Four Days of RDA

In June, I gave two all-day workshops on RDA. This month, I also gave two all-day workshops on RDA. That's the same workshop four times in two months. I'm ready for a break from teaching RDA.



There are pros and cons, of course, of doing something like that.

There's a lot of preparation involved for any workshop even though I've given this one before. All handouts have to be reviewed and many updated. Changes are made based on the success (or lack of) of examples and exercises I used previously. But I only had to do the prep once because the workshops were held so close together. That saved me a lot of time.

In giving these one after another, I was able to build up a sort of momentum. I was better prepared for certain kinds of questions because they had been asked just a couple of weeks before. As I began each teaching day, I felt more confident than I did for the previous one.

A lot of energy goes into giving a presentation and I use twice as much for an all-day program than for a half-day (which is usually the schedule for Continuing Education in Library Land). Therefore, I'm pretty tired by the end of each of the days. More so for two of them which involved an overnight because of their distance.

Right now, I'm feeling pretty satisfied. They all went well and the evaluations were very positive. But as I said in the beginning of this post, I'm ready for a break from teaching RDA.

ICC and the PSs

I'm slowly working my way through the 11th edition of Introduction to Cataloging and Classification (ICC).

The authors explicitly state that reading this textbook is not a substitute for reading RDA (Resource Description and Access), but in my opinion, using this book plus a couple of other good books on RDA (Maxwell's Handbook for RDA and Mering's The RDA workbook), a cataloger is pretty well equipt to catalog most library materials according to RDA guidelines.

RDA defines different metadata elements for describing resources. Some of these elements are "core" which means they are required. Others are "optional". Using only the core elements results in a pretty minimal record, though enough to identify the resource.

LC (the Library of Congress) and the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Libraries who do much of the cataloging we see, have issued Policy Statements (PSs) giving their explanations or preferences for using specific areas of RDA. Both LC and PSS recommend more of the RDA metadata elements as "core".

One of the things I really like about ICC is that the authors have issued their own PSs. These are their recommendations that may differ from RDA and/or LC. Here's an example from page 215:

ICC11 PS for Optional Omission for RDA 2.4.1.4 Recording Statements of Responsibility: Although abridgement is not generally recommended, use, judiciously and thoughtfully, the option that allows catalogers to abridge SORs when needed. This may prove to be useful if a statement of responsibility is cluttered with extraneous data. Be careful not to remove essential identifying information.

See why I'm finding this book so useful?

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.

Last Day of Class

Today is the last day of class for LIS415. It's been a great semester. The students were both interested and interesting. There were lots of questions and lots of discussion. Part of the requirement for the course is to post to a discussion board on various topics that we covered during the semester. There were some very thoughtful and insightful posts. They were a pleasure to read.

Even though the semester is ending, my schedule is getting more hectic as workshop season is in full swing. The hot topic? RDA. I've developed an introduction to the new cataloging code which I've presented twice and have 2 more presentations scheduled and also a session on the Dewey Decimal System.

I'm seeing more and more bibliographic records created using RDA and I know that I cannot put off using it much longer. One of my summer projects will be to go through all of the training materials for RDA on the Library of Congress web site to that I can tackle the new code in style.

Something else I'm hoping to tackle during the summer are all of those dust bunnies that have been lounging in the corners of every room in my house. They've been getting bolder an moving into places I can easily see. I've been too busy working to worry about them, but my priorities will be changing soon and those bunnies are about to face their demise.

Two Books

Sometimes I take a break from reading mystery novels. When I do, one of my favorite authors is Fannie Flagg. I remember Fannie Flagg from watching afternoon game shows when she was one of the celebrity guests. I didn't know why she was a celebrity, but she was always on the shows. Then I saw the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and learned that Fannie was a writer. Since then, I've read all of her books. The most recent is I Still Dream About You. Fannie is like the southern U.S. version of Maeve Binchy - another of my favorite non-mystery authors.

Fannie's characters are unusual, interesting, have unique perspectives on life and just fun to know. As much as I want to finish her books to find out what happens, I'm always sad when they end. While the endings may sometimes be bitter-sweet, they are overall very happy. I can always depend on Fannie Flagg for a totally satisfying read.

The other book I'm reading is Amy Hart's The RDA Primer : A Guide for the Occasional Cataloger. I've been trying to keep abreast of RDA so that I can offer Continuing Education programs on its basics. I'm already scheduled to give one in the fall. I'll also have to cover it more and more in LIS415.

For those of you facing RDA in the near future, this book is a great introduction. I attended a 3 session webinar a few months ago, and I follow all of the on-line discussion lists so I already know something about RDA. Amy's book has helped fill in many of the gaps. It's not that RDA's rules are so very different from AACR2's, but the thought process is very different and that's what Amy stresses through this slender book. I'm nearly finished with it (yes, I'm reading it cover to cover) and I expect I'll just start again at the beginning.

Thanks, Amy, and thanks, Fannie. Now I'm ready to delve into another mystery book.

Of Course!

No sooner did I submit 2 applications for jobs (after several hours of refining my resume and composing cover letters) than I received an email from DGI saying they had finally received a contract they had been waiting for and was I interested in working 2 days a week. "Absolutely" I responded. Two days of work is perfect as that leaves me plenty of time to prepare for teaching LIS415.

I think I'm putting more work into that class this semester than I have before. I'm seeing lots of ways I'd prefer to present the material and have added other bits and pieces that I feel are important based on my working experience.

This week is spring break and I'm attending a 3 part webinar on RDA and learning lots about it. I've been pretty good about keeping up with reading, but there are lots of details that don't come up on AUTOCAT so some things are a surprise. And learning about these details in context makes more sense. I'm not nearly as fearful about it as I was a couple of years ago.

Library of Congress' implementation has been delayed by 3 months as they train their catalogers. It was supposed to be adopted by LC and the other national libraries on January 1, 2013. Now the projected date is March 31, 2013. Notice they chose March 31 and not April 1!