Cataloging Futures

ALA 2011: Some RDA news

The RDA Toolkit blog has an interesting post on RDA news coming out of the American Library Association Annual Conference. Here's a snippet:

It was a busy day at the ALA Conference for RDA and RDA Toolkit. The U.S. Test Committee met with vendors, testers, and the public, and summarized the results of the test and the reasoning behind their recent decision. The committee stated that the "rewrite" of RDA will actually be more of a rewording, intended to simplify and clarify some of the instructions. Cataloging practice will not be affected by the rewording. We also learned that the Library of Congress will begin partial RDA cataloging in November. They will catalog across all subject areas and expect RDA records to represent about 5% of the library's cataloging output. The National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library will not catalog in RDA until full implementation begins.

RDA Test Coordinating Committee: full report now available

Last week I commented briefly on the executive summary. Now the full public report is available at the Library of Congress RDA test website: Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee [pdf]. It's 192 pages.

RDA implementation decison

First leaked on Twitter, Today's announcement marks a watershed moment for catalogers. The long-awaited decision finally came down as to whether or not the Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine, and National Agricultural Library would choose to implement the new cataloging code, RDA: Resource Description and Access.

It seems they do intent to implement RDA in 2013 with changes. Significant changes. The statement referenced the Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee, a report which does not hold back on criticism of RDA and the RDA Toolkit and is spot-on in targeting where RDA does not lived up to its own stated goals.

For those of us who watched and participated in the development of RDA there's a certain feeling of vindication. Some of these issues were brought up during the development of the code. It's nice to see them backed up by evidence-based testing.

The report suggests (requires?) that a lot of work needs to be done to bring RDA up to snuff prior to implementation. It provides ambitious timelines for rewriting, reworking, etc.

RDA cataloging: OCLC policy statement

Want to contribute original cataloging to WorldCat using RDA now? You can. Here's the OCLC policy statement on RDA Cataloging in WorldCat for the U.S. testing period.

h/t TSLL TechScans

RDA examples link round-up

No squirrels here :) But over on The Bib Blog, F. Tim Knight has tracked down and pulled together several sources of RDA examples. Just what's needed to get ready for the RDA Toolkit free trial!

Cataloging with RDA: an overview

NCompass Live: Cataloging with RDA

View more presentations from Nebraska Library Commission.

Nice, up-to-date overview of RDA by Emily Nimsakont. There are also audio and video versions of this presentation.

h/t The Antiquarian Librarian

RDA Toolkit mailing list

Want to stay up-to-date with the new cataloging code? Subscribe to the RDA Toolkit mailing list.

h/t Three Catalogers Walk Into a Blog

New RDA Toolkit website

The anticipated cataloging code, Resource Description and Access (RDA), has a new home. According to Troy Linker, Publisher, ALA Digital Reference, RDA Toolkit is the new website. The old link for RDA Online will soon redirect to the new location.

RDA Toolkit webinars now available!

If you missed last week's RDA Toolkit webinars, no sweat. The two video presentations from ALA Publishing are now available.

h/t Blog About Technical Services