MARS Authority Control

I watched the RDA Toolkit webinar today, put on by the RDA group. I thought I’d share some of the impressions that I got out of it in the hopes that it would be somewhat useful. I should start off by noting that they did not intend this webinar to be very in-depth, but rather a kick-off of more information to come.

RDA will fully replace AACR2. This should go without saying, but I thought I’d better say it anyway. Even though the rules will be replaced, the RDA Toolkit will contain the full text of AACR2. The idea may be that if you know where a rule is specified in AACR2, you can look it up and it will cross link to the RDA rule. This should be a fairly handy feature for those of us who have worked with AACR2 for a long time.

Also mentioned was the ability for user generated content to be accessible in the RDA Toolkit. Whether this will be restricted to sharing information within your institution, or how it will be spread to other institutions is up in the air.  I’m not sure if this is something they’ve thought too much about yet.

A subscription can be for a single individual user or multi-user. If multiple users will be connecting, you will have a profile login in addition to your user login. This allows one institution to have a single or a few RDA licenses but have many more users, but there can only be as many users logged in at a time as there are licenses. For example, if you have 3 subscriptions you could have 10 (or more) users with their own profiles, but only 3 could connect at a given time.

The RDA Toolkit is a web-based collection of documents, and it’s been put together in a pretty slick manner. The current visuals don’t do justice to the functionality that the website offers, though I’m sure those visuals (graphics, fonts, and design) will be updated prior to launch. For example, the RDA tab (found on the upper left side of the screen) gives one access to an expanding tree-view of the RDA rules. Clicking a category will take you to the section in the chapter you’ve selected. You can place and share bookmarks and notes inside of the document. It’s very well done, as I said. My concern is that clicking on a subheading or a chapter opens the entire chapter; the example he showed would have been 95 pages if printed. The processing power needed to run all of the javascript code and the sheer amount of data being worked with leads me to believe that there could be some very slow pages, especially for users with older computers, slow internet connections, or heaven forbid are still running Internet Explorer 6.

Inside the documents you’ll find a plethora of links and cross references, nicely color coded and branded as to what sort of information they lead to. For example, links to other sections in the RDA rules book are coded in blue, while links to glossary terms have a triangle.  They also include links between the AACR2 rules and corresponding RDA rules.  This will be really useful when moving from AACR2 to RDA.

Searching RDA will allow you a nice number of options.  I particularly liked the fact that you could sort the results in terms of relevancy or order they appeared in the document.  You are also able to limit searches to specific chapters, sections, media types, content, examples, etc.

A fair amount of time was spent discussing how they wanted to work with vendors to allow them to link into the Toolkit within their products (to give specific helps and instructions).  However, the institution will still need a subscription or the links won’t work. Another topic people are worried about is a print version. They seem to believe that it isn’t necessary, or a good idea.  You can print each chapter on your own, however, like I mentioned earlier, chapter 3 alone was 95 pages which would be quite costly to print.  Plus you would lose all of the cross linking that you get with the electronic edition.

They mentioned an open access period from launch (expected June, 2010) to August 31^st, 2010.  After the open access period, you will be able to get a 30-day free trial to test the RDA Toolkit before purchasing a license. One nice feature:  if you set up bookmarks and links during your trial you won’t lose them when you purchase a license.

For more information and to be added to an email list, email rdatoolkit@ala.org or visit http://www.rdaonline.org

On February 8, 2010 and February 9, 2010, Troy Linker from ALA Publishing is presenting a guided tour of the RDA Toolkit website:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/639494355

Registration is quick and easy (and free apparently) and will cover these topics (from the above link):

• Description of the RDA Toolkit
• Overview of the RDA Toolkit contents at launch and beyond
• Tour of the RDA Toolkit interface including Search, Browse, Bookmarks, Workflows, Maps, and more
• Launch timeline
• Details of the Complimentary Open Access period
• RDA Toolkit pricing for the US
• Linking from external products to the RDA Toolkit

