Cataloging and RDA

In preparation for RDA workshops I'll be giving, I've been reading the latest (11th) edition of Introduction to Cataloging and Classification.

I first began using this book as a reference tool - perhaps the 7th or maybe the 8th edition - when Bohdan Wynar's name was at the top of the title page. Then it was Arlene Taylor's name. Now Daniel Joudrey is the lead author.

A lot has happened in cataloging since those days. The size of this new book is at least 50% larger than the 10th edition which focused on the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules.

I've just begun chapter 4. This is not a book that one can read for long periods of time. Dense is an appropriate adjective. (Not for me, but for the book.) I find that an hour (maybe less) is all I can absorb at a time. Then I have to let that material settle into my brain.

For all you catalogers out there looking to learn RDA, I highly recommend this book. I already know a lot about FRBR and RDA, but the detail included here is really helping me put the myriad concepts together logically. And chapter 4 begins the specifics of RDA itself, as opposed to background information which is what I've been wading through the last week or so.

I have about 5 weeks to the workshop. I'll feel a lot more confident giving this one than I have in the past. Danny Joudrey was extremely helpful to me when I began teaching Information Organization for Simmons College School of Library and Information Science. I plan to send him an email letting him know how helpful he's been yet again.

Thanks, Danny.