NACO Coordinating Committee Minutes

Date: 12 April 2004

Present: Steven Arakawa, Sarah Elman, Maria Hunenko, Cécile Mandour, Rick Sarcia, Manon Théroux (chair and recorder)

Absent: Fanny Hsieh, Mickey Koth.

1. New RLIN21 Interface

The new RLIN21 web search interface has been released: http://rlin21.rlg.org/

Committee members have begun doing test searches in the web authority files to see how the new interface differs from the one currently in use. The committee will continue to do testing and will begin thinking about training sessions and changes needed in Yale's NACO documentation. According to the RLG timeline, NACO participants will start creating authority records using the new RLIN21 clent in August.

2. NACO Training Update

Manon has finished the latest round of NACO names training. Series training will be conducted in the coming months, dates to be determined.

3. NACO E-mail Discussion List

Manon has set up a new e-mail list through ITS called YUL-NACO. The list uses Mailman software. So far, the list is in test phase and only the NACO Coordinating Committee members have been subscribed, but eventually all NACO catalogers will be subscribed. The list will serve as a way of distributing NACO-related news and reminders. Catalogers may also use the list as a forum for discussing NACO questions, if desired. Because YULCAT-L has a large number of non-NACO staff subscribed, it is not an ideal means of communication for NACO issues.

After discussing the pros and cons of having replies go "to the list" or "to the sender," the committee decided they should go "to the list." The committee also tentatively decided to limit the default number of headers that the software adds to each message if possible; currently, the default configuration includes so many headers that one must scroll to the next screen to get to the text of the message. The committee will look into the software's archiving functionality.

4. NACO History at Yale

Maria distributed a draft chronology detailing the history of Yale's NACO participation from 1977-2003. Committee members should submit corrections and additions to her. Manon will then mount the document on the Authority Control at Yale website and invite NACO catalogers to supply additional information and fill in gaps if possible.