Mac, et al.,
I certainly agree that the changes will be more dramatic, and to be honest, in
some cases not welcome (to my mind, at least). What also has changed since
AACR2 came along is the number of staff members we have supporting the
cataloging, and the willingness of our administration to devote resources to
things like retrospective conversion of existing bibliographic records. In a
world of batch-loading recordsets, outsourcing, and Google Books, it is just
not a priority for the people who make these decisions. Let me emphasize this
is not a change I am overjoyed with, but it is what it is.
That said, I am certainly interested in whatever automated conversion options
might be available.
--Ben
________________________________________
From: J. McRee Elrod [m...@slc.bc.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 4:01 PM
To: Benjamin A Abrahamse
Cc: RDA-L@listserv.lac-bac.gc.ca
Subject: Re: [RDA-L] Plans for Existing Bib Records?
Benjamin accurately said:
>I would just point out that, for most if not all of us, a hybrid catalog is=
> already the norm. For example, plenty of pre-AACR2 records persist (parti=
>cularly for serials) in our catalog as in LC's and the like.
The differences between the red and green books, AACR1, and AACR2
records were not as dramatic as those between AACR and RDA. I doubt
if many patrons notice 2d vs., 2nd, ill. vs. illus., nor ISBD
punctuation. Spelled out abbreviations is a greater change. There
were no main entry changes for monographs as dramatic as the dropping
of the rule of three.
For me, the most difficult earlier change was entry for serials and
series. I had spent years with "Journal of chemistry" being entered
under title, and "Journal of the Chemical Association" being entered
under the association. But that pales in comparison with the end of
GMD, unjustified added entries, no standard for number of authors to
be transcribed or traced, no defined standard for title
capitalization, no indication of typos in situ, imprint place
jurisdiction not being supplied if lacking, and *long* phrases
replacing ISBD inclusions.
__ __ J. McRee (Mac) Elrod (m...@slc.bc.ca)
{__ | / Special Libraries Cataloguing HTTP://www.slc.bc.ca/
___} |__ \__________________________________________________________
