After my recent appointment as the Metadata Interest Group’s liaison to the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA), I reached out to outgoing liaison Jessica Hayden to inquire about her experience. One of her principle recommendations was to use Metadata Interest Group (MIG) channels like the blog to grow awareness of RDA revision proposals an other CC:DA business relevant to MIG members, and to use these channels to get feedback and ideas from a broader segment of stakeholders within the community of metadata librarians.
But first a bit of background. CC:DA “is the body within the American Library Association responsible for developing official ALA positions on additions to and revisions to RDA: Resource Description and Access.” For the past two years, changes to the RDA standard have been frozen because of the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign (commonly known as the 3R Project), which will not only change the look, feel, and functionality of the RDA Toolkit, but also incorporate much of the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) into the text and structure of RDA. In April, a “stabilized” English version of the new RDA text was released as part of the Beta RDA Toolkit. Neither this stabilized text nor the Beta RDA Toolkit will supplant the current version until the RDA Steering Committee (RSC) declares the 3R Project complete, which in all likelihood will not happen before the end of 2019. In the meantime, the focus of the 3R Project will shift to translations and the development of policy statements, such as LC/PCC-PS.
In the meantime, addition and revision proposals to RDA are still frozen, although minor revision proposals, such as error or typo corrections, may be submitted. However, the release of the stabilized text provides an excellent opportunity to review what will likely represent a major revision to RDA. The incorporation of the LRM should be of especial interest to our community at the Metadata Interest Group, as this stabilized text represents a further shift towards an entity-based approach, with many ramifications for linked data implementation. If you have ideas for revisions and additions, I’d love to hear them–feel free to contact me directly at trm2151 [at] columbia [dot] edu.
Timothy R. Mendenhall
Metadata librarian at Columbia University Libraries, performing both traditional MARC cataloging and non-MARC work in the digital library collections. Participant in the PCC. Formerly a processing archivist and still active as an art cataloger at the Frick Art Reference Library.