RDA Publication Date

From the RDA-L listserv:

RDA: Resource Description and Access will be published in June 2010. While we regret this delay in release of RDA, the transition from publication of AACR2 as a printed manual to release of RDA as a web based toolkit is a complex process with many interdependencies.

The updated text of RDA incorporates recommendations from constituencies and other stakeholders approved at the JSC meeting earlier this year. The revised text has been successfully loaded into the RDA database. The product is currently undergoing thorough quality review and testing in preparation for release.

We recognize that customers and prospective users of RDA need reliable and timely information for planning and budgeting. We are confident that this revised deadline is a realistic target for publication of RDA.

Pricing and purchasing information will be introduced at the time of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, 15-18 January 2010.

Mary Ghikas, Chair Committee of Principals
Alan Danskin, Chair Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA
Don Chatham, Chair Co-publishers

(Cross-posted at Flaming Catheads)

 

RDA: The Joint Steering Committee

It’s still the Joint Steering Committee, JSC for short. But now, instead of the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR, it’s The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA. This site does still include information on AACR2, including history and links to the AACR2 Web site. But much of the material found and linked here deals with RDA, including news and announcements; the strategic plan; scope and structure, prospectus, and the full draft; and FAQs.

 

Macros!

Besides the macros supplied with OCLC Connexion Client (I specify the Client because I haven’t worked extensively with the Web interface–any who have, please add your thoughts), there are many more available for you to add.

We’re lucky in the Chicago area to have two of the most productive macro experts in the North Suburban Library System–Joel Hahn of the Niles Public Library District and Harvey Hahn, of Arlington Heights Memorial Library until his recent retirement. Walter F. Nickeson of the Rochester University Libraries and Merry Morris have also contributed numerous macros.

So, where to find them? OCLC’s Connexion Client macros page includes links to Joel Hahn’s macros, Merry Morris’ simple macros, and Walt Nickeson’s macros; the Connexion Client guide Basics: Use Macros (also listed below); macro lessons for beginners; and materials from Harvey and Joel Hahn’s June 2005 ALA session on using Connexion macros.

Want to go deeper? Basics: Use Macros is a huge resource with which you can spend many happy hours. It includes extensive instructions on the creation and use of macros with OCLC Connexion.

One caution that I’ll mention here: Create your own macro book or books for any new or modified macros you bring into Connexion, whether you create the macros yourself or find them elsewhere. The two OCLC-supplied macro book files, OCLC.mbk and Dewey.mbk, may be overwritten during Connexion software upgrades, and if that happens you’ll lose anything of yours that was stored in those books.

And one more useful resource: Joel Hahn’s Better Living through Macros includes step-by-step instructions for loading macros into Connexion from various sources and “OCLC Macro Language for the Complete Beginner” (OML is a Basic-derived programming language).

 

Summary Notes for Catalog Records

“The quality of summary notes found in online bibliographic records varies greatly …” An understatement, that quote from the Introduction! This document from OLAC is a good orientation to the principles of creating and revising summary notes. Though prepared with AV materials in mind, it’s also useful for summaries for children’s books.

Summary Notes for Catalog Records (OLAC Cataloging Policy Committee, Summary/Abstracts Task Force, August 2002)

As with the other OLAC resources I’ve cited, the URL has changed since we prepared our handouts for our last Technical Services Tips & Tricks presentation; so if you derived a bookmark from those, you should update it.

 

OLAC Newsletter

We will be featuring several resources from OLAC (Online Audiovisual Catalogers). Today the focus is on the quarterly OLAC Newsletter, whose current issue is here. Since this is an issue-specific link, you may want to keep this URL on hand to make sure you can find future issues.

The index to archived newsletters, going all the way back to the beginning (v. 1, 1981) is here.

(If you have a URL for the newsletters from our earlier Technical Services Tips & Tricks presentations, be aware that that URL is no longer valid.)

