Am 17.03.2011 14:30, schrieb Mike Tribby:
While I agree entirely with what Bernhard says about what should be done to disseminate RDA if RDA is to be a success, it is not and never has been the intent of the co-publishers to make RDA available for free or anything like free. In fact I daresay it has been understood from the beginning of this process that RDA was intended to pay for itself. It's not a secret, though it's also not the first thing the RDA crowd mentions when touting RDA.
Of course, the co-publishers are now in an uneasy situation not entirely of their own choosing. From the outset, it should have been understood that the world is a different one now from what it was when AACR2 came out. It was already clear that interest in metadata went far beyond libraries (Dublin Core had existed for a while then). And I think it must have been clear by that time that a model based on paid access was not going to be accepted by most of the targeted communities. There must be a way to get around this now, or chances for RDA will be very slim indeed. Since we can never want the digital divide, there's no way than to boycott RDA and turn to Mac's sheets and Jim's "Open Cataloging Rules" with their free access to the LCRIs and such. As things stand now, the co-publishers have the global monopoly on the RDA text. Which should never have happened in this time and age. B.Eversberg