February 8 – 1 hour : 21:00 – 22:00 GMT (4:00 pm EST)

February 9 – 1 hour : 16:00 – 17:00 GMT (11:00 am EST)

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/991492442

RDA – Jan. 15, 2010 – http://connect.ala.org/node/92572

Disclaimer: One of our Backstage staff (Maritta Coppieters) attended the all-day training session at ALA, but then also had to jump on a plane to England, so these updates are based on conversations I had with Maritta before she left:

• LC is making allowance to put the authority control number in the heading in a $0, so that the heading will link to a specific authority record. LC isn’t going to implement this right now and will still be linking with the actual authority record, but it is something they are planning.
• Lots of rules are going away and becoming more intuitive.
• Old Latin abbreviations are being discarded.
• The rule of thumb is: Key it like you see it.
• The focus isn’t so much on editing and conforming things to a set of rules, more like representing the material as you find it. The idea is that if you download content from a publisher and the book title has an abbrevaition, you leave it the way it is.
• Trust the item in hand rather than applying a set of rules to it.
• LC will publish RDA by June ALA. Then we have 3 months to train and practice. Then another 3 months to test specific scenarios and report back to LC. Then LC will take 3 months to write up the results (Q1 2011).

The RDA Toolkit price has been set at: $325 for the first user, $55 for each additional user. This price is set to be an annual subscription, rather than a one-time fee. As a comparison, the AACR2 life-time price is around $95 per user (non-members).

More information regarding the RDA Toolkit can be found here:
http://celeripedean.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/the-rda-toolkit/

Stay tuned as we prepare a more comprehensive update about the direction RDA is heading and how we are a part of it.

Nate Cothran, our head of Authority Control recently returned from the Mid-Winter session of ALA. This is what he had to report:

Backstage kicked off the year right by attending the ALA MidWinter conference held at Boston, MA.  Even the weather cooperated.

On Saturday, January 16 at 7:30am EST, the Authority Control dept hosted a Users Breakfast at the Seaport Hotel, which was just a hop, skip & a jump away from the new conference center itself.  The breakfast was quite good and we had many clients and Backstage personnel co-mingling.  It was also a great opportunity for me, Nate Cothran, to finally meet with a lot of you at last.  Though I have attended ALA in the past, this was my first chance to attend the breakfast.

John Merrill, our CEO out at Bethlehem, PA said a few words about our recent acquisition of the “PresRes” from OCLC, which handles Microfilm duplication, Storage and other Digitization services.

I was also able to give a brief introduction to a couple new services we have to offer immediately:

• MAX – Mars Authority eXpress
• Bowkers TOC – Table of Contents enrichment

MAX can return your processed Current Cataloging bibs typically in less than an hour (our system can process about 20,000 recs/hr).  This service costs a bit more, and it is especially useful for libraries that need their records processed & returned immediately.  The great thing about MAX is that there is no minimum fee or schedules that need to be fussed over; simply send in your records through our website any time of the day in whatever size file works for you and we will get the results back to you fast.

Backstage Authority Control has also incorporated the Bowkers/Syndetics TOC database.  What this means is that we now have a direct means of providing you with enriched (TOC, Summaries, Fiction profiles) content as part of your normal bib processing.  Since we maintain the database in-house, this reduces the cost on our end and we pass those savings onto you by also lowering the cost of what you may have been paying elsewhere.  We also thinks it makes sense to charge you only for the enrichments you actually receive.

Both MAX & Bowkers TOC are in place today.  If you’re not sure whether either of these makes sense to your library, please ask us to setup a sample run for your records.  At Backstage, we love to run samples for our customers as it helps us refine the process for them and also gives our clients the assurance they need for these exciting new services.  For more information on these services, please feel free to contact me, nate@bslw.com, or your Sales Representatives from Backstage.

