Dear PCC colleagues,

This is the fourth and final in a series of quarterly updates from the PCC Chair for this fiscal year. The Chair will provide news and updates at the end of each quarter: November/December, February/March, May, and August.

Below are highlights from the past three months:

Programs

  1. The Standing Committee on Membership and Programming has organized three events since May 2025.
    1. CONSER Workshop on May 22, 2025
    2. PCC Office Hours: Bring Your Questions on June 28, 2025 (during ALA Annual Conference)
    3. PCC and Linked Data: Successes and Challenges of Implementing Linked Data on June 29, 2025 (during ALA Annual Conference)
  2. The PCC held its second Participants Meeting on July 17, 2025, with over 320 attendees. During the meeting, we shared updates from EMCO, the AI Task Group, and provided an overview of ongoing RDA training. Key takeaways from the meeting include:
    1. PCC related documents are now available on the PCC Wiki. Going forward PCC will use the Wiki as a repository of certain types of PCC documents. 
    2. PCC has launched a YouTube channel featuring training videos. Additional content will be added as it becomes available. 

*Slides and recordings of CONSER and Participants Meeting are available at the PCC Wiki Event Calendar page. 

Reports and Policies

  1. SCT’s Training and Mentorship Needs Assessment Task Group submitted its interim Report. 
  2. PCC Task Group on AI and Machine Learning for Cataloging and Metadata submitted its interim report.
  3. EDIBA Task Group on Gender submitted its final report, which will be shared soon. 
  4. SCS Task Group on CONSER Policies for Official RDA in MARC submitted its final Report. The report is under review and will be made available once approved. 

Others

The PCC’s linked data statement is available now. Please take a moment to review it and see how the PCC has approached linked data in both past and current initiatives. This statement is superseding the 2021 statement and will be available in the PCC Webpage soon. Use of subject headings:

There have been ongoing concerns and questions regarding the recent changes to the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), specifically changes from ‘Mexico, Gulf of’ to ‘America, Gulf of’ and from ‘Denali, Mount (Alaska)’ to ‘Mount McKinley.’  These updates were implemented in March of this year and we understand that these changes are undesirable for many of our members. 

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) would like to remind members that the use of LCSH is not mandatory. As stated in the BIBCO Participants’ Manual (BPM) E5.5. Subject Headings:

“BIBCO does not require its participants to use one particular subject thesaurus. BIBCO participants may use any subject heading scheme recognized by the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data…”

PCC affirms that the selection of subject vocabularies remains at the discretion of each institution, based on factors such as the nature of the resources being described, the depth and appropriateness of the vocabulary, and the needs of the institution’s user communities.

PCC recognizes that ongoing discussions are taking place at institutions concerning the use of local and/or alternative controlled vocabularies. PCC remains committed to fostering shared understanding and encouraging the exploration of common solutions that support more consistent and inclusive metadata practices across the community.

PCC needs you!

The PCC Standing Committees and Advisory Committees are seeking new members for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2025.

If you're interested in serving, please complete the form and indicate the committee(s) you’d like to join. Your participation is vital to the continued success of the PCC community.

If you have questions, feedback, or would like to get involved in PCC’s work, Please use the Question, Feedback, and Volunteer Form. 

Thank you for your continued engagement and support of the PCC community.