Mike Tribby
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:31:59 -0700
>Why wouldn't people in a library want to find/identify/select/obtain the >resources they want?
They would. Who said they wouldn't? One would assume that's why they're there--other than for socializing. I think what people are questioning is whether or not *most* patrons still search in a formalized, theoretically structured way. With experience with search engines, it seems as if our patrons are searching in more intuitive, less structured ways, which strict adherence to theoretical models may not always reflect or enable. Word clouds and social tagging, anyone? At one point long ago RDA was going to be a less structured overview of new rules which would then be formulated along FRBR lines and defined by the communities that do the cataloging for the various formats. Then RDA dribbled over into defining how descriptive cataloging should be composed. I think Karen Coyle's recent comment about separating RDA as data model from RDA as cataloging rules gets to the pith of the issue. RDA as data model is an obvious improvement. RDA as cataloging rules is not, though it's probably not the end of the cataloging world as we know it. IMNSHO, of course. Reporting from Planet Weinheimer, Mike Tribby Senior Cataloger Quality Books Inc. The Best of America's Independent Presses mailto:mike.tri...@quality-books.com