RDA Adoption in U.S. Public Libraries

This study surveyed the state of knowledge about, and adoption of, RDA among American public library catalogers. In 2017 an online survey request was e-mailed to 4000 public libraries for the person most responsible for cataloging. Over 300 libraries responded. Data collected nationally included geographic location, education level, training history and needs, library size and budget. Evidence points to demographic factors having a strong influence on levels of RDA knowledge, with a dramatic urban/rural divide. While a majority of catalogers know about RDA, their working knowledge about it differs substantially depending on whether they work in rural or urban library settings. Additionally, 22% of respondents overall stated they had never heard of RDA until completing the survey. Survey respondents identified training as a top priority, with a preference that it be provided centrally and consistently by “National professional library associations.” This presentation is based on the article, “Resource Description and Access: Adoption and Implementation in Public Libraries in the United States” by Frank Lambert (Middle Tennessee University), Roman Panchyshyn and Sevim McCutcheon (both of Kent State University, Ohio) published in Library Resource & Technical Services (LRTS) 63(2) in April 2019. It is an extension of research published by the same authors in 2013 that focused on the RDA experiences of public library catalogers in the state of Ohio

Basic, Fuller, Fullest: Treatment Options for Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given the thousands of theses and dissertations (TDs) that are produced each year, and their role in advancing their disciplines, it is well worth disseminating them as widely as possible. A great leap forward in increasing TD distribution has been the electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) movement. ETD information in catalogs provides valuable basic access, especially when bibliographic records are contributed to large databases. While these bibliographic records can be created automatically by harvesting author-supplied metadata from ETDs, for fuller access, cataloger mediation is needed to remove errors and numeric entities; plus name authority control. Fullest access entails subject analysis.</p

TechKNOW Volume 14, Issue 2

https://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/techknow/6/thumbnail.jp