You’ve made it this far in the blog post, only a little further!  I had the opportunity to attend some great presentations at ALA regarding cataloging and so I would like to pass the links to our forum that contain my notes:

• Catalog Management Interest Group
• Catalog Form & Function Interest Group

Karen Anderson was scheduled to attend the all-day training session for RDA (Resource Description and Access) at ALA, but unfortunately slipped on a patch of ice at her house and broke her arm.  So Maritta Coppieters, our Bibliographic Services Product Manager, attended in her stead.  Maritta also had to catch a plane to England on Sunday, January 17, but I was lucky enough to glean some of her notes regarding the latest updates on RDA.

While we still plan on sending out regular updates on RDA (of which Backstage is one of the vendors training on it), I have posted my notes from Maritta in our forum:

• RDA Updates from ALA MidWinter 2010

There has been a lot of chatter (AUTOCAT) regarding the pricing for the RDA subscription and we will continue to follow this closely.

My thanks to all of you that I was able to meet at ALA!  I look forward to meeting many more of you in Washington, DC for Annual this June.

Nate Cothran,

Product Manager, Authority Control Services

It’s beginning to seem more and more like the ‘D’ in RDA stands for ‘Delayed.’

Karen, our resident Authority and RDA Librarian tells us:

An announcement about a delay in the publication of RDA was posted on the RDA listserve:

RDA: Resource Description and Access will be published in June 2010.  While we regret this delay in release of RDA, the transition from publication of AACR2 as a printed manual to release of RDA as a web based toolkit is a complex process with many interdependencies.

The updated text of RDA incorporates recommendations from constituencies and other stakeholders approved at the JSC meeting earlier this year.  The revised text has been successfully loaded into the RDA database.  The product is currently undergoing thorough quality review and testing in preparation for release.

We recognize that customers and prospective users of RDA need reliable and timely information for planning and budgeting.  We are confident that this revised deadline is a realistic target for publication of RDA.

Pricing and purchasing information will be introduced at the time of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, 15-18 January 2010.

Karen, our librarian and resident RDA expert let me know about a little update on the RDA front. I think it’s well worth your time to take a look, especially if you’re feeling a little stressed about RDA.

The last I heard, RDA is still scheduled to be published this month, and I know many are anxiously awaiting it.  (Either in excitement or trepidation!)  I saw this link to slides from an update about RDA given to the California Library Association Annual Conference on November 2.  It not only gives a good overview of RDA and its underlying models, but goes over the new data elements in RDA and some basic differences between RDA and AACR2 with examples to illustrate them.  There are also helpful links.  I really love the title:   “Help!  The new Cataloging Code is Coming!”  This presentation will surely help.

http://alcts.ala.org/crgwiki/images/1/10/RDA_CLA_Presentation.pdf

Our RDA Librarian, Karen, came to me this week with even more RDA resources that she wanted to share with our community. This is what she had to say:

Here are some more good links for information on RDA, FRBR and FRAD.  If any of you know of any others, be sure to send them in!

http://metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm – The list of registered RDA elements and vocabularies.  They will be linked from the RDA Online tool.   Thanks to Diane Hillmann for pointing this good link out.

http://www.rda-jsc.org/rda.html – This is the new address of the RDA main page on the Joint Steering Committee website.  Be sure to check out the FAQ’s.  This replaces the first address listed on the earlier blog post.

http://www.rda-jsc.org/docs/5sec6rev.pdf – Issues deferred until after the first release of RDA.

http://www.rda-jsc.org/rdapresentations.html – This page lists recent and future presentations on RDA given by members of the JSC and others involved with the development of RDA.  One to keep an eye on.

