The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA continued its meeting Thursday morning. The agenda consisted of reports and discussions with current and potential partners, along with a few revision proposals.
RDA and DCRM2
Note: An unusual number of observers were present for this session, many of them rare materials catalogers who will be participating tomorrow in a seminar on rare materials and RDA. This seminar was encouraged by the JSC in order to provide an opportunity for rare materials catalogers from different countries to talk to each other. The JSC wishes to form working partnerships with appropriate communities of catalogers, and today’s discussion is (among other things) an exploration of whether a partnership with rare materials catalogers might be formed. JSC Chair Gordon Dunsire led the discussion; Francis Lapka and Audrey Pearson responded on behalf of the DCRM community.
Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials is a series of guidelines for applying AACR2 to rare materials; there are separate published DCRM guidelines for Books, Serials, and Graphics, with modules for Cartographic Materials, Manuscripts, and Music forthcoming. These guidelines are developed and maintained by the American Library Association’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section’s Bibliographic Standards Committee. The Committee has undertaken to revise DCRM as an application of RDA (designated DCRM2). Based on discussions with the JSC, DCRM2 is being envisaged as a set of policy statements linked to RDA instructions, in much the same way as the national library policy statements and the MLA Best Practices are already included in the RDA Toolkit. The plan is to have the DCRM2 policy statements finished and ready to integrate into the Toolkit during 2017.
Today’s discussion reviewed this plan and discussed details such as the maintenance schedule for keeping the policy statements up-to-date with revisions to the text of RDA. The plan is to link the policy statements to all the language versions in the Toolkit; DCRM has no current plans to provide translations, but is open to the possibility. Francis Lapka noted that the Bibliographic Standards Committee maintains a number of controlled vocabularies; most of these are lists of genre terms and thus are for elements not currently defined in RDA; however, one is a list of relator terms, which might be considered an extension to the relationship designators in RDA Appendix I. The JSC expressed interest in looking at this list.
It was also noted that RDA will be undergoing significant changes in structure and content during the time when DCRM2 is being developed, and some of the discussions from earlier this week (transcription, the four-fold path, new entities from FRBR-LRM, etc.) were summarized as having a potential impact on DCRM2.
The JSC is setting up working groups, both ongoing and task-oriented, to do much of the development work; they are also considering the need for task forces to deal with single tasks. There may be an opportunity for an ongoing rare materials working groups, similar to the existing group on music and the new group on archives. The question of new working groups will be discussed on Friday.
Rare materials
6JSC/BL/26: Production Statement: changing method of recording
Abstract: Change the method of recording Production Statement from “transcribe” to “record” to provide more effective guidance for unpublished resources. Consequent upon this are: change of sources to “any source”; deletion of parallel elements. Change to 2.17.6.3 Details Relating to Production Statement. Deletion of the optional addition from 2.7.4.4 is also illustrated for completeness. A new glossary term inscription is proposed.
A revised definition of inscription will be submitted as a fast-track proposal.
The BL representative will draft a short revision proposal to introduce the distinction between self-describing and non-self-describing resources to the instructions for Production statement.
A thorough revision of the instructions will be deferred and undertaken as part of the definition of parallel elements for transcribed and recorded data (see discussion on agenda item 16 on Tuesday).
6JSC/LC/32: Revision to instructions for devised titles (2.3.2.11)
Abstract: This proposal recommends providing greater flexibility for the general instructions on devising a title proper.
The proposal was approved, with some modifications of wording.
6JSC/ALA/45: Referential relationships in RDA Chapters 24-28 and Appendix J
This proposal had been discussed on Tuesday, and it had been decided that referential relationships were not really WEMI-to-WEMI relationships, but would need to be modeled as something else. The reasons for this decision were explained to the rare materials community. Francis Lapka requested that JSC provide guidance on how they should proceed; this will be done on Friday.
Unresolved fast track and vocabulary issues
Two of these were to rare book cataloging: “scroll” / “folded sheet” and “double leaf”. Although there was not time to discuss these, the DCRM task force was invited to send comments to the JSC Secretary.
RDA and FRBR
Pat Riva, the chair of the FRBR Consolidation Editorial Group, gave a presentation on the current content of FRBR-LRM. The revised model is intended to be a high-level data model of user tasks (not library operations); it integrates and simplifies the previous FR models (fewer entities, although the WEMI and agent entities remain; many fewer attributes; many attributes to be redefined as relationships). One area of uncertainty is what to call the new model; FRBR Library Reference Model is the working title, but it is unclear what “FRBR” means in this new version.
A full draft will be completed shortly; this will be reviewed by the FRBR Review Group and various IFLA bodies; if approved, a world-wide review will be conducted early in 2016. The results of that review will be evaluated and integrated into a final draft, which will be considered at IFLA 2016 in Columbus, OH, USA. Final approval may be given late in 2016.
Pat also noted that the object-oriented version of FRBR (FRBRoo) is a more detailed model, developed jointly with CIDOC, the International Council of Museum’s International Committee for Documentation. Version 2.2 is almost finished. FRBRoo will need to be revised in the light of FRBR-LRM.
The JSC discussed how FRBR-LRM would affect RDA. Along with content issues like the introduction of new entities — in particular, the introduction of Nomen as an entity — it was noted that there will be a need for outreach to the RDA user community (current and potential) to explain the changes. Finally, it was noted that the concept and content of RDA Core elements would need to be reexamined.
Serials
6JSC/ALA/39: Expand the scope of RDA 2.17.5 and 2.17.11
Abstract: Expand the scope of RDA 2.17.5, Note on Numbering of Serials and RDA 2.17.11, Note on Series Statement by adding a new sub-instruction for “other information relating to …” these two elements. Modify related Glossary definitions.
The proposal was approved; the Examples Editor will review the examples.
6JSC/CCC/18: Recording numbering for a series (2.12.9.3)
Abstract: This proposal recommends rationalizing the instructions on recording the numbering for series with those for the numbering of serials by clarifying the aspects that are transcribed and those that are recorded.
The proposal was approved, with minor changes in wording.
Harmonization with ISBD and ISSN
“Harmonization” in this case refers to a long-standing agreement among the JSC, the ISBD Review Group, and the ISSN Network to harmonize key features of their guidelines and instructions, in particular those dealing with major and minor title changes. The JSC has formal protocols with these groups (and with the FRBR Review Group).
Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi reported on the status of ISBD activities, emphasizing the mapping and alignment work in the Registry.
Clément Oury reported on the status of the ISSN. The ISSN standard (an ISO standard) is being revised, and the ISSN Manual will then need to be revised. Regina Reynolds from the US ISSN Office noted that there has been dissatisfaction with the rules for major/minor changes, and that harmonization issues may once more need to be resolved.
RDA and PRESSoo
Clément Oury reported on PRESSoo (not an acroynm). This is an extension of FRBRoo for serials. Version 1.0 was published in June 2014, and IFLA is setting up a PRESSoo Review Group. There are opportunities for RDA to use features of PRESSoo, as well as opportunities for collaboration. The JSC Chair will explore the possibility of establishing a protocol with the new Review Group.
Tomorrow’s agenda begins with a brief public session dedicated to outstanding issues and drafting the outcomes from the meeting. Most of the day will be taken up with an executive session during which (among other things) the JSC’s program of work for the coming year will be developed.