getting real with rda

Diane I. HillmannDirector of Metadata Initiatives

Information Institute of Syracuse

4/29/09 2New Jersey Library Association

LibraryData

Libraries are no longer the first place people come for informationThe Internet has changed the way people (including

us) behave when seeking informationOur former “granularity consensus” is coming apart

To compete effectively for user attention, we must: Join the larger world of information, where our users

areLearn how the competition attracts users, draws them

in, and takes good advantage of their interest in participating

Find a better balance between protecting privacy and capturing usage behavior


Type of Standard Old Standard New Standard(s)?

Bibliographic Model

None FRBR, FRBRoo

Metadata Content AACR2 RDA

Metadata Structure MARC21 Bibliographic

RDVocab

Name Authority MARC21 Authority FRAD

Subject Authority MARC21 Authority FRASAR, SKOS

Encoding MARC21 XML, XML/RDF


The comfortable certainties we know are coming undone, whether we’re ready or not

We have much experience and insight to offer the larger information world (but not everything we’ve learned is relevant)

We are collectively about the size of the Queen Mary, unable to turn on a dime—this change will take time

Resistance is futile—we are not in charge of this new world, and our options are two: adapt or retire


Is RDA really going to happen?Is it that different from AACR2?What about MARC?

When will RDA be implemented? How will RDA be implemented?

How can we best prepare for all this?What’s this Semantic Web thingy all about,

and why do we care?


RDA is a FRBR-based approach to structuring bibliographic data

It’s contains more explicitly machine-friendly linkages (preferably with URIs)

There’s more emphasis on relationships and roles …

… and less emphasis on cataloger-created notes and text strings (particularly for identification)

Also, there’s less transcription (important in an increasingly digital world)


The Textual Guidance (successor to AACR2) RDA Constituency Review has been completed,

decisions about what will be included in the first release have been made

2nd quarter calendar 2009 – RDA content is finalized 3rd quarter calendar 2009 – RDA is released 3rd and 4th quarters calendar 2009, possibly into 1st

quarter calendar 2010 – Testing by national libraries 1st and 2nd quarters calendar 2010 – Analysis and

evaluation of testing by national libraries 3rd-4th quarters calendar 2010 – RDA implementation ?


RDA Online will include the text and a number of tools

Pricing still not firm, but ALA Publishing is aware of the need for affordability

Among the free tools we should see:Capability to create “sample records” using

various flavors of RDAXML Schemas to use with RDA dataRSS feeds to keep track of vocabulary changes Ability to participate in discussion of changes

in RDA vocabularies


RDA elements, roles and vocabularies have been provisionally registered The vocabularies and the text will be tied together in

RDA OnlineMaintenance of vocabularies will be via the Registry

(no synchronization necessary)Some efforts have begun to consider how MARC21

data can be parsed into FRBR entities and RDAeXtensible Catalog Project moving strongly in this

directionUnfortunately, we don’t know what OCLC is planning

Discussions about long term maintenance of both RDA and the vocabularies have barely started

The push is already on for multi-language RDA Vocabularies


DCMI/RDA Task GroupSee: http://dublincore.org/dcmirdataskgroup/ Set up during the April 2007 London meeting

between JSC and DCMIGordon Dunsire and Diane Hillmann, co-chairsKaren Coyle & Alistair Miles, consultants

IFLA Classification and Indexing SectionGordon Dunsire (Centre for Digital Library

Research, University of Strathclyde) will be registering FRBR entities and relationships

Possible inclusion of ISBDs, FRAD, etc., in future


4/29/09New Jersey Library Association 13

RDA Elements Listing

334!


RDA Elements Listing

334!

Base material


Detail: Base Material


Detail: Base Material

URI


RDA Roles Listing


RDA Roles Listing

Author


Detail: RDA Role Author


RDA WEMI Relationships


Detail: RDA WEMI Relationship


RDA Base Material Vocabulary


RDA Base Material Vocabulary

Skin


RDA Base Material: Skin

No definition?


From the DCMI/RDA Cataloger Scenarios


Jane Cataloger is assigned to work on a gift collection. Her first selection is a Latvian translation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Bluebeard: a novel." She searches the library database for the original work, and finds:

*Author: Kurt Vonnegut *Title of the work: Bluebeard: a novel *Form of work: Novel *Original language of the work: English


<frbrWork ID="rda.basic/01”>

<rdarole:author>Kurt Vonnegut</rdarole:author><titleOfTheWork>Bluebeard: a novel</titleOfTheWork><formOfWork>Novel</formOfWork>

<originalLanguageOfTheWork>English<originalLanguageOfTheWork></frbrWork>

Translated to RDA/XML:

Upgraded to RDA/XML with Links:<frbrWork ID="rda.basic/01”>

<rdarole:author>http://lcnaf.info/79062641</rdarole:author><titleOfTheWork>Bluebeard: a novel</titleOfTheWork><formOfWork>http://RDVocab.info/genre/1008</formOfWork>

<originalLanguageOfTheWork>http://marclang.info/eng </></frbrWork>


with links to the following expression information:

*Language of expression: English *Content type: Text

and one manifestation:

*Statement designating edition: 1st trade edition *Place of publication: New York *Publisher’s name: Delacorte Press *Date of publication: 1987 *Extent of text: 300 pages *Identifier for the manifestation: [ISBN]0385295901


