Greetings. Just a heads up about an interesting thread on RDA-L presently
about the teaching of RDA in LIS schools. (Reposting one message with
permission)
GSLIS@UIUC is planning an educator's summit (for all instructors at our
institution) in March to make plans for teaching RDA at GSLIS, and for a
full discussion of the current curriculum. Marjorie Bloss has told us (on
the RDA-L) about what Dominican has been doing. I'd love to hear from more
of you about your plans to incorporate RDA, and how you envision your
beginning and advanced cataloguing courses. I'm hoping Nerissa joins in the
discussion here as well.
repost:
I felt like I had to give my two-cents about teaching RDA at MLS/MLIS
programs:
It is interesting to hear that RDA isn't being taught yet at many of these
programs. I personally think that this is unfortunate, because even if RDA
is not adopted I think all cataloging students should at least be learning
the fundamentals so they know why it is even being considered as a
replacement for AACR2. I can understand why people who have worked in the
field for many years are 'tired' as Mr. Weinheimer has mentioned. However,
graduates from MLS/MLIS programs are going to be shaping the futures of
cataloging/metadata departments of all kinds, and I think that educating
them in RDA is just as important as teaching AACR2. I just finished my MLIS
in June '10 from the University of Washington, and last spring they offered
a course called RDA and Metadata taught by Diane Hillman. I gained a lot of
insight from auditing this course that I wouldn't have otherwise if I stuck
with just the regular cataloging courses. I see a trend across libraries at
least in the US where cataloging departments are changing their names to
things like cataloging and metadata department or just metadata services. I
even applied for a position with the title: Resource Description and Access
manager after I had graduated. I have heard stories about libraries who are
hiring metadata librarians and not planning on replacing their catalogers
when they retire. I do not feel qualified to state whether I think RDA is
the best option or not, but I do know that any student hoping to make it in
this field after they graduate better have at least a solid educational
foundation about RDA.
Nerissa
Cataloging Librarian
Texas A&M International University
--
Kathryn La Barre
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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