Every time I see a discussion about how hard FRBR is to understand (which it
is), how difficult the RDA Toolkit is to use (which it is), and the fact that
RDA will actually increase the amount of work we have to do to each
bibliographic record (which it does), I get more and more discouraged.
Cataloging as a profession has been gasping for breath. It desperately needed
to become simpler, more transparent, and more attractive to library school
students, easier for management to understand. Instead, it seems to me that
the opposite is happening, and at the worst possible time. It seems to me that
our leaders are taking us over a cliff, and they keep explaining to us why what
they're doing is very, very important, as we're plummeting to the ground.
This is my own personal opinion as someone who has been cataloging for twenty
years -- not that of my employer.
Billie Hackney
Senior Monograph Cataloger
Getty Research Institute
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688
(310) 440-7616
bhack...@getty.edu
