Winter 2014

RDA Cataloging Cooperative

Held in conjunction with the 2013 AALL Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, the RDA Cataloging Cooperative workshop brought together a panel of RDA frontrunners to address a range of questions pertaining to RDA and RDA within the law cataloging community.

The full day workshop, organized through eight questions and two hot topics (yes, there are hot topics in cataloging!) included:

  • How do I train my catalogers in RDA?
  • How do I distinguish between compilations and collaborations? How do I use relationship designators?
  • How do I handle a title change involving a mode of issuance?
  • How do I create an authorized access point?
  • How do I catalog treaties?
  • How do I handle revised editions?
  • How do I work with non-RDA records in OCLC?

The hot topics investigated RDA tools and tips as well as RDA in action. The workshop geared itself to persons with some background in RDA cataloging. Speakers for the workshop were:

  • Adam Schiff (University of Washington)
  • Jean Pajerek (Cornell)
  • Pat Sayre-McCoy (University of Chicago)
  • Steve Shadle (University of Washington)
  • Lia Contursi (New York University)
  • John Hostage (Harvard)

Mr. Schiff and Mr. Shadle work in the main library at the University of Washington; everyone else works in their respective law libraries.

In Question 1, How do I train my catalogers in RDA?, Mr. Schiff highlighted the significant differences in cataloging between AACR2 and RDA. He showed examples of the key differences and discussed the need for more “catalogers’ judgment” with RDA cataloging.

Ms. Pajerek, speaking on Question 2 about distinguishing between compilations and collaborations, explained the difference between a compilation and a collaboration. A compilation contains multiple works. The individual works will have an “author” and the work as a whole will have an editor or a compiler.

Also there is the knowledge that the “authors” did not collaborate with each other to put the work together. With a collaboration, it is possible not to know who created what. Ms. Pajerek used Employment law: cases and materials (OCLC#755641182) as an example.

There are four authors for this book, and when you look at the table of contents, you cannot tell who wrote what part or chapter of this book. This is a collaboration. Using RDA rules we analyzed many examples of both in an interactive presentation.

A key component to RDA is relationships, for example, relationships between resources and persons, families, and corporate bodies associated with those resources and the relationships between works, expressions, manifestations and items.

Pat Sayre McCoy with Question 3, How do I use relationship designators?, keyed in on the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) guidelines for applying RDA relationship designators. It will not be unusual to see |e author or |e illustrator after a person’s name, or |e sponsoring body after a corporate body name in an RDA record. Below is an example showing a couple of different relationship designators.

With Question 4, How do I handle a title change involving a mode of issuance?, Steve Shadle showed many examples of titles switching formats. If you have access to OCLC and are interested, you can look at these various examples—print to electronic:

OCLC #37506221 (print-International journal of circumpolar health) and OCLC#752907556 (electronic version-International journal of circumpolar health). Products Liability in New York : strategy and practice went from a single volume (OCLC#37893321) to a loose-leaf (OCLC#824363462).

Nicely included in his handout is a chart of CONSER RDA core elements. The chart lists the element (ex. Title), the RDA rule no., FRBR, Notes, and the appropriate MARC field.

Adam Schiff was back with Question 5, How do I create an authorized access point? RDA Chapter 6 is the go-to chapter to help you wade through the decisions that need to be made when assigning authorized access points. John Hostage tackled Question 6, Cataloging treaties. The first item he noted — the rules under RDA are different than they were using AACR2.

Mr. Hostage focused on access points in cataloging treaties. Access points for treaties can be very tricky. You can have a multi-country treaty and each country will publish the treaty and list itself as the lead name.

For example, a treaty between the United States and Spain signed on October 31, 2013, printed in the U.S., could have a heading of: United States. Treaties, etc. Spain, 2013 October 31. The same treaty printed in Spain listing Spain as the first named country could have a heading of: Spain. Treaties, etc. United States, 2013 October 31. It is the same treaty but each country puts its own name first. In the discussion Mr. Hostage referenced RDA rules 6.19.2.7, 6.29.1.15 and 6.29.1.33 when creating access points for treaties.

Jean Pajerek covering Question 7, How do I handle revisions?, used FRBR principles to illustrate cataloging various editions of one title. FRBR principles at play here are “expressions” and “works.”

Ms. Pajerek recommended the resource “RDA Special Topics : Revised Editions of Monographs “/ Dave Reser, LC Policy and Standards Division (Dec. 2011). Here is the link: www.loc.gov/aba/rda/source/special_topics_revised_editions.ppt

The workshop ended with Question 8, How do I work with non-RDA records in OCLC? Mr. Shadle showed several OCLC records and as a group exercise we updated them to RDA records. In his handout he included PCC guidelines for enhancing and editing non-RDA monograph and serial records, as well as guidelines for creating a hybrid record from a pre-RDA record. Here are links to the guidelines which may be helpful when cataloging:

Thank you to CALL and the Grants Committee for awarding me a grant to attend this workshop. There was a lot of information presented that day. I am happy to share my handouts with anyone who might be interested. Finally, cataloging rules are constantly being reviewed and revised. What I wrote about in this article was current as of July 2013. You might want to Google the RDA rule numbers to see if there are later updates to those rules.