November 21, 2011 [posted]

Cataloging News — 2012

MeSH® 2012 - Implications for LocatorPlus®, NLM Catalog, and the NLM Classification

The National Library of Medicine® (NLM®) adopted the 2012 MeSH vocabulary for cataloging on November 21, 2011.

Accordingly, MeSH subject headings in LocatorPlus were changed to reflect the 2012 MeSH vocabulary and appear in that form as of November 21, 2011.

When year-end processing (YEP) activities are completed in mid-December, the NLM Catalog database and translation tables will be updated to reflect 2012 MeSH. Until then, note that there will be a hiatus in the addition of new and edited bibliographic records to the NLM Catalog.

The Index to the NLM Classification will not reflect 2012 MeSH changes until Spring 2012.

MeSH 2012 Changes in NLM Bibliographic Records

In general, the Cataloging Section implemented the vocabulary changes in NLM bibliographic records for books, serials, and other materials, as they were applied for citations in MEDLINE®. For highlights about 2012 MeSH, see the articles, What's New for 2012 MeSH and MEDLINE Data Changes - 2012.

Medical Technology vs. Biomedical Technology
MeSH changed the specialty term Technology, Medical to Medical Laboratory Science to make it less ambiguous. In examining the cataloging records assigned the heading Technology, Medical, we determined that it was better to change the MeSH heading to Biomedical Technology, rather than Medical Laboratory Science because, in the majority of the cases, this is the heading that better reflects the topic of these works. About 400 records where Medical Laboratory Science is more appropriate have been identified programmatically and will be changed after YEP.

Publication Types (PTs):
Cataloging may now use the PT Addresses for modern cataloging. With 2012 MeSH, the restriction "CATALOG: Do not use for current materials " was removed from the annotation for this term.

New MeSH descriptors not used by catalogers:
Cataloging does not use MeSH terms that represent corporate names or uniform titles that reside in the national authority file. Therefore, HapMap Project has the annotation: CATALOG: use NAF entry. Catalogers should use the NAF heading: International HapMap Project.

Additional Database Changes

A summary of the DTD and XML changes for the NLMCatalogRecordSet DTD and CatfilePlus and Serfile XML for 2012 is available.

Cataloging Activities

Resource Description and Access (RDA) testing was completed and the results of the test analyzed, leading to a recommendation that the US National Libraries implement RDA no sooner than January 2013, contingent upon certain conditions being met prior to that date. See:

Resource Description and Access (RDA) Information and Resources in Preparation for RDA
Post-RDA Test Policies at NLM

Note that some of the post-test policies described in the January 13, 2011 article, Post-Resource Description and Access (RDA) Test Policies at NLM, have been changed. As of September 2011, NLM is following the post-test practices of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging and providing all access points on bibliographic records using the established form in the national authority file for both RDA and Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2) records.

By Diane Boehr and Sharon Willis
Cataloging Section

Boehr D, Willis S. Cataloging News — 2012. NLM Tech Bull. 2011 Nov-Dec;(383):e4.