Resource Description & Access (RDA) Update from the National Library

 

Those of you who attended the Te Puna & EPIC -  a conversation roadshows will be familiar  with this information and the cataloguing presentation will soon be available through the DescribeNZ wiki. http://nznuc-cataloguing.pbworks.com. However we wanted to provide this update to share the information with as many of you as possible.

 

RDA Implementation 

The National Library will implement RDA for its own cataloguing records no earlier than 31 March 2013. Our actual implementation date has not yet been finalised, but it is likely to be late April or some time in May 2013. We will let you know as soon as we have the date.

 

RDA activities  

A group of cataloguers are currently working through the Library of Congress list of core elements for RDA. This list is available on the Library of Congress page for RDA training materials  http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/. RDA guidelines include a large number of options and alternatives so, for each of these core elements, we are evaluating any options and choosing those that we will follow at the National Library. As part of this work we are also taking into account any Library of Congress Policy Statements for these guidelines.

We are starting with the elements that apply to text-based monographs and we will expand into other formats including serials, sound and video recordings, and maps.

This work will result in cataloguing policies for the National Library. We will share this information via the DescribeNZ wiki http://nznuc-cataloguing.pbworks.com to help New Zealand libraries and staff with their own transition to RDA.

 

RDA and authority records

The National Library contributes authority records to the Library of Congress/Name Authority Cooperative Program (LC/NACO) Authority File.

National Library cataloguers who contribute authority records to the LC/NACO file may be trained in using RDA in authority records prior to 31 March 2013 in line with other international contributors. There is an expectation that once training is complete all newly-established authority records will follow RDA.

 

RDA Training

This is clearly a major concern for all of us and the National Library is committed to supporting the provision of training in RDA for New Zealand libraries.

The RDA training and needs survey (New Zealand) conducted in May 2010 showed the need for RDA training for a variety of library staff, not just cataloguers. This survey also highlighted a strong preference for face-to-face training with online training as a supplement to support that face-to-face training.

 

It is the National Library’s preference that RDA training in New Zealand is provided by professional trainers and we will be working towards this end. If this proves insufficient for New Zealand’s needs, the Library is committed to finding other solutions.

 

National Library has been invited to send a representative to the National Library of Australia train-the-trainer course for their state libraries and external Australian trainers. Details and dates for this are not yet available.

 

CatSIG is sponsoring a New Zealand visit by Barbara Tillett from the Library of Congress. Barbara is the current chair of the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA. She will participate in three seminars for cataloguers in September in Auckland, Palmerston North and Dunedin. While these seminars will not be RDA training courses, they will be an opportunity to hear about the pre-implementation work being done at the Library of Congress and will provide context around RDA as a standard. More information will be made available through the CatSIG list and DescribeNZ wiki.

 

For those of you wanting to get a head start on RDA there is a lot of training material already freely available from Library of Congress, National Library of Australia and others. This includes webcasts, training videos, PowerPoint presentations and exercises.

We will keep the Describe NZ wiki up to date with resources that may be useful to New Zealand libraries.

Library of Congress RDA information is available at http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/

RDA presentations are also available from the Joint Steering Committee website at http://www.rda-jsc.org/rdapresentations.html and the Australian Committee on Cataloguing also has information on RDA at

http://www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/rda.html

 

Other activities

I am putting together a paper on the implications of RDA implementation for Te Puna Services. This will include

•          The impact of RDA on National Union Catalogue (NUC) standards

•          Technical issues around importing records into the NUC from other databases

•          How we manage AACR2 and RDA records in our NUC.

 

Te Puna Services are also planning to set up a meeting with library system vendors at this year’s LIANZA conference to discuss the implications of RDA for record exchange and OPAC displays.

 

I am also attending the American Library Association annual conference later this month. This is an opportunity to find out a lot more about implementation issues from those libraries that have been directly involved in RDA development and testing.

 

If you have any specific questions or comments about RDA please contact me directly. I may not be able to provide answers to all questions at this stage, but I may be able to pass things on to others, or help in some other way.

 

Best wishes

Chris Todd, 

 

Chris (Christine) Todd

Team Leader, Cataloguing Team 1

National Library of New Zealand

The Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua

Direct Dial: +64 4 474 3093

 

 

 

====
CAUTION:  This email message and any attachments contain information that may be confidential and may be LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of this message or attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email message in error please notify us immediately and erase all copies of the message and attachments. Thank you.
====