Cataloging Futures

Call for volunteers: testing Resource Description and Access (RDA)

The U.S. National Libraries are looking for participants to test RDA Online. At the RDA Test Website you can find an application form to apply. The deadline for submitting this form is April 13, 2009.

Looks like participants will be creating bibliographic records using their current cataloging code and Resource Description and Access (RDA), the new code. The test results will be shared with the cataloging community.

Update: Hey metadata librarians, I forgot to mention that the test will include MARC 21 and/or non-MARC (e.g. MODS, Dublin Core) records.

New blog: Resource Description and Access: ALA Rep notes

If you've been reading Planet Cataloging, you've seen John Attig's posts fly by. He's the American Library Association (ALA) representative to the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA (JSC). And the good news is: John is sharing his notes from the recently JSC meeting held this month in Chicago. So, if you are interested in the ongoing development of RDA this is another good resource to check out.

Peter Brantley: "We are all presses now"

Been reading about the future of print newspapers lately. I really like this post by Peter Brantley, executive director of the Digital Library Federation: Getting it out together. He has some interesting things to say about library standards:

As I listened to these reporters conceive new stories, wondering where they could obtain the technical expertise to help them build narratives constructed from linked data, I began to understand something new: all of us – museums, libraries, newspapers, archives – we are all presses now. We are all working with this explosion of data, some of it our own, some of it (much of it) outside of ourselves; figuring out how to link these data together, or permit others to link it together, so new stories can be told.

We must tell stories for everyone, not just for ourselves. And for libraries, that means staying away from baroque library standards; weird metadata protocols and data exchange standards that no-one else uses. It means taking only the best of what we’ve developed, the work that is most flexible and lightweight, such as OpenURL, OAI-PMH, and Dublin Core, and integrating it with RSS and ATOM; OAuth and OpenID; Sitemap and OpenSearch. [emphasis mine]

Anything that is complicated must be left behind. Anything that serves only our own needs – such as complex inter-repository sharing – cannot be a priority. Those needs, important as they remain, must be met more simply. Most important: exposing as much of our data – stories, reporting, datasets, archives – as we can, and working to enable the integration of other data residing outside ourselves—that is the work of libraries. Museums. Archives. Presses.

Our job is not to deliver packaged information to carefully chosen audiences; our job is to enable information and data to be used by the greatest possible public.

It means libraries not only working among themselves, but making themselves available to journalists in new ways, not merely through their collections, but through their data, through their people and their skills, all working together to enable the telling of stories. Libraries should reach out to the new generation of public presses, local museums, and archives: not wait to be contacted. Because we are all presses now.

MARC--Controversial literature

I don't really agree with this post: Radiohead and the death of MARC cataloging, but I'm always on the lookout for librarians weighing in on the future (or non-future) of the MARC format.

A year and a half ago - without any librarians seeming to notice - the MARC cataloging standard officially became obsolete. For years now librarians have noted that MARC is great for describing books but not other media types. The problem lies largely in the fact that MARC and AACR2 are geared to describing single, owned, and published material (i.e. monographs). Moreover, most libraries still focus almost exclusively on purchasing books. But the internet, the abundance of multimedia formats, and their meteoric expansion have slowly eaten away at our old-steady reading partner....

I’m not saying that it will be easy to fix this problem. Providing access to a digital resource requires specific tools and specific technological skills. Fixing or replacing MARC is even more problematic! Nonetheless, librarians don’t have a much of a choice about what to do. Digital resources aren’t going anywhere soon and the good old days are gone for sure. An airbag may have saved Thom Yorke’s life once but he’s shown that unless libraries get their act together we all may be dead.

Useful (temporary) access to RDA Online

I am preparing to spend quality time this weekend with the full draft of RDA.

Found this on the RDA list: Bernhard Eversberg created this useful tool: temporary access to RDA Online.

Even though I'm going to be working with the print drafts, it will be very helpful to start looking at the rules online: they're ultimate destination.

Arkham, I know you're going to be happy using this RDA tool :)

RDA full draft available for public review

Update: Webform for US comments is available here. Deadline is December 15! If you work with an organization, like ATLA, MLA, etc. you may have more time.

The full draft of RDA: Resource and Access is available for public review and comment.

You can now print off, read, and weigh in on RDA. Now is definitely the time to play a role in our cataloging and metadata future! The deadline for comments is February 2, 2009.

RDA full draft delayed until November 17th

This just in:

Dear Colleagues,

Due to complications in software development, the Committee of Principals has determined that the full draft of RDA will be issued in PDF files. It will be available on November 17, 2008. We will provide the appropriate URL for accessing the full draft at this time. We will also provide an update on the software as soon as possible.

Nathalie Schulz, Secretary, JSC
for the
Committee of Principals

RDA development: what a long, strange trip it's been

I'm getting tired of waiting for the full draft of RDA, so I'm going to ramble...

If you count the first draft of AACR3 (and I do) the arrival of the full RDA draft is four years in the making. The first draft of AACR3 (the original title of the new cataloging code) was issued in December 2004.

I recently commented to an AUTOCAT list friend that I'm a little more positive about RDA than some: I see it as a work in progress--Imperfect out of the gate, but redeemable. I haven't hesitated to be critical of RDA development on this blog. (You can snoop around the blog for old posts on RDA, if you like.) But, right now doing metadata work, I feel like I'm in no man's land without a code. I'm sure for some metadata librarians AACR2 works okay, but metadata work is idiosyncratic and for our metadata workflow, I don't use AACR2 much, except as a foundation.

I think AACR2 is a great code, but it doesn't work for the XML data structures I'm working with now. At least parts of it don't work. For example, ISBD punctuation is superfluous and unnecessary for data presentation.

I need a new code. And I'm hoping that RDA will develop into the kind of code we all need for working with digital collections (and print collections also).

I know some of you think RDA is a turkey, but I'm still hopeful.

Goodbye 440 field!

Well, it's official the 440 field in the MARC 21 format is now obsolete:

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging has issued the following guidelines for implementing the recent decision to make field 440 obsolete. The PCC recommends that members implement this change beginning Oct 24, 2008.

Sincerely
Les Hawkins
CONSER Coordinator
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20740
v. 202 707-5185
lhaw at loc.gov

I haven't followed the development of this change closely, but did want to make note of it.

New president, new cataloging code

It seems the week of November 3rd holds promise on two fronts: we'll be electing a new president and finally getting to see the full draft of the new cataloging code: Resource Description and Access (RDA):

Dear Colleagues,

The full draft of RDA will be available for Constituency Review during the week of November 3rd. Our intent is to issue it in a preliminary version of the software with Browse and Quick Search functionality. We will provide you with the appropriate URL from which you will be able both to view and print the full draft.

As a contingency, if we cannot issue the full draft with the preliminary software release during the week of November 3rd, we will release it in PDF as scheduled on the JSC Website. You will be able to download PDF versions of the chapters and appendices from the JSC Website. We will then inform you when the full draft is available in the preliminary version at a later date. More detailed information will be forthcoming in the cover letter accompanying the full draft.

Nathalie Schulz, Secretary, JSC
For the Committee of Principals and the Co-Publishers

Earlier this week it sounded like the release date of RDA was going to be Halloween.

Okay, time to load the printer with paper!