Announcements and Reports

CC:DA Activities at ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans

The Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) held three meetings at ALA Annual in New Orleans. The main topic of these meetings was the draft for Chapters 6 and 7 of RDA: Resource Description and Access, covering related resources and persons, families, and corporate bodies associated with a resource, respectively.

On Friday, June 23, there was a discussion of the draft chapters. This discussion was continued on Monday, June 26. Some of the major issues raised were (a) the scope of the chapter on related works; (b) the taxonomy of relationships in the chapter and the terminology used to describe relationships; (c) the use of the term citation in Chapter 6; (d) the need for the concept of mixed responsibility in chapter 7; and (e) whether there is a continued need for the special rules for musical, legal, and religious works.

On Saturday, June 24, the main agenda item was the report of the ALA Representative to Joint Steering Committee, Jennifer Bowen, who reported on the April JSC meeting. This report included a summary of the decisions made by the JSC on the basis of comments on the draft of Part I of RDA. Her written report is posted on this site.

For further details and links to some of the documents, see the Agenda for the meeting.

RDA: Resource Description and Access Open Forum at ALA Annual in New Orleans

An RDA Update Forum, sponsored by the ALCTS Cataloging and Classification Section, was presented at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The forum included a brief update on the status of work on RDA: Resource Description and Access by Jennifer Bowen, the ALA Representative to the Joint Steering Committee. A PDF version of Jennifer’s presentation is available on this site.

Following this presentation, Jennifer and Marjorie Bloss, RDA Project Manager, answered questions from the audience.

The JSC has an RDA FAQ online at http://www.rda-jsc.org/rdafaq.html

RDA: Resource Description and Access draft Chapters 6 and 7 available for comment

The draft of part A, chapters 6-7 of RDA (formerly known as RDA part II) is now available for comment prior to the October 2006 JSC meeting. In addition, all the JSC working documents have been posted on the JSC website to provide background to the drafts.

The draft is available at http://www.rda-jsc.org/docs/5rda-parta-ch6&7.pdf

The cover letter of the draft refers to a number of JSC documents. Links have been provided below:

• Prospectus for RDA
• Strategic plan
• Objectives and Principles [PDF format]
• Proposals to simplify special rules in AACR2 chapter 21 (5JSC/Chair/5 series)
• Statement of policy and procedures for JSC [PDF format]

Comments on the draft from within the United States should be submitted to the ALA/ALCTS/CCS Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA). To make comments, please use this comment form. The deadline for submission of comments is August 7, 2006.

CC:DA discussed the draft during its meetings at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

RDA Online prototype available for comment

RDA: Resource Description and Access is a new cataloguing code for the digital world. Built on the foundation established by AACR2, RDA will provide a comprehensive set of guidelines and instructions on resource description and access covering all types of content and media. RDA’s first release is anticipated in mid-2008 in an online format.

While the Joint Steering Committee for AACR and the RDA Editor have been concentrating on the content of RDA, the Co-Publishers (the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) have been developing the online product. To that end, they have created a prototype for RDA Online.

The Co-Publishers have made this prototype available for you to view. The URL is http://www.rdaonline.org/.

This is the same prototype that has been demonstrated to several focus groups and individual during the last two American Library Association conferences.

Some suggestions for viewing the prototype:

First, the prototype is available for viewing in four versions depending on resolution with sound and without sound (eye-readable text). Depending on your internet connection, the audio in particular may take a few minutes to load. So please be patient.

Second, the prototype is a snapshot, created for you to view and assess the functionality of the software and not the content of the RDA rules. When viewing the prototype, please focus on it as an online tool rather than critiquing the rules that have been included as examples.

Finally, a short questionnaire has been attached to the prototype. We are very eager to receive your impressions of the prototype, to know if we're on the right track in its development. Please take the opportunity to fill out the questionnaire. Let us hear from you while we're in this early stage of development.

Marjorie E. Bloss, RDA Project Manager
2827 West Gregory Street
Chicago, IL 60625
USA
1-773-878-4008
1-773-519-4009 (mobile)
Marjorie_Bloss@msn.com

New CC:DA Chair and Members

Following the CC:DA meetings at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, a new Chair took over leadership of CC:DA. She is Cheri Folkner, of Boise State University. There are also two new voting members: Kathy Glennan, of the University of Maryland, formerly representative from the Music Library Association; and John Myers, of Union College, formerly a CC:DA intern.

New Task Force Appointed

The IFLA ISBD Review Group has issued a call for comments on “ISBD, 2006 Consolidated Edition.” In response, CC:DA has formed a Task Force on the Review of ISBD Consolidated (July 2006 Draft). The Task Force is charged to prepare comments on the draft standard. Their report is due to CC:DA on October 6, 2006; comments are due to the ISBD Review Group on October 15.