<frbrExpression ID="rda.basic/07”>

<contentType>Text</contentType><languageOfExpression>English<languageOfExpression></frbrExpression>


Upgraded to RDA/XML with Links:


<formOfWork>http://RDVocab.info/termList/RDAContentType/1020</><languageOfExpression>http://marclang.info/eng </>

</frbrExpression>


<frbrManifestation ID="rda.basic/09”>

<statementDesignatingEdition>1st Trade Edition</><placeOfPublication>New York<placeOfPublication>

<publishersName>Delacorte Press</publishersName><dateOfPublication>1987</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>300 pages</extentOfText><identifierForTheManifestation>[ISBN]0385295901</>

</frbrManifestation>

Translated to RDA/XML (with links below):

<frbrManifestatiion ID="rda.basic/09”>

<statementDesignatingEdition>1st Trade Edition</><placeOfPublication>http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7007567</>

<publishersName>http://onixpub.info/2039987</><dateOfPublication>1987</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>300 pages</extentOfText><identifierForTheManifestation>urn:ISBN:0385295901</>



Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

FRBR Group 1


Jane begins her description by linking to the existing Work entity. She then creates an expression description:

*Content type: text*Language of expression: Latvian*Translator: Grigulis, Arvīds

She creates an authority record for the translator since none yet existed. She continues by creating a fuller description for the new manifestation, linking to the authority record for the Latvian publisher (what luck, it already existed!).

*Title: [in Latvian]*Place of publication: Riga*Publisher’s name: Liesma*Date of publication: 1997*Extent of Text: 315 pages



<contentType>text</contentType><languageOfExpression>Latvian<languageOfExpression>

<rdarole:translator>Grigulis, Arvīds</rdarole:translator></frbrExpression>


Upgraded to RDA/XML with Links:<frbrExpression ID="rda.basic/11”>

<formOfWork>http://RDVocab.info/termList/RDAContentType/1020</><languageOfExpression>http://marclang.info/lav </><rdarole:translator>http://lcnaf.info/83219993

</frbrExpression>


<frbrManifestation ID="rda.basic/09”>

<title>[in Latvian]</><placeOfPublication>Riga<placeOfPublication><publishersName>Liesma</publishersName><dateOfPublication>1997</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>315 pages</extentOfText>


Translated to RDA/XML (with links below):

<frbrManifestatiion ID="rda.basic/09”>

<placeOfPublication>http://www.getty.edu/tgn/7006484</><publishersName>http://onixpub.info/6770094</><dateOfPublication>1997</dateOfPublication><extentOfText>315 pages</extentOfText>



Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

FRBR Group 1


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator

FRBR Group 1 FRBR Group 2


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator


FRBR Group 3

Subjects

ConceptsObjectsEventsPlaces


Work

Exp: eng

Man: eng

Exp: lav

Man: lav

Author

Publisher

Translator


FRBR Group 3

Subjects

ConceptsObjectsEventsPlaces

Content Vocabularies

Media Vocabularies

Other Information

In the “Cloud”

Relationship

Vocabularies


Now that the revolution is upon us?

We need to: Make our data harvestable so that others can

use itIdentify our data structures and vocabularies

for use on the webMake our data more “data-like” (not so much

for direct consumption by humans)Make our systems more “cloud-like”


Library

Data



Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882family name

fore name

datebirth

datedeath

What important world events happened during his lifetime?Who was writing on science at the same time?Show me a map of important places in his life

What can you do with it?

Coordination with JSC (or it’s successor, given the need to move beyond “Anglo-American”) on long-term maintenance planningWe need a lightweight, more participatory

process, where change is not a multi-year marathon

Continuing development towards a more Semantic web-friendly RDA (even less reliance on transcription, for instance)

Tool development (at all levels, including ILS vendors)


The bad news: This isn’t like 1981, when there was a “start date” and we knew exactly when to change gears

More bad news: This transition is likely to be a pretty messy one, and last longer than we would like

One unknown is OCLC’s role—at present they seem to be focused on consolidating control over library data and promoting WorldCat as an ILS

The good news: library vendors are starting to wake up and smell the coffee!


Testing what, exactly?Attempting to determine whether RDA Online in

its initial release offers sufficient benefit, compared to current methods, to achieve the objectives that the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA has stated for the proposed new cataloging code

Based on the analysis of the test results, and considering the cost of implementation, the three US national libraries will determine whether to implement the initial release of RDA

Not clear what a “no” recommendation might imply


20+ diverse test partners will create records, using a 20-25 item test set of resources

Each test partner will produce an RDA record and a record using its currently adopted cataloging code, e.g. AACR2, DACS, VRA, for each resource in the core test set (using different people)

Each record creator will fill out a questionnaireThe test partners will make available the

records they create in this test to the Steering Committee for review and analysis


Read, learn, question …Keep an eye on the testingTry out the RDA Tools (there may be a free

period during the testing process)Make some records, explore how they might

work with non-traditional materialsLearn more about web technologies!Play in the Registry Sandbox

(http://sandbox.metadataregistry.org)

Push your colleagues and administrators to participate


Thanks to Karen Coyle for the use of some of her slides, as well as many hours of stimulating conversation about these issues …

Thanks to Jon Phipps, Registry Developer, for keeping me honest

Contact info for Diane: [email protected]


getting real with rda

Technology

rda content

new world

rda implementation

rda role author

digital library research

rda data rss feeds

aacr2 rda constituency

rda extensible catalog