A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: The Tools of Our Trade: AACR2/RDA and MARC Guest lecture at London Metropolitan University 13 th March 2009 Ann Chapman Community and Outreach Team

A centre of expertise in digital information management What are our Tools? AACR/RDA = content standard for resource description and access MARC = communication and exchange format providing a structure for encoding the content of bibliographic and authority data Related to: ISBD = rules that organise the display of a bibliographic description of an item in a catalogue FRBR = a entity-relational model of the data required to find, identify, select and obtain resources

A centre of expertise in digital information management ISBDs International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions Developed 1969 onwards by IFLA Defined seven areas of description and their order –Title –Statement of Responsibility –Edition –Resource specific information –Publication details –Physical description –Series information –Notes and standard identifiers

A centre of expertise in digital information management FRBR Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records IFLA study; report published 1998 Entity-relationship model that defines: –Tasks: find, identify, select, obtain –Resource relationships: work, expression, manifestation, item –Entities: people, corporate bodies (agents) –Entities: concepts, objects, events, places

A centre of expertise in digital information management AACR Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules –A content standard for bibliographic description and access –Bibliographic – not just books –Built on other, earlier sets of rules Key principles –One principle entry per resource –Catalogue from item in hand –Chief source of information

A centre of expertise in digital information management AACR timeline 1967 UK and US editions 1978 Second unified edition, consistent with ISBDs; several further revisions 1997 Toronto conference on AACR FRBR 2005 Develop RDA not AACR RDA launch (provisional)

A centre of expertise in digital information management AACR 2 Part 1: Description –Chapter 1: General rules –Chapters 2 -12: Resource type - specific rules –Chapter 13: Analytic entries Part 2: Headings, Uniform Titles, References –Chapter 21: Choice of access points –Chapters 22 – 26: Construction of access points Appendices –A: Capitalisation, B: Abbreviations, C: Numerals, D: Glossary, E: Initial articles

A centre of expertise in digital information management What’s wrong with AACR? Increasingly complex Lack of logical structure Mixing content and carrier data Hierarchical relationships missing Anglo-American centric viewpoint Written before FRBR Not enough support for collocation Unclear relationship with MARC Format

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDA – The Aims Rules should be easy to use and interpret Be applicable to an online, networked environment Provide effective bibliographic control for all types of media Encourage use beyond the library community Be compatible with other similar standards Have a logical structure based on internationally agreed principles Separate content and carrier data Examples – more of them, more appropriate

A centre of expertise in digital information management Who is working on RDA? Joint Steering Committee (JSC) –1 representative each from: ACOC, ALA, BL, CCC, CILIP, LC –JSC reps consult with their ‘constituency’ In UK, CILIP/BL Committee on RDA plus specialist groups (e.g. Rare Books Group, IAML(UK & Ireland) RDA Editor: Tom Delsey RDA Project Manager: Marjorie Bloss

A centre of expertise in digital information management And also Task focused working groups –RDA GMD/SMD Working Group –RDA and ONIX Initiative –RDA Examples Working Groups and –DCMI RDA Task Group

A centre of expertise in digital information management How is RDA being developed? Draft – (responses – revised drafts – further responses, etc.) – acceptance Latest draft released 17 Nov. 2008; responses from: –ACOC, ALA, BL, CCC, CILIP, LC –France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden –ISSN International Centre Final product – the publishers (ALA, CILIP, CLA)

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDA Timelime 2005 –Prospectus issued –Draft of chapters relating to description –Content and carrier studies 2006 and 2007 –Further drafts of chapters on description and access –Work on appendices and glossary 2008 –Screenshot demo in August at IFLA conference 2009 –Launch of online product (late February 2009?)

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDA Outline Structure Introduction Attributes –Sections 1 to 4 (chapters 1 to 16) Relationships –Sections 5 to 10 (chapters 17 to 37) Appendices A to M Glossary

A centre of expertise in digital information management What will RDA look like? - 1 Section 1: Recording manifestation attributes –Ch. 1 General guidelines –Ch. 2 Identifying manifestations and items –Ch. 3 Describing carriers (technical description) –Ch. 4 Providing acquisition and access information (terms of availability, etc.)

A centre of expertise in digital information management What will RDA look like? - 2 Section 2: Recording attributes of work and expression –Ch. 5 General guidelines (incl. construction of access points for works and expressions) –Ch. 6 Identifying works and expressions (e.g. uniform and collective titles, etc.) –Ch. 7 Describing additional attributes of works and expressions (incl. nature and coverage of content, intended audience, etc.)

