RDA: Your “Recommended Daily
Allowance” of Cataloging
Christee Pascale
Associate Head, Metadata & Cataloging
Erin Stalberg
Head, Metadata & Cataloging
NCSULA, NCSU Libraries
April 15, 2011
Raleigh, NC
Agenda
• The Road to Resource Description
and Access (RDA)
• The US RDA Test
• Getting Experimental:
Training for the US RDA Test
• What’s New in an RDA Record
THE ROAD TO RESOURCE
DESCRIPTION & ACCESS (RDA)
What is RDA?
• Resource Description & Access, the successor to the
Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2)
– new content standard
– not an encoding standard
(MARC is the encoding standard)
– intended to be independent of MARC, and hoped to be used
beyond the MARC community
Why a new standard?
• Work started out in 2004 on AACR3
–
–
–
–
–
–
simplify rules
encourage use as a content standard for metadata schema
encourage international applicability
address current problems with AACR2
principle-based
build on cataloger’s judgment
• After an initial draft, it was decided to take a new approach and call
the effort Resource Description & Access.
Format
Standards
Content
Standards
(MARC/XML)
(MARC/MODS/DC)
(AACR2/RDA)
Controlled
Vocabularies
Display
Indexing
(LCSH/MARC
Code Lists)
Encoding Syntaxes
FRBR & FRAD
• Underlying RDA are the conceptual models FRBR
(Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records)
and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority
Data).
• Not a set of rules
• Uses an entity relationship model
• FRBR tasks: Find/Identify/Select/Obtain
• FRAD tasks: Find/Identify/Contextualize/Justify
FRBR
• Book
– Who wrote?
(work)
– Who translated?
(expression)
Slide courtesy of Library of Congress RDA Test Training: January 15, 2010, Module 2
FRBR
• Book
– Publication at
bookstore –
any copy
(manifestation)
– Door prop
(item)
Slide courtesy of Library of Congress RDA Test Training: January 15, 2010, Module 2
title
writes
person1
work
translates
is related
to
person2
title
expression
Content standard v. Encoding standard
AACR2/RDA
MARC
For the title proper of a book, use
the title page (or image thereof)
as the preferred source of
information.
MARC 245 tag = title proper
MARC 246 tag = varying form of title
If a married person is identified
only by a partner’s name, treat a
term of address as an integral
part of the name.
MARC 100 tag = personal name,
primary access point
MARC 700 tag = personal name,
additional access point
MARC 600 tag = personal name, subject
– Davis, Maxwell, Mrs.
– Strauss, Johann, Frau
245 10 $a The many faces of special education
246 38 $a The many faces of special educators
100 1/ $a Strauss, Johann, ǂc Frau, ǂd 1850-1919
700 1/ $a Strauss, Johann, ǂc Frau, ǂd 1850-1919
600 10 $a Strauss, Johann, ǂc Frau, ǂd 1850-1919
THE U.S. RDA TEST
About the test
• Response to concerns about RDA raised by the
Library of Congress Working Group on the
Future of Bibliographic Control (2008 report)
• To assure the operational, technical, and
economic feasibility of RDA
• Includes the three national libraries and the
broader U.S. library community
About the test – Participants
Library of Congress
National Agricultural Library
National Library of Medicine
Backstage Library Works
Brigham Young University
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Clark Art Institute Library
University of Chicago
College Center for Library Automation
(Florida)
Columbia University
Douglas County Libraries, Colorado
Emory University
GSLIS Group
Minnesota Historical Society
Morgan Library and Museum
Music Library Association/Online
Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc.
North Carolina State University Libraries
University of North Dakota
North East Independent School District,
San Antonio, Texas
Northeastern University
OCLC Metadata Contract Services
Ohio State University Libraries
State Library of Pennsylvania
Quality Books
Stanford University Libraries
George Washington University
Why did NCSU choose to participate?
•
•
•
•
•
•
To force ourselves to learn
Copy-heavy institution
Support-staff-heavy institution
Trying to re-invigorate our training program
How do records of various types co-exist happily?
Assessment/usability & cost/value
About cataloging activities @ NCSU
• 19 Metadata & Cataloging staff
–
–
–
–
–
7 in Monographs
6 in Serials & Continuing Resources
4 in Metadata & Data Quality
1 Technology Support for Technical Services
1 NCSU Libraries Fellow
• Highly centralized
• 2009-2010 output
–
–
–
–
–
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60,568 physical & electronic titles (MARC)
50,504 physical volumes (MARC)
12,909 digital image assets (non-MARC)
779 digital text assets (non-MARC)
669.75 linear feet of manuscript materials (non-MARC)
2,943 faculty citations (non-MARC)
About cataloging activities @ NCSU
•
•
•
•
•
MARC … OCLC & SirsiDynix Symphony
EAD … Archivist’s Toolkit
VRA Core … VCat
MODS … local “Digital Assets” database
Dublin Core … Dspace
About the test – Timeline
• July-September 2010
– Test partners prepare and deliver training, begin creating practice RDA
records
• October-December 2010
– Test partners produced records for test
– http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/RDAtest/rdatestrecords.html
• January-May 2011
– The US RDA Test Coordinating Committee analyzes the results of the
test and prepares its report to the management of the three national
libraries.
