Resource Description and Access for Students

Christee PascaleAssociate Head, Metadata & CatalogingNorth Carolina State University Librarieschristee_pascale@ncsu.edu

North Carolina Central UniversitySchool of Library and Information SciencesLSIS 5425 Organization of InformationOctober 12, 2011

Presentation Overview

• The Road to Resource Description and Access (RDA)

• Cataloging at NCSU• The U.S. RDA Test• What’s New in an RDA Record and RDA

Record Examples

THE ROAD TO RESOURCE DESCRIPTION & ACCESS (RDA)

What is RDA?

• Resource Description & Access, the successor to the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2)

– new content standard– not an encoding standard

(MARC is an encoding standard)– intended to be independent of MARC, and hoped to be

used beyond the MARC community

Why a new standard?

• Work started out in 2004 on AACR3 – simplify rules – encourage use as a content standard for metadata

schema– encourage international applicability– address current problems with AACR2– principle-based– build on cataloger’s judgment

• After an initial draft, it was decided to take a new approach and call the effort Resource Description & Access.

Format Standards

(MARC/MODS/DC)

Content Standards

(AACR2/RDA)

Encoding Syntaxes(MARC/XML)

Controlled Vocabularies

(LCSH/MARC Code Lists)

Indexing Display

FRBR & FRAD

• Underlying RDA are the conceptual models FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data).

• Not a set of rules• Uses an entity relationship model• FRBR tasks: Find/Identify/Select/Obtain• FRAD tasks: Find/Identify/Contextualize/Justify

Content standard v. Encoding standardAACR2/RDA

For the title proper of a book, use the title page (or image thereof) as the preferred source of information.

If a married person is identified only by a partner’s name, treat a term of address as an integral part of the name.

– Davis, Maxwell, Mrs.– Strauss, Johann, Frau

MARC

MARC 245 tag = title properMARC 246 tag = varying form of title

245 10 $a The many faces of special education246 38 $a The many faces of special educators

MARC 100 tag = personal name, primary access point

MARC 700 tag = personal name, additional access point

MARC 600 tag = personal name, subject

100 1/ $a Strauss, Johann, ǂc Frau, ǂd 1850-1919700 1/ $a Strauss, Johann, ǂc Frau, ǂd 1850-1919600 10 $a Strauss, Johann, ǂc Frau, ǂd 1850-1919

CATALOGING AT NCSU LIBRARIES

Metadata & Cataloging @ NCSU• 18 Metadata & Cataloging staff:

– 5 in Monographs– 6 in Serials & Continuing Resources– 3 in Metadata & Data Quality– 1 Technology Support for Technical Services

• Highly centralized• 2009-2010 cataloging output

– 60,568 physical & electronic titles (MARC)– 50,504 physical volumes (MARC)– 12,909 digital image assets (non-MARC)– 779 digital text assets (non-MARC)– 669.75 linear feet of manuscript materials (non-MARC)– 2,943 faculty citations (non-MARC)

Metadata & Cataloging @ NCSU

• ~5% of NCSU MARC cataloging is original• Much of that is new editions and/or

electronic derived from print• NCSU is not a participant in the PCC• MLS holding librarians are doing (next to)

no cataloging• Support staff are doing all copy AND

original cataloging and both MARC and non-MARC cataloging

THE U.S. RDA TEST

U.S. RDA Test Goals

• Response to concerns about RDA raised by the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (2008 report)

• To assure the operational, technical, and economic feasibility of RDA

• Includes the three national libraries and the broader U.S. library community

U.S. RDA Test Participants

Library of CongressNational Agricultural LibraryNational Library of Medicine Backstage Library WorksBrigham Young UniversityCarnegie Library of Pittsburgh Clark Art Institute LibraryUniversity of Chicago College Center for Library

Automation (Florida) Columbia University Douglas County Libraries, Colorado Emory University GSLIS Group Minnesota Historical Society

Morgan Library and Museum Music Library Association/Online

Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc. North Carolina State University

Libraries University of North Dakota North East Independent School

District, San Antonio, Texas Northeastern University OCLC Metadata Contract Services Ohio State University Libraries State Library of Pennsylvania Quality Books Stanford University Libraries George Washington University

Why did NCSU choose to participate?• To force ourselves to learn• Copy-heavy institution• Support-staff-heavy institution• Trying to re-invigorate our training program• How do records of various types co-exist

happily?• Assessment/usability & cost/value

U.S. RDA Test

Timeline•U.S. RDA Test Participant Preparation

Jul-Sep 2010

•U.S. RDA Test

Oct-Dec 2010

•Data analysis

Jan-Mar 2011

•Final report to LC, NAL, NLM senior management

•US National Library RDA decision

May – Jun 2011

Requirements• Common Original &

Copy Set• Extra Set• Surveys:

– Record by Record– Record Creator Profile– Record Use– Institutional

NCSU U.S. RDA Test Statistics

• Common set original: 25• Common set copy:

– met NCSU criteria for upgrade: 4– did not meet NCSU criteria for upgrade: 1

• Extra set with surveys: 462– MARC Original: 390 (includes 201 ETDs)– MARC Copy: 62– MODS: 10

• NCSU was the 5th highest record creator

U.S. RDA Test Record Creation FindingsReport & Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee

26 minutes Average original record creation time for professionals and paraprofessionals

53 minutes Average time to create an original RDA records for records 1-10

28 minutes Average copy cataloging record time for professionals and paraprofessionals

NCSU RDA Test Record Creation FindingsRecord creation times at the end of the test period:

15-40 minutes for original book cataloging5-20 minutes for copy book cataloging

These times match NCSU’s existing local data for AACR2 book record creation time.

75% of NCSU catalogers showed increased rapidity in record creation over the course of the test.

Average time per record decreased 40% by the end of the test.

For books, ebooks and ejournals we noted a steady decrease in record creation time

The majority of print serials were cataloged by 3 individuals and despite repeat cataloging, time to catalog did not decrease much over time. We have no idea why.

RDA Implementation

• U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee Final report issued to public on May 9, 2011

• U.S. National Libraries RDA implementation no sooner than January 2013

• Implementation contingent on satisfactory process/completion of report tasks & action items, two of which are:– Reword RDA instructions in clear, unambiguous,

plain English– Demonstrate credible progress towards a

replacement for MARC

WHAT’S NEW IN AN RDA RECORD

Fewer Abbreviations

AACR2xiv, 324 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.

RDAxiv, 324 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm

AACR2[S.l. : s.n., 2004].

RDA[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified],

[2004].

Transcription: “Take What You See”

Edition statement on piece: second editionAACR2: 2nd ed.RDA: Second edition.

Title on piece: Melallization of polymersAACR2: title proper: Melallization [i.e. Metallization] of

polymersRDA: title proper: Melallization of polymers

variant title: Corrected title: Metallization of polymers

General Material Designation (GMD)• AACR2 used GMD in title field

– [videorecording], [electronic resource], [kit] …

• RDA replaces GMD with 3 new elements:– Content type

• text, two-dimension moving image, computer program …

– Media type • computer, video, unmediated …

– Carrier type • videodisc, online resource, audio disc, volume …

Q&A SESSION

Documentation & Resources• NCSU

– http://go.ncsu.edu/rda• Library of Congress

– Resource Description and Access: http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/

– Testing Resource Description and Access: http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/rda/

• Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA– http://www.rda-jsc.org/news.html

• University of Chicago– http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/staffweb/depts/cat/rda.html

• RDA-L– http://www.rda-jsc.org/rdadiscuss.html

• Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Provider Neutral E-Monograph Guide– http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/PN-Guide.pdf