Thursday, July 28, 2005

RDA Prospectus

,

The Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR has just released the RDA Prospectus that was promised after their April meeting. I've just finished reading it, and my initial impressions are positive, for several reasons:
  • I like the fact that they've made this a public document, and that they've provided clear information about the structure and intended content of the full document.
  • I like the way they're relating the code to FRBR, in particular the way they explicitly connect elements to FRBR user tasks.
  • I heartily approve of including authority control and greater support for expressing relationships between resources.
  • I also like the fact that guidelines for using the code with different dispay standards, not just ISBD, will be included in the appendices. Since most OPAC displays aren't really based on ISBD, it makes sense to provide some explicit guidance for using our descriptive cataloging rules with other display standards besides ISBD.
I'm sure I'll have more to say after I've had more time to think this over, but those are my initial impressions.


Tuesday, July 26, 2005

First post

I've been somewhat hesitant to enter the world of blogging, but I'm finding far too many fascinating conversations online about librarianship and technology to remain on the sidelines. I'll put in the standard disclaimer that any thoughts I record here are strictly personal and do not reflect the opinions of my employer, the President, Shirley McLean, my cats, or anyone else who lives outside my head.

My current concerns and interests include:
  • How folksonomies may or may not intersect with controlled vocabularies and hierarchical classification schemes, and how libraries can utilize folksonomies to improve search and retrieval of library materials.
  • FRBR, in particular how we can utilize FRBR concepts to make existing library databases more useful as we're migrating to new and more flexible modes of organizing, storing, and retrieving bibliographic data.
  • How the above affect catalogers.
  • Wikis, in particular the concept of using a wiki to maintain internal procedural documentation within libraries.
Expect posts on any or all of the above in future.