Essentials of
for Non-Catalogers
Guy Frost
Associate Professor of Library Science
and Catalog Librarian
Valdosta State University
gfrost@valdosta.edu
Susan Wynne
Cataloging & Metadata Librarian
Georgia State University
swynne@gsu.edu
9 July 2014
NGAL Webinar
Logo used by permission of the Co-Publishers for RDA (American Library Association, Canadian Library Association, and CILIP: Chartered
Institute of Library and Information Professionals)
Poll #1
Which best describes your primary job duty?
Please select only one.
❑Reference/research & instruction
❑Circulation/Access Services
❑Inter-library loan
❑Collection development/Acquisitions
❑Cataloging
❑Special Collections/Archives
❑Digital initiatives/Digital projects
❑Administration
❑I do a little bit of everything!
❑Other
Poll #2
Has your library implemented RDA, or
does your library have plans to do so?
❑Yes, we’ve already implemented
❑Yes, we plan to implement
❑We don’t have plans to implement yet
❑Don’t know/Not sure
❑What is RDA?!
Logo used by permission of the Co-Publishers for RDA (American Library Association, Canadian Library
Association, and CILIP: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals)
RDA in the Personals…
• NEW standard: Young, but firmly
grounded. Adaptable & at home
in the wide world. Seeking all
kinds of resources & metadata
for MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS.
Brief history of RDA
• RDA Toolkit published as an online
subscription product in June 2010
– Print version also available
• U.S. “official RDA Test” in 2010-2011
– Implement with conditions
• Library of Congress’ “Day One”
–March 31, 2013
Brief history of RDA
• Automated conversion of authority files
(access points, i.e., headings) mostly
happened in spring 2013
–ongoing mop-up
• Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC)’s
last day for AACR2 bibliographic records
–December 31, 2014
Current status of RDA
• No implementation mandate or deadline
for all U.S. libraries, but…
– Access points have changed/are changing to
RDA forms
•This needs to happen in all catalogs
– If your library shares cataloging… you’ll
probably see RDA records
•Most will accept RDA copy from OCLC or
vendors, even if not creating RDA records
in-house
How does RDA
affect users?
(today)
Latin abbreviations no longer used
AACR2
RDA
[S.l.] : [s.n.],
[n.d.]
[Place of publication not
identified] : [publisher not
identified], [date of
publication not identified]
[Atlanta?, Georgia] :
[Georgia State University
Library], [2013?]
Many (not all) abbreviations spelled
out
AACR2
RDA
2 videodiscs (169 min.) : sd., 2 videodiscs (169 min.) :
col. ; 4 3/4 in.
sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
vii, 100 p. : ill., ports. ; 28
cm.
vii, 100 pages : illustrations,
portraits ; 28 cm
4th ed.
Fourth edition.
4th ed.
4th edition.
(Depends on how it appears
on the resource)
Inaccuracies
AACR2
RDA
Shakespeare's Julius Caeser Shakespeare's Julius Caeser
[sic]
Title should read:
Variant title: Shakespeare's Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Shakespeare's Julius Caeser
[i.e. Caesar]
Variant title: Shakespeare’s
Julius Caesar
“Rule of three” no longer exists in RDA
AACR2
RDA
Brian Culshaw … [et al.],
editors.
Brian Culshaw, Yanbiao Liao,
Anbo Wang, Xiaoyi Bao,
Xudong Fan, Lin Zhang,
editors.
[give access point for only the
first named entity]
Culshaw, B.
[may give access points for
all/any named entities]
Culshaw, B., editor.
Liao, Yanbiao, editor.
Wang, Anbo, editor.
Bao, Xiaoyi, editor.
Fan, Xudong, editor.
Zhang, Lin, editor.
“Rule of three” no longer exists in
RDA
AACR2
edited by Kristin L.
Spangenberg and
Deborah Walk ; circus
history consultant, Fred
Dahlinger Jr. ; with
essays by David Carlyon
... [et al.]
