The Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSCAACR), the body that controls the content of AACR, believes the underlying principles of AACR should be reviewed, taking into account present and future trends in information resources and information management. Arrangements have been made for an international conference to be held in Toronto, Canada, on October 23-25, 1997. JSCAACR expects conference participants to determine whether a fundamental revision of AACR is appropriate and feasible, and, if so, to provide advice on the nature and direction of revisions.

Attendance at the conference is by invitation only, Frequently updated information about the conference can be found at URL:

http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/isc/index.htm.

As the nine papers being written for the conference are completed, they will be available at this URL, beginning probably in June. JSCAACR invites comments on, or critiques of, these papers. Rationales for other topics that you feel JSCAACR should address are also welcome.

In the following brief descriptions of the papers points have been arbitrarily chosen to give a picture of their content. Obviously, the final papers will provide many more ideas than those presented here.

"The Principles of AACR," by Michael Gorman, Dean of Library Services, California State University, Fresno, and Pat Oddy, Head of Cataloguing, the British Library, address some fundamental questions. Are the present AACR principles still valid for all media? Do the rules need simplifying? Are the rules flexible and responsive to change? What risks are involved in change? In what way do rule interpretations undermine AACR principles?

The bibliographic universe contains, in addition to the library's traditional collection, other sources of information available to the public, such as publishers, catalogs, and bibliographies, discographies, and filmographies compiled according to other standards. "Bibliographic Universe (Functional Requirements)" by Tom Delsey, Director General, Corporate Policy and Communication, National Library of Canada, will describe some models of the bibliographic universe developed by various individuals and groups, and evaluate them in terms of accuracy, flexibility, efficiency, user-friendliness, and compatibility.

In his paper "AACR2 and Catalogue Production Technology," Rahmatollah Fattahi of Iran, presently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Information, Library, and Archive Studies, University of New South Wales, will examine to what extent the rules in AACR2 match or fail to match the capabilities of present systems and those of the near future or searching, retrieval, and presentation of bibliographic information.

"The Work," by Martha Yee, Cataloging Supervisor, UCLA Film and TV Archive, discusses the question "What is a work?" by reviewing AACR2 rules by which a decision is made about whether an item is, or is not, to be considered a new work. Much of the paper is devoted to the problems that result from the lack of general rules for works of mixed responsibility.

In her paper "Bibliographic Relationships," Sherry Vellucci, Assistant Professor, Division of Library and Information Studies, St. John's University, discusses bibliographic relationships in terms of various linkages; their importance to users of bibliographic records and users of authority records; in the MARC environment; and in a relational database environment.

Crystal Craham, Serials Librarian, University of California, San Diego, and Jean Hirons, Acting CONSER Coordinator, Serial Record Division, Library of Congress, detail "Issues Related to Seriality: Defining On-going Publications." They believe that the definition of "serial" in AACR2 is no longer adequate, that a broader concept of "on-Going work" is needed. They also argue that the book-based chapter 1 and the paper-based chapter 12 do not accommodate the needs of all on-going library materials.

"Principal Access Points," by Ronald Hagler, Professor, School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, deals with main entry and corporate body entry and their relationship to uniform titles and titles proper, the MARC format, and the need to restructure authority files to reflect the capabilities of computerization.

Rule 0.24, which mandates the cataloguing of the item in hand, is one of the cardinal principles of AACR. However, libraries that include electronic resources in their catalogues therefore no longer possess in physical form all the items listed in these catalogues. In her paper "Content vs Carrier," Lynne Howarth, Dean, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, queries whether this fundamental rule should be retained, tinkered with, or reconstructed. Practical considerations, present realities, and international consequences are discussed.

The final speaker, Mick Ridley, Senior Computer Officer, University of Bradford, presents "Beyond MARC." How effective is MARC? Is MARC simply an embodiment of AACR? Do we need a transfer standard for catalogue records? What is a good structure/format for catalogue records? Is the same structure/format needed for transfer, database storage, and presentation to users?

JSC is interested all points of view relating to AACR. Do not let this opportunity to be part of the decision making process pass by.