Hi Buzz --
> but the biggest challenge now is
>> how to respond to students who say "Why should we be expected to learn AACR2
>> rules, since they're about to be overturned by RDA?"
I have been giving a three-part answer to this question:
(1) along the lines of what you've said: AACR2 is the current standard
in use by most US libraries until the US RDA Test period results in a
decision about RDA implementation and (if the decision is a go) until
that implementation occurs.
(2) the transition is going to be longgggggggggggggg. Even if
implementation is a go and an immediate go, libraries will transition
their new cataloging to RDA at varying speeds. Additionally, libraries
cannot easily afford to go back to old data. Hopefully, there will be
some amount of global-data-upgrade, but that will cost vendors which
will ultimately cost libraries. And there needs to be cost/value
assessment about what is worth upgrading v. not. We'll be looking at
and trying to figure out what to do with AACR2 data for quite a long
time. New catalogers coming into the profession are going to be key to
that transition and need to understand what old data looks like and how
to transform it efficiently & programmatically in new ways (or make it
play well together with newly created data in newly created delivery
systems)
(3) job ads are going to start looking for people who can transition a
library from AACR2 to RDA. This includes both an understanding of the
data (#2 above) and also an understanding of the implications for
training/staffing/resource allocation of such a transition, and the
complex ecosystem of the cooperative cataloging infrastructure. New
folks will need to understand what it means to transition a
copy-cataloging unit, for example, what the cost/value implications are
for continuing to accept AACR2 copy, implications for delivery systems,
etc.
As others have been saying, we very much live now in a hybrid world of
standards. While I completely understand the teaching challenges of
trying to fit in both AACR2 and RDA, I guess my general philosophy is
that I am also responsible for teaching that transition is messy and
long and that we need to strategize to get through it. What better way
to teach that transition is messy than to (frankly!) dump students into
the middle of that very transition? :-)
Erin Stalberg
Head, Metadata and Cataloging
North Carolina State University Libraries
(and Adjunct Professor at UNC Chapel Hill)
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919.515.5696
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