RDA
edited by Kristin L.
Spangenberg and
Deborah Walk ; circus
history consultant, Fred
Dahlinger Jr. ; with
essays by David Carlyon
[and ten others].
Carlyon, David.
Carlyon, David, author.
Dates in RDA
• RDA clearly distinguishes between different types of
dates
– publication
– distribution
– manufacture
– copyright
• Under AACR2, copyright date was often substituted for
publication date
AACR2
RDA
New York : Simon & Schuster, c1994.
New York : Simon & Schuster, [1994]
©1994
GMD replaced by 3 new elements
– Content
– Media
– Carrier
What’s a GMD?
• “General material designation”
GMD replaced by 3 new elements
AACR2
RDA
Downton Abbey. Season 3
[videorecording]
Downton Abbey. Season 3.
two-dimensional moving image
video
videodisc
Community resources for
Community resources for
older adults : programs and older adults : programs and
services in an era of change services in an era of change
text
unmediated
volume
GMD replaced by 3 new elements
AACR2
RDA
Psychology today
[electronic resource]
Psychology today
text
computer
online resource
Long time ago [sound
Long time ago : American
recording] : American songs songs
performed music
audio
audio disc
Sample records
Copyright date is a separate element in RDA
Role explicitly stated
Relationship
explicitly
stated
“pages” spelled out, not abbreviated p.
From University of North Texas Libraries’ catalog
These phrases replace Latin
abbreviations s.l. and s.n.
From WorldCat.org
More than 3
names for the
same function
Access points for each of the 4 names
From the University of Georgia Libraries’ catalog
An optional omission
No [videorecording] GMD
Not abbreviated
Content/media/carrier fields
displayed
Relationships/roles
From Reed College Library catalog
Things to consider
• Loss of GMD—is it significant to your
system and/or users?
• New fields created for RDA data
– To display or not to display?
– Indexing, faceting, limiting…
• Talk to catalogers, system vendors…
Things to consider
• Retrospective conversion?
– Local catalogs
• “Hybrid” catalog
• Add selected fields retrospectively
– Primarily with automated means
• Convert entire database?
–Some people are considering, but be cautious.
– OCLC’s plans for WorldCat
HOW MIGHT RDA AFFECT
USERS?
(future)
Developing stories
• Systems and vendors
• Bibliographic Framework Transition
Initiative, or BIBFRAME (i.e., replacement
for MARC)
– BIBFRAME.org
– Demo set from Library of Congress
RDA’s potential benefits
Linked Data/Semantic Web
•
•
•
•
•
•
Defined data elements
Increased emphasis on identifiers
Giving meaning to the relationships
“Take what you see”
“Accept what you get”
RDA vocabularies and element sets are in
the RDA Registry
Essentials of RDA for NonCatalogers: Access Points
Guy Frost
Associate Professor of Library Science and Catalog Librarian
Valdosta State University
gfrost@valdosta.edu
What Are Access Points
• Fielded search points, or, searching in specific
MARC fields (e.g., Title searches, Author
searches, or Subject Heading searches)
– Under RDA all of these have been impacted
Why Are We Having All of These
Changes?
• Resources to be discovered have changed
– Internet resources
– eBooks, Streaming video, etc.
• Discovery tools have changed
– Smart phones
• “Google Box” mentality
– Will reach a much wider audience with a
normalization of content
– Federated searching
What Has Been Changed?
• Basic description Susan talked about
• Move away from codes, abbreviations,
capitalization, punctuation, numerals, and
symbols in the Bibliographic Record
• Supports the Statement of International
Cataloging Principles (aka, the new Paris
Principles) currently translated into 27
languages
–Principle of Representation
Access Points
• Old terminology one may remember from
library school that has gone away
–
–
–
–
Main Entry = Authorized Access Point
Chief Source = Preferred Source
Authors = Creators
etc.
Changes Came In Phases
• Library of Congress Authority File had a
“washing”
– Each Name Authority File (authors, corporate
bodies, Author-Titles) was touched somehow
•Anything that needed manual review was
marked as incompatible with RDA (Phase 1)
•Anything that could be modified via an
automated means was (Phase 2)
As Susan mentioned, work remains for libraries to
absorb these changes into their catalogs
What was changed
• Changes to eliminate abbreviations
– Dept. changed to Department
Author: Georgia. Department of Agriculture.
– O.T. and N.T. changed to Old Testament and New
Testament respectively
Title: Bible. Old Testament.
– Simplification
Title: Bible. Psalms.
AACR2: Bible. O. T. Psalms.
More Changes
• Changes to provide clarity
ca. (circa) changed to approximately
Author: Tallis, Thomas, approximately 1505-1585
fl. (flourished) changed to active
Author: Sunzi, active 6th century B.C.
b. (born) and d. (died) changed to an en dash
before or after the respective date
Author: Cleary, Thomas F., 1949Author: Brown, Alexander E. (Alexander Enos), -1865
Clarity Changes Cont.
• Less ambiguity
– Old AACR2 version of Author-Uniform Title
Meyerbeer, Giacomo, 1791-1864. Fantasie, clarinet, strings
– RDA version
Meyerbeer, Giacomo, 1791-1864. Fantasie, clarinet, violins
(2), viola, cello
Even More Changes
• Changes to embrace common usage
– Violoncello changed to cello
Subject: Sonatas (Cello and continuo)
– Koran changed to Qurʼan
Title: Qurʼan. Sūrat al-Takwīr
Undifferentiated Names
• Names shared by many people, the John and
Jane Doe’s if you will
– No longer being used
– Work is being done by NACO libraries to
differentiate all of the undifferentiated names
– Catalogers can monitor the list PERSNAME-L to
keep abreast of those names that have been
updated/corrected/created
(https://lists.ou.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=PERSNAME-L)
Principle of Representation
• How authors “represent” themselves on their
publications is now the most important
– Jr. or Sr. now included regardless
Author: Grudzinskas, Albert, Jr., author.
• Fictitious characters now considered authors
Author: Miss Piggy, author.
Title: The diva code : Miss Piggy on life, love, and the
10,000 idiotic things men [strike through] frogs do / by
Miss Piggy as told to Jim Lewis.
We Now Enter the Era of Relationships
and Linked Data
• Showing relationships between entities
associated with a resource has come to the
forefront of access points
– Relationships between two distinct resources
(e.g., sequels and prequels, adaptations,
translations)
– Relationships between the entities within the
resource itself (e.g., artists, photographers,
illustrators, etc.)
Distinct Resources: Serials
• Serials have always shown relationships to other
resources (e.g., title changes, supplements, etc. …
so few changes with serials
Title: The Atlanta journal-constitution.
Formed by the union of: Atlanta journal (Atlanta, Ga. : 1889), and: Atlanta
constitution (Atlanta, Ga. : 1881), and continues the numbering of the former.
Formed by the union of:
Atlanta journal (Atlanta, Ga. : 1889)
Atlanta constitution (Atlanta, Ga. : 1881)
Distinct Resources: Non-Serials
• Relationships between other non-serial
resources now using the same MARC fields to
“link” them together
Title: Follow-up review. Animal Protection Program,
Department of Agriculture.
Supplement to: Performance audit. Department of
Agriculture, Animal Protection Program
Distinct Resources: Non-Serial
• Some monographic resources have seriality
via a series, or sequel, subsequent volumes,
etc.
Author: Auel, Jean M., author.
Title: Clan of the cave bear
Sequel: Auel, Jean M. Valley of horses.
Future Developments With Relationships
Hypothetical Scenario
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973. Hobbit. (53)
Books (46)
Adaptations: (3)
Illustrated: (5)
Video (4)
DVD (2)
Widescreen (1)
Blu-ray (1)
Streaming video (1)
VHS (1)
Audio (3)
Cassette (1)
Streaming audio (2)
See also: Smaug: Falconer, Daniel. Unleashing the Dragon
Each of these at the bibliographic level has an appropriate relationship point to the work
Motion picture screenplay based on (work): Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel),
1892-1973. Hobbit.
This relationship connects/collocates the Video (4) hits shown above
Linked Data: In the Cloud
Cloud data on the horizon
- Images from publishers Websites, or elsewhere
- Future developments: Linking to AAPs in the cloud
How Library of Congress Authority Headings Are Changing
As more Discovery Tools utilize Linked Data, name authorities will become more important
Another Example
Faceted Access Points
- Are search strings we are so accustomed to being phased out (i.e., LCSH and its
structure)?
- FAST headings (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology)
- Designed to be a low cost - non-expertise application of subject headings
- Can be applied by non catalogers - no subject strings
LCSH: 650;_0; $a Railroads $z Georgia $v Maps.
Becomes
650;_7; $a Railroads $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01088711
651;_7; $a Georgia $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01204622
655;_7; $a Maps $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01423704
Some strings do still exist:
651;_7; $a Georgia ǂz Atlantic Coast. ǂ2 fast ǂ0
(OCoLC)fst01244221
LCSH:
651;_0; $a Atlantic Coast (Ga.)
First step in removing abbreviations from subject access points
Expansion of Indexes
- Many new faceted access points are part of the 3XX suite of new fields
- New Thesauri and Schema have been introduced
Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus for Music (lcmpt)
- These terms are to be used in a new MARC field, 382
AACR2
048;__; $a wc04
650;_0: $a Woodwind quartets (Clarinets (4))
Under RDA
048;__; $a wc04
382;01; $a clarinet $n 2 $a alto clarinet $n 1 $a bass clarinet $n 1 $s 4 $2 lcmpt
655;_7; $a Woodwind quartets $2 lcgft
Public display:
Notes:
clarinet 2, alto clarinet 1, bass clarinet 1
Genre: Woodwind quartets
Note: FAST, LCMPT, LCGFT, and other thesauri/schema are not part of RDA, but are intended to
facilitate better discovery in a non MARC environment (a.k.a. BIBFRAME)
RDA Terminology
- RDA contains some lists of terminology all of which is recorded in its own subfield
Digital file characteristics: text file: PDF
Digital file characteristics: audio file: MP3, 32 kbps
Font size: Large print
Sound characteristics: digital, optical, surround, Dolby Digital 5.1
All of these new fields and subfields were previously recorded elsewhere either
as free text or in coded form
347;__; $a text file $b PDF $2 rda
Why the change? allows for indexing and sorting from results lists. These fields
and intended to be “Machine Actionable” and provide a means of limiting
- the full impact of this will not be visible until BIBFRAME comes to full fruition
What Does This Mean For Administrators?
•
•
•
•
Catalogers need to be encouraged to move out of their comfort zone and
begin looking at what changes RDA brings that enhance discovery
Administrators need to support RDA training both online as well as face-toface presentations and workshops - invest
– many of these are free online
– COMO has RDA programs and workshops that are worthwhile
Recognize that linked data is upon us and consider joining the NACO
program to create name authority records
– enhances discovery
• local institutions and authors are better defined and identified
• historical information brought out in authority records
Catalogers should begin to work with System Personnel
– Converting existing AACR2 data to comply with RDA
– Adding some of the new 3XX fields that can be automated
Selected Resources
http://goo.gl/HLRhEH
Contact us
gfrost@valdosta.edu
swynne@gsu.edu
North Georgia Associated Libraries
www.ngalweb.org
Linh Uong
luong@negeorgialibraries.org
Sean Boyle
sean.boyle@ung.edu
Lydia Hofstetter
hofstetter@gntc.edu
GLEAN
www.georgialibraries.org/cetraining/