28th meeting of the IFLA Permanent UNIMARC Committee in Rome

March 22-23, 2018 in Rome, in the Central Institute of Catalogs and Bibliographic Information of Italy (ICCU - Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and for Bibliographic Information) was held an annual working meeting of PUC (Permanent UNIMARC Committee). The Presidential Library at the meeting was represented by the full member of the PUC O. Zhlobinskaya.

The meeting considered a wide range of issues related to the development of the UNIMARC format and the activities of the committee. A number of changes was adopted in the format aimed at optimizing the description and providing access to bibliographic resources. In particular, the changes by the Presidential Library have been made allowing the use of national standard GOST 7.75-97 in UNIMARC records. In addition, there was held a discussion of the rules governing the election of new members of the committee, there were also formulated requirements for candidates for membership in the committee. Also, the procedure for contacting the committee with proposals for making changes to the format was determined; the text of the Protocol on the interaction between the Permanent Committee for UNIMARC and the Committee for the Development of the RDA has been agreed upon.

Much attention during the meeting was paid to the preparation of an online publication of the full text of the UNIMARC B and UNIMARC/A formats on the IFLA website. As a result of the discussion, the participants agreed on the structure of the final document and formed an editorial board to prepare an online publication. O. N. Zhlobinskaya also joined the editorial board.

Issues related to the preparation of the UNIMARC user conference in Tehran in November 2018 were discussed, and the organizing committee of the conference was formed. O. N. Zhlobinskaya was included in the organizing committee.

The next formal meeting of the Committee is scheduled for May 9-10, 2019 in Maribor, Slovenia.