Sue,
Sue Goodman said - in whole or part - on 09/09/2008 09:27:
> I may be jumping the gun, but having read a piece in September's Library & Information Update, how does RDA fit in with MARC21 conversions? We haven't yet fully taken MARC21 on board, as our LMS supplier is still working on it; will we still need to convert eventually or will RDA take us in a radically different direction?
I think there are (at least) two separate questions here.
1. Will MARC 21 be able to accommodate data created using RDA? The glib
answer is "probably better than whatever you're currently using"
(UKMARC? non-MARC?), so I wouldn't let the arrival of RDA affect your
decision to convert to MARC 21. More seriously, though, a lot of work
has already been done to identify possible "changes to the formats for
the implementation of Resource Description and Access (RDA) in MARC
bibliographic systems". That quote comes from a proposal considered at
MARBI's June meeting; whilst I'm not suggesting you read it thoroughly,
it's as well - as a professional who's clearly interested in such issues
- to keep an eye on what's going on. Here's the link to that documentation:
http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2008/2008-05-1.html
There's also an FAQ on this very topic on the Joint Steering Committee
web pages
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rdafaq.html#8
2. Will RDA take us in a radically different direction? That's a bigger
question, not unrelated to the wider "future of MARC" discussion. RDA in
itself doesn't mean that MARC (in any of its guises) can't continue. But
the formal registration of an RDA element set will make it easier for
RDA data to be encoded in schemes more readily accessible to the web,
not just tucked away in silos of MARC data. That will allow libraries'
data to be exposed in different ways.
I've deliberately kept this reply brief; there's lots more information
on the Joint Steering Committee web pages, of course.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/
--
Hugh Taylor
CILIP Representative to the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA
and
Head, Collection Development and Description
Cambridge University Library
West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR, England
email: [log in to unmask] fax: +44 (0)1223 333160
phone: +44 (0)1223 333069 (with voicemail) or
phone: +44 (0)1223 333000 (ask for pager 036)
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