Of possible interest. ________________________________ From: SACO Cataloging Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Berthoud, Heidy I <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2025 3:54 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [SACOLIST] SACO Shorts: PTCP jargon (frequently asked question)
There is a fair amount of jargon and other shorthand that gets used by the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs (PTCP) Division. The Policy Specialists have developed a list of jargon they’d like to share, and there are so many words and phrases, it’s enough to fill several SACO Shorts! Here is the first installment: List work, list owner, list assistants List work is a shorthand that encompasses all of the tasks and processes that go into vocabulary and classification maintenance. Other phrases that are sometimes used synonymously are “list process,” “monthly list work,” “editorial list work,” or “the editorial process.” The current title for people who do this work is Policy Specialist, but earlier iterations of this job title (and department name) included words like “Editor” or “Editorial” to make plain the responsibility of adding, editing, and maintaining subject and classification records. You may also hear the phrase “monthly list,” which is the routine list for any given month. This is in contrast to a “special list,” which is a one-off list produced for a project. Review of the monthly list is a multistep and intensive process. This review starts the day the tentative list is published and is concluded when the approved list is produced. During that time span, a small group of Policy Specialists will be meeting on a regular basis, as well as working independently, to review every proposal on the list. There will be a designated list owner, who has overall responsibility for a given list, and two to three list assistants, who assist in reviewing proposals. The roles of list owner and list assistant are rotated through the Policy Specialists on a set schedule. Scheduling/unscheduling/rescheduling As proposals are received by PTCP, they are scheduled to lists. List scheduling and processing work happens in the ClassWeb Plus management system. Scheduling a proposal simply means assigning it to a list. Routine proposals are assigned to whatever monthly list is open at the time. (PTCP caps lists at 200 proposals, so it is not uncommon to be scheduling lists several months in advance.) Proposals made as part of special projects are scheduled to special lists. There are times when PTCP may reschedule a proposal to a different list or unschedule it altogether. Sometimes, this is at the request of the proposer. Other times, Policy Specialists may choose to shift proposals to different lists for workload reasons, or to group several like proposals together to be considered as a set. Tentative list, approved list A tentative list is a published list showing the proposals under consideration for an LC vocabulary; you can see tentative lists online at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/tentative-subjects/__;!!KGKeukY!zFPhRXd3WYIqKyFWmz6JYxsMbexqydMUYzq-1ZS0qjo2w_Uz3vaYdZer4sMW0HkFmylafMnpBF17hK2shNS98Q$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/tentative-subjects/__;!!EDx7F7x-0XSOB8YS_BQ!coHRA5n_5vWyq-VG7ZXXhp4VLpcCFRUAJQv3qt6qXAcVupYBSmrUenjlExfszgytnR-KbMrFFl9907dSuY5OAWvJsQ$> and https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/tentative/__;!!KGKeukY!zFPhRXd3WYIqKyFWmz6JYxsMbexqydMUYzq-1ZS0qjo2w_Uz3vaYdZer4sMW0HkFmylafMnpBF17hK0WU82-7g$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/tentative/__;!!EDx7F7x-0XSOB8YS_BQ!coHRA5n_5vWyq-VG7ZXXhp4VLpcCFRUAJQv3qt6qXAcVupYBSmrUenjlExfszgytnR-KbMrFFl9907dSuY6SocgMWA$>. While tentative lists are under review, people are free to send comments on proposals to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. This inbox is monitored by Policy Specialists, and any comments received will become part of the review process. Comments should be sent within the first month of a tentative list being published. The approved list is a published list showing the new headings that have been produced and are available for use; you can see approved lists online at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/approved-subjects/__;!!KGKeukY!zFPhRXd3WYIqKyFWmz6JYxsMbexqydMUYzq-1ZS0qjo2w_Uz3vaYdZer4sMW0HkFmylafMnpBF17hK0WQBCWPw$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/approved-subjects/__;!!EDx7F7x-0XSOB8YS_BQ!coHRA5n_5vWyq-VG7ZXXhp4VLpcCFRUAJQv3qt6qXAcVupYBSmrUenjlExfszgytnR-KbMrFFl9907dSuY5j2Pkjgw$> and https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/approved/__;!!KGKeukY!zFPhRXd3WYIqKyFWmz6JYxsMbexqydMUYzq-1ZS0qjo2w_Uz3vaYdZer4sMW0HkFmylafMnpBF17hK17M5AFPg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://classweb.org/approved/__;!!EDx7F7x-0XSOB8YS_BQ!coHRA5n_5vWyq-VG7ZXXhp4VLpcCFRUAJQv3qt6qXAcVupYBSmrUenjlExfszgytnR-KbMrFFl9907dSuY6hrtSvbQ$>. Red list, yellow list You may have heard Policy Specialists mention the red list and the yellow list. Simply put, these are internal iterations of the tentative list. An important step in the editorial process is tentative list review (described at point 2 of H 204 Evaluating Subject Proposals<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeSHM/H0204.pdf__;!!IBzWLUs!TFGXFYgG5-UBwlbuxC6OO6S17sBB6C1EG0Jl21ZJZgx22nplzi9yo01JtZz2LbiQCuQLSB_JU4POF4vjFdw$>). This review happens in two phases: Immediately after a tentative list is published, review work begins and initial corrections and modifications are noted. This is the red list. The Assistant Policy Specialist then makes the requested changes within the proposal system and produces a revised copy of the tentative list for final review. This is the yellow list. It is written in the deep lore of PTCP that these lists were once printed as physical copies and kept in red or yellow folders, from which they took their names. Today, list review is handled in shared spreadsheets, but the red list/yellow list naming convention persists. Fun fact: There was also once a “purple list.” Establish editorially Policy Specialists may say that something needs to be established editorially. This means a proposal is required, and that proposal will need to go through the editorial process. As noted above, this is the process that will officially add a new record to the authority file or change an existing record. Off-list changes There are certain changes that Policy Specialists can make directly in authority records without needing to go through the editorial process. These are called off-list changes because they do not require a proposal on any list. We will be publishing a SACO Short detailing all of the changes that can be made off-list later this year. List numbers All tentative and approved lists have a four-digit number, for example, list 2501. The first two digits denote the year, and the second two digits denote the month. List 2501 would be the monthly list for January 2025. When special lists are produced, they are typically marked as distinct from the monthly list by appending a single letter, for example, list 2406a or list 2410a. These would be special lists published in June 2024 and October 2024. Our next SACO Short on PTCP jargon will include work cat; backdoor proposals; upwards UFs; force filing; “may sub geog”; validation records; and orphan headings. What have we missed? Please send your recommendations to [email protected].<mailto:[email protected]> SACO Shorts are quick tips that cover common proposal problems or frequently asked questions. SACO Shorts are published on the first and third Mondays of the month.
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