Dr. Barbara Tillett trains the Filipino RDA trainers
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| Dr.
Barbara B. Tillett delivers her lecture |
Academic librarians are getting ready
for the implementation of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) in the
Philippines by attending training workshops to equip them with basic knowledge
and skills in organizing Filipiniana resources based on the new cataloging
rules and principles. A total of 54 librarians, catalogers, and teachers of
Cataloging courses attended a three-day "train-the-trainers" workshop
on RDA held at the European Documentation Centre Multipurpose Room, The
Learning Commons on 3-5 April 2013. The trainer's training was organized by the
Philippine Association of Academic/Research Librarians (PAARL) in cooperation
with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-National Committee on
Library and Information Services (NCCA-NCLIS), the National Library of the
Philippines, and the National Committee on Resource Description and Access
(NCRDA) and its goal is to give a basic program for trainers of RDA, including
presentations, quizzes, examples, and exercises.
Dr. Barbara B. Tillett, Chair of the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA was invited to give a training covering the following topics: FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records), FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data), and FRSAD (Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data); background and structure of RDA; recording attributes of manifestations and items; recording attributes of works and expressions; recording attributes of persons, families, and corporate bodies; recording relationships; recording attributes of places; punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviations; relationship designators; compilations and collaboration; conferences; and revised editions.
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| Br.
Ricardo Laguda FSC welcomes the participants |
In his welcome remarks, Br.
Ricardo P. Laguda FSC, President and Chancellor of DLSU shared his personal
experience in manual cataloging of books during his formation program. He also
acknowledged the hard-work of librarians in ensuring that all library materials
are well organized and cataloged in such a way that the users can easily
retrieve them from the shelf. Br. Ricky Laguda hopes that implementation of RDA
will bring positive changes to improve our cataloging system in the
Philippines.
Ms. Ana Maria B. Fresnido, Director of DLSU Library, attended the trainer's training as a representative of the University Library and a member of the NCRDA. The NCRDA is tasked to develop training modules for teaching RDA, to create a national development plan for RDA, and to propose a Philippine cataloging policy statement.
In one of her lectures, Dr. Tillett said that RDA is "a new standard for resource description and access designed for the digital world." She emphasized that librarians and information professionals should not fear the changes brought about by RDA because rules are easy to use and interpret and are compatible with other similar standards. This implies that a librarian who is a good AACR2 cataloger will also become a good RDA cataloger in the future.
She furthermore explained that RDA was designed with users in mind. With the new cataloging standards, library users will better understand the differences between similar resources that enable them navigate through resources more easily. Librarians will have to say goodbye to confusing cataloging practices such as listing only the first author of works with more than three authors and the use of Latin abbreviations.
The expected outcomes of this trainer's training are (1) the proposed Cataloging Policy Statement for Philippine Libraries and (2) a pool of RDA trainers. The proposed policy statement includes decisions on the adoption of the RDA standards and its elements. In addition, participants who have successfully completed the trainer's training signed a memorandum of understanding wherein they commit themselves to cascade RDA training in their respective institutions as well as to be a trainer of future training on RDA.
In this regard, Ms. Fresnido is one of the resource speakers/trainers of the national training on RDA in Davao City, Cavite, and Cebu City. She will be delivering a lecture on "Recording Attributes of Works and Expressions."
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Dr. Barbara B. Tillett
together with
the members of the National Committee on RDA
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