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4554 – This is an Library of Congress webcast on FRBR, from Barbara Tillett.  It’s not in their other webcast site because it was for non-catalogers.  It is a good overview that talks about practical applications.

http://tsig.wikispaces.com/Pre-conference+2009+presentation+materials – these are the power points and other materials that go along with the Pre-conference “From rules to entities: cataloging with RDA” held in Montreal.  They are very good.

http://www.d-nb.de/standardisierung/formate/marc_symposium.htm – We posted this before, but its worth another mention. These are the slides and presentations from the German symposium on their MARC21 project.  There are several on RDA that are really good.  They are in English. Bring up two sessions, one to watch the YouTube video and the other to look at the slides.

http://www.loc.gov/marc/marc-functional-analysis/frbr.html – This has several documents from MARC Standards that deal with MARC and FRBR, including mappings.  It also has a FRBR display tool that allows you to create a sample FRBR display from MARC records.

http://www.rda-jsc.org/docs/5sec7rev.pdf – This document lists the changes made to AACR2 during the development of RDA.

http://www.archive.org/details/ResourceDescriptionAccessrdaDraftNov.2008 – Karen Coyle’s zipped copies of the Nov. 2008 draft of RDA draft.

http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/icp/ – IFLA statement of international cataloging principles.  This is a replacement for the Paris Principles.

http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/rda/ – Site for the U.S. National libraries test of RDA.  Has list of testing partners, and background information

            http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/rda/test-partners.html – this is the list of the testing partners that is on the above site.

http://frbr.slis.kent.edu/ – this is the website for Kent State’s FRBR project.  There are links on the site to their other presentations including the following:

            http://frbr.slis.kent.edu/presentations/ALA2009-midwinter-FRBR.pdf  – Presentation given at the ALCTS FRBR Interest Group during 2009 ALA Midwinter called “Developing a FRBR-Based System to Effectively Support User Tasks”

http://exlibris.memphis.edu/music/mla/glennan.pdf – This slide presentation “From AACR2 to RDA: An Evolution” was given in 2006, but it has good background information.

http://celeripedean.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/code4lib-and-frbr/ – this article has lots of really good links in it for FRBR, RDA, and FRAD.

http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/frbr_drafts.html – The drafts for FRBRoo, which as far as I can tell, is a joint effort of museums and libraries to align the FRBR and the CIDOC (a committee of the International Council of Museums) Conceptual Reference Model.

If you have anything to do with Library services you know that RDA has the world all a buzz right now. But it can be difficult to keep up with everything that’s going on. For that reason, I asked our RDA Librarian to compile a list of her favorite places to get information on RDA. If you have any that you think are useful, please let us know!

Here are some links on related to RDA (Resource Description and Access), FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records), and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) that I have found very helpful and informative.

 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rda.html- This is the RDA main page at the JSC website.  There are links to the full draft, background information, and much more.  The links under Scope and Principles are particularly good, especially the mapping.  Also the FAQ’s are really helpful.

 http://www.rdaonline.org/ – This site is where a demo of RDA online will be up sometime in the near future.  When I last checked it, they said they plan to have the demo ready in May.  Don’t hold your breath, but keep checking the site.

 http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/ – This is the IFLA site for FRBR

 http://www.ifla.org.sg/VII/d4/FRANAR-ConceptualModel-2ndReview.pdf  - This is the IFLA site for the draft of FRAD.

 http://www.bn.gov.ar/archivos/anexos_proyectos_especiales/encuentro/ponencias/ponencia_Patton_ingles.pdf – This paper from 2007 gives really good background on FRAD.

 http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/rdawebcasts.html  – This site has two really good presentations by Barbara Tillett of LC.  You can download the needed player from the website.  They are about an hour each, but well worth listening to.  There should be more webcasts coming up in the future so keep an eye out.

 http://courses.unt.edu/smiksa/documents/4_Hello%20RDA,%20Goodbye%20AACR2!_15April2008.pdf    -This is a great presentation.  It gives a very good overview in some detail with very understandable language.

 http://nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/documents/Walls2008.ppt – Libraries Australia have done a lot with FRBR and RDA.  This is a good presentation and at the end there are more good links.

 http://www.nelib.org/netsl/conference/2009/RickBlock.pdf – This very thorough presentation talks about RDA and MARC.  A lot of it is concatenated from other presentations, but it brings everything together nicely.

 http://www.loc.gov/marc/development.html – This has copies of the Proposals and Discussion Papers for changes to the MARC21 formats.  Just click on MARC Proposals or MARC Discussion Papers.  They are arranged by year, most recent first.  Most of the 2009 proposals and discussion papers deal with RDA elements.  Also take a look at 2008-05/1-4, as these deal with RDA too.  You may also gain insights by looking at older ones.  Also see link below for the decisions made on the ones discussed at ALA midwinter.

