Morgan McCune (Pittsburg State University) ­­ Ready for RDA?: Help for the Smaller Academic Institution from 2015 C&U/CULS (Joint NE & KS) Spring Meeting

1. Ready for RDA?
Help For the Smaller Academic Institution
Morgan O.H. McCune
Pittsburg State University
Cataloging Librarian, Associate Professor
mmccune@pittstate.edu

2. What’s “scary”?
 Even if catalogers love change, their
training makes them tend to do things the
same way
 New terminology
 More reliance on “cataloger’s judgment”
 MARC changes
 Dynamic

3. Why RDA? Chapter 7, Introducing
RDA—A Guide to the Basics / Chris
Oliver (2010)
 Brings some immediate improvements, but
also lays the groundwork for the future
 Helps break data out of the MARC silo
 Precisely defined data elements (extent
and tactile notation separate, for example)
 Data to support collocation (recording
relationships)

4. Why RDA? (cont’) Chapter 7,
Introducing RDA—A Guide to the Basics
/ Chris Oliver (2010)
 Lessens the Anglo-American bias
 Instructions apply to all types of resources
 Not based on 3x5 card technology
(abbreviations not necessary); emphasis on
transcription

5. It’s Here
 We now have more than 27,000
RDA records in our catalog

6. Wacker & Han, RDA Planning,
Implementation and Use (2013)
 “At this point, RDA implementation is complete
for most libraries. It’s time to shift our attention
to finding a replacement for MARC that will fully
exploit the new features found in RDA cataloguing
and authority records for better user services”
 Not my experience for small institutions in Kansas

7. Tosaka & Park. RDA: Training and
Continuing Education Needs in Academic
Libraries (2014)
“A clear picture that emerged is that 4-year academic
institutions with a small cataloging staff may have to adopt
and implement RDA in relative isolation, often through solo
training with limited institutional support … it is particularly
important to develop effective training programs that will
meet the needs and delivery preferences of practicing
professionals in thousands of smaller cataloging and
metadata departments” (p. 24)

8. Communicate …
 Before and after training
 Why—Reasons for implementation
 How—Procedures
 Support—Policies (supports decision-making
on the front lines)
 Training Plan/Goals

9. Admin
Cat
Manager
Systems
Cat
Staff
Public
Services
Cat.
Consortium
Don’t Forget!

10. PLANNING

11. State of the Catalog—What’s the
situation?
 MARC Changes / ILS Vendor
 Incoming vendor records (e-books, etc.; are
incoming records reviewed?)
 User needs
 Catalog partners

12. State of the Catalog
 Bibliographic records
 Authority records/authority work (work
with vendors?)
 Distribution of changes for authority
records
 Display in discovery systems

13. State of the Catalog—Hybrid Records
 Leave existing records alone?
 336, 337, 338 content/media/carrier
 Convert AACR2 records coming in?
 Keep some vestige of AACR2? (GMDs?)
 Change copycat/original cat procedures?
(training times can be good times to
evaluate and upgrade workflow)

14. User Needs/Cataloging Procedures
 Make the capitalization decision (RDA
allows transcription from the piece)
 RDA is more judgment-focused in terms of
access points; get together as a group and
make some decisions that will best help
your users and ease the process for
catalogers

15. TRAINING

16. Environment
Even if you’re only training yourself, think
about:
 What’s the need?
 What’s the current level of expertise?
 Constraints—time, location, technology
 Level of institutional support

17. Alternatives to Reading the Rules
 Multimedia materials
 Workflow design
 Hands-on activities/assignments
 Find my errors
 Group work

18. Multimedia
 Visuals/Diagrams/Material
surrogates/Physical materials
 Documents
 MARC examples
 Videos (watching, creating, constraints?)
 Screenshots
 Staff View/Public View of Catalog

19. Video
 Screencast O Matic
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
(hosted, youtube, download)
 Classroom Software– Tegrity, Panopto
 TechSmith Relay

20. Screenshots
 [Alt]-[PrtScn] & paste
 Microsoft Snipping Tool
 Good for step-by-step task-based
documentation

21. Reverse Engineering the Knowledge Flow
(Starting with Practice)
MARC21 RDA FRBR/WEMI

22. Concrete to Abstract
 Shortcut to MARC record directions (comparing
with AACR2 is useful)
 Tie them to RDA instructions
 Then begin to introduce the abstract concepts
(FRBR, WEMI, elements)
 Keep terminology changes as clear as possible
(use parallel terminology for a while if it helps)

23. The Abstract in RDA / FRBR
(WEMI) RDA 1.1.5
 The term work refers to a distinct intellectual or artistic creation
(i.e., the intellectual or artistic content).
 The term expression refers to the intellectual or artistic realization
of a work in the form of alpha-numeric, musical, or choreographic
notation, sound, image, object, movement, etc., or any combination
of such forms.
 The term manifestation refers to the physical embodiment of an
expression of a work.
 The term item refers to a single exemplar or instance of a
manifestation.

24. WEMI another way
 work Pride and Prejudice (abstract idea)
 expression illustrated edition/translation/abridgment
 manifestation Penguin Books 2010, with introduction by
Jane Smith
 item on the shelf at Axe Library (has been checked out 15
times; cover beginning to show wear)

25. Bram Stoker’s Dracula in FRBR Terms (Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN0vKCFsXPE

26. Repackaging Information
 Customize for the environment
 Cut through the tidal wave
 Guide learning

27. Repackaging Information
 “Cheat Sheets” (some are out there!; use
or adapt)
 Copycat Checklist
 Field by Field Instructions
 Task-based guides (how to xyz)

28. Document/Date
 Document policies and procedures in
changing environments
 Date all docs
 Always check for dates when searching for
online resources

29. Flexibility
If it doesn’t work, “change it up!” Don’t be
afraid to change it on the fly.

30. Follow Through
 What are students to refer to after training?
In-house documents? LC procedure? The
manager?
 How are we reviewing work? (quality control)
 Fine tune documentation as needed; Establish
a dissemination procedure.
 Close the circle on training—evaluate, evolve

31. Remain nimble
 Track external training options, instruction
changes on blogs, listservs, Toolkit, etc.
 Revisit, Refresh, Resist complacency

32. Developing Partnerships
 Talk to staff at an RDA library (similar to
yours)
 Talk to staff at a library similar to yours and
implement together
 Feel free to talk to me!
 Regional library systems?
 Other options?

33. Questions? Ideas?
Mering, M. (Ed.). (2014). The RDA workbook: Learning the basics of
resource description and access. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries
Unlimited. (especially Chapter 4 / Casey Kralik).
Oliver, C. (2010). Introducing RDA: A guide to the basics. Chicago:
American Library Association. (Chapter 7)
Tosaka, Y. & Park, J. (2014). RDA: Training and continuing education
needs in academic libraries. Journal of Education for Library and
Information Science, 55(1), 3-25.
Wacker, M. & Han, M.-J. (2013). RDA planning, implementation and use:
A comparison of two academic libraries. Alexandria, 24(2), 27-48.
Morgan McCune mmccune@pittstate.edu