As a newer librarian, I have a bit of a different point-of-view when it comes to RDA. It seems like the goal of RDA is to bring libraries into web-based data description in a real way. I don't think cataloging should necessarily be easier for librarians to perform, but it should provide information that is more easily retrievable and meets the needs and heightened expectations of our patrons. So if RDA makes cataloging more difficult (I'm not sure if that's the case, I think once catalogers master the new rules it'll just become the new routine), isn't that a good reason why we need skilled catalogers to perform the work? Sounds like job security to me. There's no way to predict the future so I'm not saying 100% that that's how it will shake out, but I think it behooves us to adapt as a profession to the current and possible future information environments. If any of you are attending the Medical Library Association meeting in Minneapolis next month, I'll be doing a presentation on explaining the broad concepts of RDA and FRBR to technical services staff and non-technical services librarians, if you'd like to come listen. Thanks, Megan Curran Head of Metadata & Content Management Norris Medical Library University of Southern California 2003 Zonal Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90089-9130 megan...@usc.edu 323-442-1134
>>> Guy Vernon Frost <gfr...@valdosta.edu> 4/11/2011 9:19 AM >>> I concur… very nice summation. Change needs to occur, but it seems to me it’s going in the wrong direction too. Guy Frost, B.M.E., M.M.E., M.L.S., Ed.S Catalog Librarian/Facilitator of Technical Processing Associate Professor of Library Science Odum Library, Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698-0150 Depository 0125 229-259-5060 ; FAX 229-333-5862 gfr...@valdosta.edu From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA] On Behalf Of Billie Hackney Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 11:58 AM To: RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA Subject: Re: [RDA-L] FRBR 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
