Billie Hackney wrote: But it doesn't change the fact that creating an RDA record is more work, more typing, and more effort for overworked catalogers.
--------------------------------------------------------- This is not an invalid criticism of RDA, and an area where early criticisms felt that RDA did not go far enough in evolving from its AARC2 roots. The language of RECORDING element data in AACR2 was largely carried forward intact in RDA. In places where we are to transcribe information directly from the resource, this is fine. In many other places, it would be sufficient to INDICATE element data. As a particular example, describing the extent and nature of content. The arguments over abbreviating vs. not abbreviating is an unfortunate outcome of maintaining this RECORDING mindset. The further dithering over the creation of new MARC fields to translated the recorded data into corresponding coded data is another by-product. Is it really necessary to require a cataloger to record in a digital context the actual words "illustrations" or "colour/color" or "black and white"? (And then duplicate those details with codes elsewhere?) Should it not be sufficient to have interfaces on the cataloging and the public display modes that allow one to draft a record with "ill." "col." or "b&w", or corresponding coded values, or options from a drop-down menu, which are then converted when stored into an appropriate stored value and when displayed into the corresponding (and even language/script appropriate) text? (And at the risk of overgeneralizing and of drawing commonalities where few believe they exist, this seems to be the crux of many of the disagreements between the "pro" and "anti" RDA crowds -- they both see a problem but have widely divergent takes on the solutions -- change the way we deal with the data in the context of RDA or reject the changes RDA institutes outright.) So now, instead of moving forward by experimenting with different solutions to input/storage/display, we instead can't get past the point of thousands of catalogers having to type out "illustrations" "colour/color" "black and white" etc., because that's the only option RDA gives us. John F. Myers, Catalog Librarian Schaffer Library, Union College 807 Union St. Schenectady NY 12308 518-388-6623 mye...@union.edu
