Project Group on RISM Series C

This project group was active from 2019 to 2022.

Terms of Reference

The Project Group on RISM Series C is formed under the auspices of the Archives and Music Documentation Centres Section.  It will be a pilot project to update the RISM Series C directory of music holding institutions, in collaboration with the RISM Zentralredaktion in Frankfurt.

Following up the aims and goals of the previous Project Group on Access to Music Archives, the rationale behind the project is based on a broader need for Muscat, the cataloging program used by RISM, to optimize and synchronize its functions and interoperability through further customization, i.e. to bring about Muscat’s alignment with recent initiatives and models of bibliographic data, such as the Library Reference Model (LRM)/FRBR, Resource Description and Access (RDA) and the Bibliographic Framework (BIBFRAME), as well as following best practices of standards of archival description in relation to music collections.

The specific goals for the three-year term of the Project Group are:

• 2019-2022: The Project Group will work with the Zentralredaktion to customize Muscat, so that the stated objectives can be achieved.
• 2019-2020: A complete list of the new MARC 21 fields for institutional authority records will be gathered and provided for implementation in Muscat.
• 2020-2022: The Project Group will work on a trial/test level to optimize data display of authority records for Greek institutions.

The Project Group will also work closely with colleagues in the Research Libraries Section, the Publications Committee, and the Cataloguing and Metadata Section.