November 15-17, 2000

As part of the activities commemorating the Bicentennial, the Library hosted an invitational conference on Bibliographic Control for The New Millennium: Confronting the Challenges of Networked Resources and the Web.

The conference provided a premier international forum for authorities in the cataloging and metadata communities to discuss outstanding issues involving the bibliographic challenges of providing description and access to Web resources. The focus of the conference was on an open discussion of the issues with primary attention to proposed solutions and action items which result.

Topics and panel discussions were presented in six main sessions, which reflected the problem-solving approach of the conference: 1) examining the library catalog and its challenges as a portal to the Web; 2) assessing current library and metadata standards for bibliographic control and Web access; 3) addressing actions and plans for the future direction of these standards and of other mechanisms designed to advance description and access to Web resources; 4) examining the results of particular metadata experiments and initiatives and what we've learned from them; 5) exploring potential partnerships among the library, metadata, and vendor communities that will foster the development of new or expanded Web-based projects; and 6) identifying outcomes with the completion of action plans and an overall strategy to meet conference goals.

More information about Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, including the conference program, biographies of the speakers and commentators, papers, information on subscribing to the discussion list, and the symposium's cybercast, is available at loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol.