Karen Stone
12 May 2014

Description at SLQ
• Mandate to provide lead role for libraries in
Queensland
• Guiding principle to share records as widely as possible
 records we create must meet highest standards
• Follow example from Library Congress &
National Library of Australia

Description at SLQ
• John Oxley Library – Queensland memory
• Published
• Unpublished
• Legal deposit
• Maps
• Posters
• Australian Library of Art

Description at SLQ
• Information Collection
• General reference & non-fiction
• Print & eBooks

Description at SLQ
• Public Libraries Division
• Fiction
• Non-fiction
• Adults  Picture books

Description at SLQ
• 3 databases
• South Bank collections – John Oxley, ALA,
Information
• Over 1.1M records
• Original Materials – John Oxley
• 10,000 records
• Public Libraries Division
• Over 200,000 records

Why?
• Ensure consistency with the national and international description standards
• Minimal level of record description for
Libraries Australia and Trove set to the new RDA standard

Why?
• Keep pace with major national bodies
• Library of Congress
• National Library of Australia
• British Library
• Library & Archives Canada
• Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

Planning
• Project plan developed November 2012
• Components –
• Training
• SLQ RDA Policies
• Managing current descriptive records
• System compatibility
• Authority records

Training
• New ‘philosophy’
• New cataloguing rules
• New terminology
• New relationships

Training
• New fields for new data
• New fields for existing data
• New subfields & codes within subfields
• Different use of existing fields

Training
• “Rule of 3” no longer applies
• Inaccuracies
• Abbreviations no longer used

SLQ RDA Policy
• Required definitive ‘policy’ to ensure consistency
• Guided by Library of Congress Policy Statements
• Covers every decision point
• Reviewed quarterly

SLQ RDA Policy
Result = 50+ page dynamic document
Designed t o be used as a ‘reference’ tool

MARC Coding Practice
• Applying RDA to MARC in 3 databases
• Managing levels of description across collections
• Level of editing on copy cataloguing

RDA @ SLQ
• Crossed over – 8 July 2013
• All new records created in RDA
• Preference for RDA records for copy cataloguing

Changes to current records
• No necessity to upgrade current descriptive records
• Considered in the following contexts -
• Impact to clients
• Number of records involved
• Simplicity of applying change – programmatic or manual
• Extent that change can be applied - full or partial
• Decisions of major libraries – LC, OCLC

Changes to current records
• Decision to change based on need for use with new
RDA descriptive records
• Dept. to Department
• Bible Testaments & Books
• Music notations

Post implementation
• Short term – display 264 data in place of 260 data
• Record in MARC record but not display
• Copyright date
• Content, Media, Carrier
• Relator terms

Post implementation
• Medium term – No other essential changes until number of ‘RDA’ records warrants new display
• Long term – consider how to use new ‘physical type’ information

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