging cooperatively. The records created for serials, monographs, and name or subject authorities contribute to the world wide endeavor to bring all knowledge, regardless of format, under bibliographic control in order to make it accessible to the world wide community.

The PCC community embraces a wide variety of academic, public, and specialized libraries around the world. Even though the chart below shows a majority of general academic institutions, the number of specialized and public libraries is increasing annually. Some partners use multiple identification codes. When added together, there are 866 identification codes for PCC members. The institutions in this community work with each other to resolve complex cataloging issues, provide training, support and develop standards, etc.

Statistics

The PCC displays record contribution statistics to help its members track local activity and to showcase the results of our cooperative ventures. Read About PCC Statistics for a full explanation of the various reports on the PCC Statistics web page

PCC Libraries by Type

 
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