Helen Williams said - in whole or part - on 19/04/2011 14:36:
> As a slight aside on this issue, are there many people/libraries out
> there who think that they will go ahead and implement anyway, no matter
> what the BL decision (I've picked BL as we're mostly UK libraries) or
> are the vast majority of us waiting to see what the BL do?

There are a couple of issues here (one of which was referred to yesterday).

Firstly, as a member of the Legal Deposit Libraries Shared Cataloguing 
Programme, we (Cambridge UL) need to agree with the other LDLs about any 
implementation - not just timing, but standards, acceptable 
"differences" (and, by extension, unacceptable!), and the like. And then 
gear ourselves up for a "switchover".

Secondly, although we could sustain for a brief while a situation where 
one team was working to one standard and everyone else to another 
(indeed, Celine and I discussed possible advantages to that approach), 
that's not a situation that could pertain for long. So I'd see it as 
nothing more than a stopgap (and an opportunity to try things out on a 
smallish scale ahead of a big push - if RDA is to be implemented).

So the second is dependent on the first - and the first is dependent, to 
a significant degree, on what the BL decides it wants to do, since it's 
the six Legal Deposit libraries who are collectively responsible 
(together with BDS, the current holders of the BL's contract for CIP 
data) who are responsible for the BNB. (BDS aren't part of the LDLSCP 
because their work for the BL is managed quite separately, and is a 
commercial activity subject to tendering and the like).

Because of that, it would be very difficult for Cambridge UL as an 
institution to go in a different direction to the one the BL takes. Not 
impossible, but difficult.

Hugh
-- 
Hugh Taylor
Head, Collection Development and Description
Cambridge University Library
West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR, England

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