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/marbi0806.html – Summaries of what was discussed at ALA midwinter 2008 and the actions taken.

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/marbi0901.html – Here are the report of the 2009 ALA midwinter meeting of MARBI.

 http://wikis.ala.org/midwinter2009/index.php/ALCTS – From this site you can access the presentations from the CCS Forum: FRBR and RDA: a glimpse into the future of cataloging and public displays.   Barbara Tillett’s and John Espley’s on the VTLS OLE project were particularly pertinent.

http://vtls.com/products/virtua – This from John Espley’s presentation.  It’s an example of a FRBRized catalog.  From this page, click on Virtua Enriched User Searching Presentation.  It takes a couple minutes to download because its rather long.  It automatically pages down and it went rather quickly, but scrolling up or down would move between the slides, so you can go back and get what was missed.

 http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/03/10/functional-requirements-for-bibliographic-records/ – This is another well written and easy to understand explanation of FRBR.

 http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/775  – This is an article titled “Identifying FRBR Work- Level Data in MARC Bibliographic Records for Manifestations of Moving Images.  In code[4]lib journal  Issue t, 2008-12-15.

 http://celeripedean.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/code4lib-and-frbr/ – This blog post has lots of really good links in it.

The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC) has moved its website. There are redirections in place from the old site to pages on the new site explaining the change. The new address is:

 http://www.rda-jsc.org/

Also the Library of Congress has new documentation available that lists MARC21 approved changes made since the 2008 Update that accommodate RDA.  Here’s the link:

http://www.loc.gov/marc/formatchanges-RDA.html

There are lots more link out there.  These are just the ones I have found most helpful.  If you know of some others, please share them on the blog, forum, or listserv.

Happy reading!

Karen Anderson

Authority Control Librarian

Backstage Library Works

A note from our RDA Librarian…

I thought I would pass along this notice from the German National Library to those who might not have seen it on the RDA list serve:

”In June 2009, the project “Internationalisierung der deutschen Standards: Umstieg auf MARC 21” completed the groundwork for the full implementation of the data exchange format MARC 21 in Germany and Austria.

To mark the successful conclusion of this migration project, the German National Library held a symposium “Umstieg auf MARC 21 – MARCing a new landscape in data exchange” on June 2nd, 2009.

We are happy to announce that the slides and the links to the video recordings of the presentations are now available. Please go to: http://www.d-nb.de/standardisierung/formate/marc_symposium.htm. Several of the presentations may be of interest to the RDA community as they address the mapping of RDA to MARC 21, as well as making connections between the data exchange format and the FRBR and FRAD models.”

There’s links to videos of the presentations on YouTube and links to the corresponding slides.  I watched all the presentations and was very impressed.  They are all in English. I found it helpful to bring up two sessions, one to watch the videos, and one to look at the slides, since the slides are not very visible in the videos.

If you’re like us, geeking out over the new information coming out about RDA (and we know you are!) then you will be interested in a few more important RDA links our resident Authority Librarian (can we start calling her our resident RDA librarian now?) has put together for us.

The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC) has moved its website. There are redirections in place from the old site to pages on the new site explaining the change. The new address is:

http://www.rda-jsc.org/

Also the Library of Congress has new documentation available that lists MARC21 approved changes made since the 2008 Update that accommodate RDA.  Here’s the link:

http://www.loc.gov/marc/formatchanges-RDA.html