A centre of expertise in digital information management What will RDA look like? - 3 Section 3: Ch. 8, 9, 10, 11 Recording attributes of person, family and corporate body (= name headings) Section 4: Ch. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 Recording attributes of concept, object, event and place (= subject headings) Section 5: Ch. 17 Recording primary relationships between work, expression, manifestation and item Section 6: Ch. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Recording relationships to persons, families and corporate bodies associated with a resource

A centre of expertise in digital information management What will RDA look like? – 4 Section 7: Ch. 23 Recording subject relationships Section 8: Ch. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Recording relationships between works, expressions, manifestations and items Section 9: Ch. 29, 30, 31, 32 Recording relationships between persons, families and corporate bodies Section 10: Ch. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 Recording relationships between concepts, objects, events and places

A centre of expertise in digital information management What will RDA look like? - 5 Appendices A: Capitalisation B: Abbreviations C: Initial articles D: Record syntaxes for descriptive data (ISBD, M21, DC) E: Record syntaxes for access point control data F: Additional instructions on names of persons G: Titles of nobility, rank, etc. H: Conversion of dates to Gregorian calendar J, K, L, M: Relationship designators Glossary Index

A centre of expertise in digital information management Using RDA Analyse the resource being described –What is the content type? –Held in what carrier form? –To what other resources is it related? –To which persons, families or corporate bodies is it related? –To what concepts, events and places is it related?

A centre of expertise in digital information management One rule for all … Mostly: Rules apply to all content types Rules apply to all media types With Examples of application to specific content and media Occasionally: Rules apply to specific materials or contents (e.g. treaties, religious texts, music)

A centre of expertise in digital information management Words, words, words … Can look opaque or ‘going round in circles’ Trying to avoid reference to specific content and carriers Hope to improve wording over time ‘Use as the preferred source of information a source forming part of the resource itself that is appropriate to (a) the type of description and (b) the presentation format of the resource.’ Means preferred source of information may vary according to Comprehensive or analytical description Multiple pieces, early print, moving images, or ‘all other materials’

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDA – What will it be? Initially an online resource –Complete text –Pricing, subscription, etc. – still not decided Potentially: –Concise text –Tailored texts (law, music, serials, etc.) –Training resource –Incorporated into LMS cataloguing modules Loose-leaf print version(s)

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDA and beyond RDA aims to be: Independent of communication formats –UNIMARC, MARC, MARCXML, MODS/MADS –DC, EAD, ISBD, VRA, MPEG7 Compatible / better aligned with other similar standards –Archives: ISAD(G) –Museums: Cataloging Cultural Objects

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDA and MARC Mapping RDA and MARC 21 –Report issued in Nov. 2006; various proposals subsequently go through MARBI process How will RDA impact on MARC 21? –Some new fields / subfields are being defined How will MARC 21 impact on RDA? –Data provisions in MARC 21 not covered in current draft of RDA

A centre of expertise in digital information management MARC – 1960s –Library of Congress project Database of catalogue records Production of catalogue cards –US & UK versions Reflected differing cataloguing practices Developed in parallel but not identical ways

A centre of expertise in digital information management MARC – 1970s Variant formats developed Based on either US or UK formats (AUSMARC, DANMARC, KORMARC, etc.) USMARC developed 8 material formats (Books, Serials, Maps, etc.) UNIMARC developed in 1977 by IFLA Intended as exchange format Used as the Bib format in some countries (e.g. France)

A centre of expertise in digital information management MARC – Recent changes Expansion of USMARC to a family of formats –Bibliographic, Holdings, Authority, Classification, Community Information Integration of USMARC bibliographic format –Previous 8 formats integrated Widespread adoption of MARC 21 –Some countries simply adopt USMARC –1997 – USMARC & CANMARC become MARC 21 –2003/4 – MARC 21 enhanced by UK proposals; British Library adopts MARC 21 –2006/7 – MARC 21 enhanced by German proposals: this will enable libraries to move from MAB to MARC 21

A centre of expertise in digital information management MARC Structure Leader 0xx – control numbers, coded data 1xx – primary access point 2xx – description, GMD, edition, publication 3xx – physical description 4xx – series 5xx – notes 6xx – subject access points 7xx – additional access points 8xx – series added entries 9xx – local fields

A centre of expertise in digital information management Maintaining MARC 21 Twice yearly MARBI meetings –Discussion papers –Proposals UK and MARC 21 BIC Bibliographic Standards Group

A centre of expertise in digital information management MARC and XML MARC has alpha-numeric 3-digit tags –100.1 Personal Name –245 $a Title $b Subtitle XML has element labels –

A centre of expertise in digital information management Looking into the crystal ball FRBR –Potential influence on cataloguing systems –Authority records, uniform titles, work records OPACs –Multiple interfaces for different audiences –Enhance for accessibility - supports all users –Links (actual resources, restrictions, supporting or associated resources) RDA –Potential use outside the library domain

A centre of expertise in digital information management Contact details Ann Chapman This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence.