ALCTS CaMMS Cataloging & Classification Research Interest Group at ALA Annual San Francisco
Date: Sunday, June 28, 2015 Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am Location: MCC-120 (N) Moscone Convention Center In this year's meeting, the CaMMS Cataloging and Classification Research Interest Group offers two presentations and discussions of cataloging-related research and projects. In this session we will be looking at RDA outside of its usual context. In our first presentation we will look at RDA in relationship to non-MARC metadata and cataloging standards such as Dublin Core and MODS, and in the second, we will consider LC-PCC’s interpretation of RDA’s instructions on recording gender (RDA 9.7) through the lens of feminist and queer theory. "Accommodating RDA in CONTENTdm and Islandora, or, Accommodating RDA in Content and Digital Asset Management Systems," presented by Sai Deng, Metadata Librarian and Associate Librarian, University of Central Florida The Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard has been widely implemented in integrated library systems and its application with MARC has long been discussed, but its applicability in content and digital asset management systems and with non-MARC standards hasn't been much addressed. The national RDA non-MARC tests found that it is not easy to evaluate RDA "without an application available to aptly manage and display the data," however, to accommodate RDA in existing content and digital asset management systems still remains an issue. This presentation will address how RDA has been applied in cataloging and migrating digital materials in CONTENTdm and Islandora at the University of Central Florida Libraries. It will also look at using RDA with other cataloging and metadata standards such as Dublin Core (DC), Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) and Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) to catalog digital materials including digitized serials and monographs. “Queering the LCNAF : on recording gender in name authority files,” presented by Amber Billey, Catalog/Metadata Librarian, University of Vermont and Emily Drabinski, Coordinator of Library Instruction, Long Island University Library of Congress (LC) and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) interpretation of Resource Description and Access (RDA) rule 9.7 regarding gender when identifying persons reinforces regressive conceptions of gender identity. The rule instructs catalogers to record gender when identifying persons, and although RDA gives catalogers the flexibility to record more than two gender labels, LC limits Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) catalogers to a binary label: male, female, or not known. In this presentation, the presenters will expand on their award winning article, (2014) What's Gender Got to Do with It? A Critique of RDA 9.7, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 52:4, 412-421, DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2014.882465. The presenters will briefly explore the objections raised by feminist and queer theory to the current naming rule and offer a range of strategies for practically challenging gender as a descriptive attribute for personal names. At the local level, catalogers should consider whether gender ought to be coded at all. At the policy level, catalogers can and should challenge rules that have the potential to misrepresent creator identities and cause damaging inaccuracies in name authority files.