– Institutional analysis of records and surveys.
– Decision expected for ALA Annual, June 2011.
About the test
• Common sets
• Extra set
• Surveys
– Institutional surveys
– Cataloger demographic surveys
– Record-by-record surveys
NCSU Statistics
• Common set original: 25
• Common set copy:
– met NCSU criteria for upgrade: 4
– did not meet NCSU criteria for upgrade: 1
• Extra set with surveys: 462
– MARC Original: 390 (includes 201 ETDs)
– MARC Copy: 62
– MODS: 10
• NCSU was the 5th highest record creator
GETTING EXPERIMENTAL:
TRAINING FOR THE RDA TEST
Approach to training @ NCSU
• Involved all Metadata & Cataloging staff
• Was not to be a debate about the merits of RDA
• Would not cover everything
– Focused on what cataloger’s needed to know for the
test
• Established a training team
• It had to succeed!
Approach to training @ NCSU
• Training team
– Christee Pascale, Associate Department Head
– Jacquie Samples, Continuing & Electronic
Resources Librarian
– Patrice Daniels, Monographs
– Anne Navarro, Monographs
– Lisa Madden, Continuing & Electronic Resources
Training @ NCSU – Curriculum
•
•
•
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FRBR Workshop
RDA Core Training
Breakout Group Sessions
ALCTS webinars & ongoing discussion
What we’ve learned so far
• Resetting the training & expertise baseline is
kind of cool
• Performing a test in a live, production
environment has consequences
• Unlearning is hard
• Energy is a good thing in and of itself
Things we know in our heads but it is still
good to be reminded of
• Most libraries do not train from scratch
• Catalogers like when expectations are clear and
documentation is up to date
• Support staff like when their supervisors know
the answers to their questions
• Cataloging managers like when LC decides
what to do first
What we still don’t know
• Costs for implementation
• Time study results
• User assessment
NCSU RDA Survey Statistics
• NCSU’s largest RDA record contribution was original bibliographic
records: 75% original, 25% copy
• Breakdown of contributed cataloging by format:
– 74% monographic, 23% continuing resources, 3% non-MARC
• After 3 months, most NCSU cataloger’s spent 15-40 minutes
creating an original book RDA record
– Progress: creation time is comparable to original book AACR2
cataloging
– Future: as RDA experience & policy clarity increases, time to create an
RDA record should continue to decrease
WHAT’S NEW IN AN RDA
RECORD
Fewer Abbreviations
AACR2
xiv, 324 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.
RDA
xiv, 324 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm
AACR2
[S.l. : s.n., 2004].
RDA
[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [2004].
Transcription: “Take What You See”
Edition statement on piece: second edition
AACR2:
2nd ed.
RDA:
Second edition.
Title on piece: Melallization of polymers
AACR2:
title proper: Melallization [i.e. Metallization] of polymers
RDA:
title proper: Melallization of polymers
variant title: Corrected title: Metallization of polymers
General Material Designation (GMD)
• AACR2 used GMD in title field
– [videorecording], [electronic resource], [kit] …
• RDA replaces GMD with 3 new elements:
– Content type
• text, two-dimension moving image, computer program …
– Media type
• computer, video, unmediated …
– Carrier type
• videodisc, online resource, audio disc, volume …
Systems Impact
• NCSU added all new MARC fields (ourselves) to
our SirsiDynix Symphony policy tables
• GMD/RDA Content, Media & Carrier Type Fields
– NCSU is not displaying and/or utilizing these fields in
Endeca
– We currently facet & draw icons based on item data
– For staff, hit lists & reports in Symphony are a bit of an
issue without the GMD as easy format notation
RDA Record Examples in MARC
• The Blue Planet
– http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/record/NCSU2348417
• Ocular disorders presumed to be inherited in
purebred horses
– http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/record/NCSU2278482
• Realizing the promise of conservation buffer
technology
– http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/record/NCSU2407642
• Directory of North Carolina Libraries
– http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/record/NCSU2368917
Documentation & Resources
• NCSU:
– http://go.ncsu.edu/rda
– or Search Confluence for “RDA Test”
• Library of Congress
– http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/RDAtest/rdatest.html
– Download RDA records:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/RDAtest/rdatestrecords.html
• Metadata Registry
– http://metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm
QUESTIONS?