LCCN, April 16, 2013
Implementing RDA: the personal viewpoint By Melanie Polutta "Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction." President Harry Truman Well, this month, it is finally real. Weve been thinking and preparing and training and practicing and and and The day passed with minimal notice. For most LC catalogers, the first day of the RDA implementation was April Fools Day, after all, and everyone was thinking about practical jokes, not reality. But this is real: today, although some Library of Congress special-format units will continue to apply non-RDA cataloging standards for original bibliographic records, we produce no AACR2 original cataloging for the general collections here at the Library of Congress. Mostly, Im relieved it is done. It has been three years now that RDA has been consuming my thoughts here at the Library of Congress. I definitely heard about it before that, but it was always something that was far off. As you go through the timeline, you can see how it all started for me, until it consumed all my thoughts. 2010 2010 RDA is published in June. LC begins to grapple with the reality. It is decided that a test is needed to see if it will work for us. I put in an email expressing great interest in being one of the testers. In my experience, the best way to understand something is to do it. And even though I have listened to multiple presentations about RDA and FRBR, and feel that I am beginning to understand it, I know I dont really get it quite yet. The test is decided on and given shape and form. In July, those of us chosen as testers me included! are given training by Judy Kuhagen in how to do RDA. In August and September, we practice. In October, we begin. I find the process of filling out the survey answer for every record to be tedious in the extreme. By the end of December, I am much faster in cataloging, beginning to grasp some of the concepts that I only superficially understood before, more able to find what I need in RDA without a large amount of looking, and overall better able to understand what RDA is trying to do. I see a lot of potential for changing to this new code. 2011 2011 In January, we return to AACR2 cataloging, which now feels a little strange. In June, the national libraries announce their decision. We are jointly adopting RDA no earlier than January 2013; I think Im relieved. In August, I speak up when asked about what the refresher training should cover. More about FRBR, I say. Well, you know the danger of speaking up? Suddenly you have more work. (This is what happened last time surely I know better by now?) I am now helping to create said training materials on FRBR to be taught in conjunction with the RDA refresher training in August. (Paul Frank and I put those materials together. This turns out to be good practice for what comes later.) A good thing I am comfortable with teaching, from being a NACO trainer. In October, all the RDA testers receive refresher training by Judy Kuhagen. I am teaching FRBR one day and being a student the next. (I also did a lot of knitting as a student. No matter how interesting the topic, when you are sitting in a class with lots of lecture for three straight hours, having something to keep your hands busy is very helpful to maintain wakefulness and attention. Im also taking notes on things that need to be covered in the authority training, because it is living there at the back of my mind. At this point, Im planning on being involved.) Of course, now that weve taught the material, we realize that it needs a definite amount of improvement. But overall it was good. November 1st, I return to cataloging RDA. In the quiet time after returning to RDA, I contemplate and listen as PCC also makes its decisions. I get some ideas about how the training can happen as I listen to the timeline. 2012 At ALA Midwinter in January, Paul Frank says something about the training being available in April of 2012. I get a little wild-eyed there in the audience when he says this. Thats only two months away! OOOOOOOOOOOkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Immediately after Midwinter (literally the Thursday after we get back), we meet and flesh out the outline. By the end of that meeting, we know who is going to handle which module. Before too long, weve also got Jessalyn Zoom helping us. During the month of February, the training materials and preparation utterly consume my mind. Before you know it, Beth Davis-Brown gets in on the act and suddenly the videos become something done professionally. Awesome! I am learning more about what the Captivate software can do. March 8, 2012 we record. Personally I am still amazed when I look back and realize that Paul and I did all of the RDA in NACO training videos in one take, in one day. And all those moments when Paul and I look like we are talking before we start? We are really talking. Every single time, one of us had a question about something that was going on, something that we still had to do, etc. As March continues, we continue to work on other the training materials. Quizzes, exercises, and demonstrations are all needed to amplify the basic videos. We both realize that we need better tools, especially since the modules with video in them cause more than one computer to crash the program. Upgrades in computer hardware are clearly on the list. (Judy Cannan takes care of that.) As I expected, we dont quite get the materials out by April 1st (ha! Good thing, too, as it is April Fools Day), but we do have everything pretty much ready to show by the PCC Operations Committee meeting in early May. We present the materials during the meeting and to our surprise and gratification, we receive both laughter and applause. Shortly afterward, the rest of the world gets the news. In the meantime, both Paul and I were part of the overall training effort to teach RDA to all of LCs catalogers. Tim Carlton led the way, but it was most definitely a group effort. (Sometimes I think they forgot I wasnt actually a member of their section.) Because of our previous work together, both Paul and I ended up revising the FRBR materials and advising on how to use the RDA in NACO materials. June - People start taking the classes online and we start hosting the webinars. Also, we start teaching the earliest group of LC catalogers. July - This month we teach the supervisors. August - We took a break and revised our materials based on what we had learned from teaching them. September - Back to teaching again. October - In the meantime, during the past few months, all of the RDA in NACO training material had been translated into Spanish for use by the NACO libraries in Latin America. Three Latin American colleagues came to the library to re-do the recordings. I was mostly on the sidelines during this effort, watching with relief as Ana Cristán managed it. I even missed being there for the first taping, as I was on leave visiting family. Oh, and we start to see the results of online teaching of the overseas offices as the overseas trainees begin producing records in RDA. November - The teaching continued, and I got roped into the final part of the Spanish recordings. I finally had to watch myself in one of the RDA in NACO recordings in order to make sure I said everything in Spanish that I had conveyed in English. Up to that point, I had avoided watching myself, because it was so weird. December - Hey, we get another break! No classes this month! And you can tell we are over the hump. Many people are already independent in RDA here at LC, the review intensity is easing up, and more questions are coming my way. 2013 January - My start to the year was difficult, for personal reasons. But RDA continued around me. I still taught a few more classes. February - Still more classes, in preparation for the fact that I will have to teach this stuff online eventually. I need to figure out how to achieve that, but it can still wait a bit. March - I teach the materials for the first time in Spanish! Face to face with actual people! To explain, I was invited to the Conferencia Regional de Catalogación in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, to teach part of the RDA in NACO course to some of our Latin American colleagues. This was a big event for me. At LC, I serve as the teacher host for one of the sessions for the deaf and hard of hearing catalogers here at LC. Oh, my! Day 1 is here! Its over. Well, kind of. There are still classes to teach, questions to answer, and RDA to spread. But the biggest part of the effort is done, because it is now official: we are an RDA library. Can I just go and do some cataloging now? Melanie Polutta Library of Congress LCCN Editor ______________________________ Disclaimer: This message does not represent official Library of Congress communications. Links to external Internet sites on Library of Congress Web pages do not constitute the Library's endorsement of the content of their Web sites or of their policies or products. Please read our Standard Disclaimer. (http://www.loc.gov/global/disclaim.html) LCCN is available in electronic form only and is free of charge. To subscribe, send a mail message to [email protected] with the text: subscribe lccn [firstname lastname]. Please be sure that the text is the body of the message, not the subject line. And if you wish to see previous postings from this listserv, go to http://sun8.loc.gov/listarch/lccn.html
