LCDGT terms for gender in authority records

If you create or edit authority records, you should be aware that RDA no longer incorporates the terms “male,” “female,” and “not known” for gender, and that PCC policy is now to use terms from LCDGT (Library of Congress Demographic Group Categories Term and Code List) in field 375 ($2 lcdgt).

You can access LCDGT from ClassWeb.  If you do not have ClassWeb access, you can retrieve a PDF document from the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate home page, though it will be slightly less current.  Netanel Ganin of Brandeis University has also posted the terms in a more navigable page in the style of ClassWeb, and he plans to keep his list up to date with each update.

The terms in LCDGT can potentially be used in any setting where you need controlled, single-facet vocabulary for age, educational level, ethnic or cultural identification, gender, language, medical or psychological condition or disability, national or regional affiliation, occupation or field of activity, religion, sexual orientation, or other social group identification; so we may have occasion to refer to it in the future even if we are not assigning gender designations in authority records.

(Gender in authority records and in RDA will be discussed in a little more depth in a forthcoming post on Flaming Catheads.)

 

Best Practices for Music Cataloging

Catalogers working with music materials will want to be current with the Music Library Association’s Best Practices for Music Cataloging Using RDA and MARC21. Since February of last year, this document has been integrated with the RDA Toolkit (under the Resources tab).  You need not be logged on to the Toolkit to access Best Practices, but the links to RDA instructions will not work unless you are.

If you want to consult a more traditionally formatted document, the old website of the former Bibliographic Control Committee of the Music Library Association has links to PDF files of Version 1.1 (the final version issued as a complete stand-alone PDF file), a list of changes between versions 1.01 and 1.1, and Supplements to Best Practices for Music Cataloging Using RDA and MARC21, version 1.5, 12 April 2016 (this last document is also available at the current website of MLA’s Cataloging and Metadata Committee).  Be aware, of course, that the Toolkit-integrated document will presumably be more up to date.

 

Updates to two useful tools

Walt Nickerson has recently published updated versions of his four macro books:

Walt’s Macros

The long list is in alphabetical order, so look in the middle for M: Macro book: Essentials; Macro Book: Extras1; Macro Book: Extras2; and Macro Book: MacroTools.  There is also, right above these, a handy list of all the macros in the four books, “Macro book listing.”

Terry Reese announced new additions to MarcEdit on April 30. He has added a new tool, UNIMARC Tools, for moving data between MARC21 and UNIMARC, and a new option has been added to the Replace function.

Update on MarcEdit:  Terry has just (as of today, May 13) announced that he plans a few more updates for the weekend.  If you use MarcEdit and want to be up to date, it would be a good idea to subscribe to his list, MARCEDIT-L (MARCEDIT-L-request@listserv.gmu.edu).

 

 

Two Presentations from ILA 2012

From the Illinois Library Assocation’s 2012 Annual Conference, Peoria, October 9:

Fantastic (and Free!) Cataloging Tools, presented by Erica Laughlin, RSA Cataloging and Database Administrator, Resource Sharing Alliance NFP:

Fantastic_Free_Cat_Tools_101112

A wealth of useful resources here, including DDC tools, converters and calculators, RDA resources, many more.

Wait a Minute, How Many Months?: Getting Ready Now that RDA Is Almost Here:

Wait a Minute, How Many Months 2012-10-17 (PPT)

Wait a Minute, How Many Months 2012-10-17 (PDF)

Some RDA Training Resources 2012-10-11

I have saved my presentation as both PPT so you can see the notes, and PDF in case you have trouble viewing the PPT.

Both Erica and I added a little extra information based on the discussion at our presentations.

 

OCLC Technical Bulletin 258

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.)

 

Standards at the Library of Congress

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.