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Se%ng: Formal library-‐school class “Special Problems in Music Cataloging” Team taught by 3 music catalogers Principal focus in Fall 2012: AACR2 RDA was secondary 2 students. Both had had the same Intro to Cataloging course. 1) Newcomer to cataloging, except the intro course 2) Copy cataloger of music, with several years of experience in a good library Hence, two different types of catalogers. It turned out that each was able to do well in RDA by the end of the course, but they reached this point by quite different routes. Course based on 2 sets of manifestaSons to be cataloged -‐ All were to be done in AACR2 in MARC -‐ 2 or 3 out of each set, student’s choice, in RDA in the rule-‐number format from the Toolkit (in MicrosoW Word) How was RDA taught? -‐ Classes contained a few hints of the sort “this is different in RDA” or “this is much more important in RDA” but not many RDA specifics. Ground rules for RDA were made explicit: -‐ Records were to adhere to RDA instrucSons -‐ But any reasonable and defensible interpretaSon of those instrucSons was acceptable -‐ Records must include at a minimum all RDA core elements and a\ributes
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Started with a 3-‐hour introducSon to FRBR Next:
-‐ Worked with 1st set of cataloging samples -‐ Scores first, then recordings -‐ Under each, DescripSon, then Access -‐ Finally, some issues that might apply to either, such as classificaSon.
Now, to what the students actually did.
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Here is the Stle page of one of the items in the copy-‐cataloger’s first batch of scores. He did this in AACR2 in MARC and also in RDA. His AACR2 record is reasonable, if not enSrely accurate. When he cataloged the same score in RDA, though, -‐ He essenSally took his AACR2 record, found the rule number for each piece of data, and put that informaSon into the RDA template. -‐ Omi\ed 5 RDA Core fields, but included 4 LC Core fields and 3 non-‐core fields. I concluded that for this student, engaging the Toolkit directly, without much guidance, didn’t work well. He needed more direcSon.
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Now, an item from the cataloging newcomer’s 1st batch. The picture shows the cover, which turns out to be the preferred source in this case, since it is the only place the whole work is named. Her AACR2 record in MARC was perfectly acceptable, if not accurate in every detail.
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Here is her record in RDA for the same score. Student made the deliberate choice to sSck to RDA Core at first. (She explained this to me orally.) But she added RelaSonship Designators. She felt they were extremely important, even though they are not Core. She had no hesitaSon about how to handle the
-‐ misspelled Stle, -‐ Variant Stle, -‐ And ediSon statement.
Even though these are done differently in RDA from what she had done with the same pieces of informaSon in AACR2 in MARC, they gave her no trouble. Note, at the bo\om of the page, the student’s explanaSons of her choice of principal source of informaSon and of capitalizaSon method. She noSced that the rules gave you a choice about capitalizaSon, so she made a choice and explained that choice. So, for this new cataloger, with li\le or no knowledge of AACR2 -‐ Engaging RDA directly worked well -‐ Result made sense to the learner and the records were good.
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Second Half of Course -‐ Classes are finished -‐ Students are cataloging the 2nd set of samples on their own Provided 2 pieces of extra guidance: -‐ First, I gave both students a list of Core fields (both RDA Core and LC Core).
* Second set of records was to include all these Core elements, at a minimum This list had two moSvaSons 1) I was trying to give the copy-‐cataloger some guidance about what specifically to include 2) I wanted the cataloging newcomer, who had chosen to follow the RDA core at first, to go beyond that in the next set of records. -‐ Second piece of guidance, parScularly for the copy-‐cataloger, I pointed out the MARC to RDA mapping in the Tools tab. He found that immensely helpful. My main pedagogical quesSon at this point was whether the aids I had supplied had helped the copy-‐cataloger.
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Title page of one of his 2nd batch of scores.
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His RDA record -‐ Has quite a number of fields that are specific to RDA -‐ Omits only one Core piece of data: Work manifested (not an easy concept in this case, since the work is anonymous; I was not worried by the omission of this element under the circumstances) -‐ This record shows “thinking in RDA” -‐ I wouldn’t have made all these same choices, and not everything is accurate, But this is a big step forward. So, for this copy-‐cataloger, who had worked with AACR2 extensively -‐ Working directly with RDA, without specific guidance, did not produce good results
* I got essenSally an AACR2 record with RDA rule numbers -‐ But with some specific guidance
* List of desired elements and a\ributes, plus * Pointer to MARC-‐to-‐RDA mapping in Toolkit
-‐ Result was at least as good as what the newcomer achieved engaging RDA directly
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