Three Catalogers Walk Into a Blog

Thanks to Allyson Carlyle of the Information School, University of Washington, who posted this on EDUCAT:

Librarians Do Gaga

(Note the ALCTS FRBeaR.)

Troy Linker, mentioned previously, has links to several useful posts on RDA on the ALA Connect site.

In a message to the RDA-L mailing list, Troy Linker of ALA Digital Reference clarifies that most users should sign up for institutional rather than solo-user access.

Quoting from his message:

“Please sign up the same way you plan to subscribe.

“* Institutional access if there will ever be more than one user at your site (institutional access typically uses IP authentication or a referring URL).

“* Solo-user access if you will only have one user at your site (login/password authentication only).

“Most users should sign up for institutional access. Why?

“* Your institution can have an unlimited number of concurrent users during the open-access period

“* You and your colleagues can test the sharing of workflows and mappings within your institution

“* You and your colleagues can take advantage of IP authentication or a referring URL to avoid institutional login (users will just log in to access their personal profile)

“* You and your colleagues can participate more smoothly in your institution’s decisions regarding RDA implementation

“Sign up now and look forward to getting your login information in mid-June.”

The complete message can be read at the Autocat archive.

The co-publishers of RDA have announced a complementary open-access period starting from the launch date (planned for June). The link:

http://www.rdatoolkit.org/openaccess

Quoting from the linked page,

“The contents of the RDA Toolkit will be completely open at no charge for everyone to try from the RDA launch date in June 2010 through August 31, 2010. The open-access period will end on August 31, 2010 regardless of the actual launch date. Specific details on how to register for the free open-access period will be announced closer to the launch date. Sign up[*] to be added to a mailing list to receive announcements and updates about this and many other RDA Toolkit topics.

“After the complimentary open-access period, potential subscribers can sign up for a 30-day free trial account to help them evaluate the RDA Toolkit. Trials for either solo-user or multi-user accounts will be offered. During this 30-day free trial period users will have full and complete access to the RDA Toolkit site.”

*Sign-up link is http://www.rdatoolkit.org/rdalist

(Cross-posted at Flaming Catheads.)

Technical Bulletin 258, OCLC-MARC Format Update 2010, including RDA Changes

Quoting Christopher Dawson of OCLC:

“This Technical Bulletin covers all of the Library of Congress’s MARC Update 10 and most of MARC Update 11 (exceptions are noted). Many of these changes relate to the WorldCat testing of Resource Description and Access (RDA), the proposed successor to AACR2. Also covered are comments and requests from OCLC users and staff.

“Implementations of the OCLC-MARC updates covered in the Technical Bulletin may occur in stages, which OCLC will announce via logon Messages of the Day, Connexion News, and the OCLC-CAT listserv. It is recommended that users not begin to use the new capabilities, fields and subfields, indicators, practices, and codes until OCLC announces that they may be used.”

A list of Technical Bulletins currently in force can be found here.

(Cross-posted at Flaming Catheads.)

LC’s standards page links to a large number of metadata, information-retrieval, and other standards, including MARC 21 (of which more later), MARCXML, MODS (Metadata Object Description Standard), MADS (Metadata Authority Description Standard), and EAD (Encoded Archival Description), as well as to several national and international standards organizations.