 

OCLC’s Expert Community Experiment

OCLC’s six-month Expert Community Experiment, which began in February, is now a little past the halfway point. The latest in a long series of initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of bibliographic records in WorldCat, the experiment allows member libraries with full-level cataloging authorizations “to correct, improve and upgrade all WorldCat master records, with the exception of PCC records (BIBCO and CONSER records). Library of Congress records that are not PCC records are included in the Experiment.”

FAQs on the experiment are here, or just scroll down in the page linked above.

If your institution is interested in being part of the experiment, there is no application process; you can start right in. If you have enhanced WorldCat records before, the procedure is essentially the same as what you have already followed, except that, as noted in Chapter 5 of Bibliographic Formats and Standards, “The record replace restrictions based on authorization modes in this chapter are superseded during the Expert Community Experiment.”

Needless to say, with the kind of power OCLC is giving us comes responsibility. Please don’t participate until you have read the Guidelines for Experts and are honestly confident that you are prepared to follow them. It would be helpful to view the recorded Expert Community Experiment Webinar as well.

So far, OCLC reports that the experiment is going well. Karen Calhoun remarked at the Illinois OCLC Users’ Group annual meeting last Friday that the “cataloging wars” some had feared have not materialized.

 

MARC Standards Home Page

The MARC Standards Home Page is not going to win any awards for snappy Web design. Bookmark it anyway. It provides numerous links to primary MARC resources, including:

MARC Formats

Bibliographic, Authority, Holdings, Classification, and Community Information (each of these in full and concise versions); Translations and adaptations, plus MARC 21 Translators’ Tools for those doing translations of MARC documentation; and even a MARC LITE Bibliographic Format, “a true subset of the data elements in the complete MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data” designed as “a quick reference guide to tagging.”

Even if your daily use of MARC is in the context of OCLC, my opinion is that you really should know your way around MARC 21, or at least be able to find data elements in their MARC 21 form. Otherwise you’ll be floundering when examining a MARC record from a source other than OCLC, or when setting or troubleshooting specifications for import into a local system.

MARC Code Lists

Countries
Geographic Areas
Languages
Organizations
Relators, Sources, Description Conventions

(I’ve mentioned these in connection with OCLC, which no longer maintains separate lists but links to these.)

… and much more. I might just make particular mention of two useful introductory documents, Understanding MARC Bibliographic and Understanding MARC Authority Records.

 

Terminologies Service

“The Terminologies Service provides access to multiple controlled vocabularies to help you create consistent metadata for your library, museum, or archive collections. Now it’s as easy as copy-and-paste into a workform or template once you find a term to use in your description, improving the description of (and access to) your digital and hard copy materials.

“The Service can be integrated with Connexion or used as a standalone tool to copy terms into a variety of metadata editors including the one available in OCLC’s CONTENTdm software.”

The Terminologies Service currently incorporates 11 vocabularies, including AAT, GSAFD, MeSH, TGN, and TGM I and II. I haven’t used it, but it seems like a handy aid for institutions using multiple thesauri. Installation is free with Connexion, and there are several online tutorials for both installation and use.

 

Searching WorldCat

OCLC’s WorldCat search capabilities have expanded enormously since PRISM days. If you want to spend a long time exploring everything available to you in WorldCat searching, take a look at Searching WorldCat Indexes: “comprehensive information about indexes used to retrieve records from WorldCat.” This will let you go quite deep into such matters as indexing and search enhancements.

For more accessible and quicker reference, this document links to several interface-specific guides, including Connexion: Searching WorldCat Quick Reference, applicable to both the browser and the client; Cataloging: Search WorldCat for the client, and Find Bibliographic Records for the browser. There are also links to configuration guides for OCLC Z39.50 access to cataloging and to FirstSearch.

 

OCLC Worldcat® Records Policy Survey

If you haven’t already done so, you can still fill out the OCLC Policy Survey being conducted by the Independent OCLC Review Board.  Closing date for the survey is April 8.  This survey is gathering individual opinions about the proposed revisions to the Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat^® Records.

Information about the old policy and the proposed new policy as well as the Review Board are available at the survey link above.

Some already published institutional responses:

OLAC

Smithsonian Libraries

ARL