Ms. Cajes & Mr. del Mundo attends PAARL's National Training on RDA in Cebu

Technical Services librarians Ms. May Cajes and Mr. Rafael del Mundo attended a National Training-Workshop on RDA with the theme “Resource Description and Access (RDA) Essentials: Preparing Librarians for New Cataloging Standards and Guidelines. This was conducted by the Philippine Association of Academic/Research Librarians (PAARL), Inc. in cooperation with the NCCA-NCLIS, National Library of the Philippines, and National Committee on Resource Description and Access and was held last June 26-28, 2013 at the Montebello Villa Hotel in Cebu City.

The seminar sought to achieve the following objectives: give an overview of RDA, emphasizing the core elements in RDA and other elements identified as core for the Library of Congress Classification scheme; recognize the changes from AACR2R to RDA; learn the guidelines in recording attributes of FRBR entities; understand the conceptual entity-relationship module FRBR and its relationship to RDA; learn how to use the RDA toolkit; and lastly, apply the new cataloging standard RDA in practice exercises to create bibliographic records for monographs according to RDA rules encoded in the MARC21 format.

The organizers did not expect the overwhelming number of participants coming from different regions of the country, mainly because the training-workshop on RDA held in Cebu City is the last leg of the workshop series being sponsored by PAARL.

The program started with the registration of participants. Invocation was led by Ms. Sonia Lourdes L. David, (auditor of PAARL), followed by welcome remarks delivered by Dr. Marilou Tadlip (NCCA-NCLIS Regional Coordinator) and opening remarks given by Atty. Antonio Santos (Director, National Library of the Philippines). The background and mechanics of the training-workshop were explained by Ms. Marian Ramos-Eclevia (vice president, PAARL/conference chair).

The following topics were discussed during the Seminar:

Resource Description & Access and Machine Readable Cataloging 21 by Dr. Sonia M. Gementiza

Dr. Gementiza discussed the relation between RDA and MARC 21. In her presentation, she stated the significance of MARC in creating computer library cataloging records. She noted the convenience of MARC in copying records from other databases easily. Additionally, she said that MARC allows catalogs of different libraries to be put into the same union catalog like the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) or linked virtual catalog, like Philippine University Library Search Engine (DLSU PULSE). Furthermore, because MARC is a standard library tool, it can be easily moved from one library system to another without necessarily converting data. Lastly, according to her, MARC is easy to learn.
In her concluding remarks, she said everybody in the library needs to have knowledge about MARC. The question is to what extent staff and librarians should know about MARC.     

Background and Structure of RDA by Ms. Mila M. Ramos

Ms. Ramos gave an overview of what is RDA, its background and its structure. She explained issues pertaining to RDA’s significance in cataloging materials namely library catalogs and the need to evolve with ICT advances. AACR2R is no longer optimized in dealing with formats other than books, and modern users have expectations that are hard to meet just by using traditional cataloging methods. At the end of her talk she stated that librarians should create better awareness regarding the new cataloging standard RDA and its application in practice. She encouraged librarians and libraries to be proactive in familiarizing themselves with RDA through reading, attending trainings, seminars, webinars, etc.

FRBR, FRAD and FRSAD by Ms. Corazon M. Nera

Ms. Nera’s presentation featured Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) and Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD). She said that FRBR, FRAD and FRSAD are conceptual models in organizing bibliographic and authority information based on entity relationship models which are focused on user needs. Furthermore, she explained that FRBR, FRAD and FRSAD are theoretical models offering potential to improve our public catalogs making discovery of resources more rewarding and less frustrating for users.

In her closing remarks, she expressed the importance of FRBR, FRAD and FRSAD to libraries/librarians because these functional requirements will not only facilitate international standardization in creating bibliographic and authority data, but will also provide librarians a conceptual model to review libraries’ traditional cataloging in light of today’s digital environment.

Recording Attributes of Works and Expression by Ms. Ana Maria B. Fresnido

Ms. Fresnido spoke on Recording Attributes of Works and Expression. She discussed the RDA guidelines on how to record the core elements. She said that for all other identifying attributes of works and expressions, take the information in any source. Another way of referring to identifying works and expressions means “naming the work” and “naming the expression,” just as we “name” persons and corporate bodies. Furthermore, she explained that the works and expressions refer to the intellectual thing in the creator’s mind (or an expression of it), not the physical manifestation or item that is tangible. In AACR2, this concept is called “determining the main entry.”  

Recording Attributes of Manifestation and Item by Prof. Ruben P. Marasigan

Mr. Marasigan’s presentation featured Recording Attributes of Manifestation. He said that “manifestation” is the physical embodiment of an expression of work, while “item” is a single exemplar or instance of manifestation. He noted that generally, the attributes of works, expressions, manifestations and items as well as the elements of persons, families and corporate bodies are recorded in RDA bibliographic and authority records.

In his talk, he presented a series of examples on how RAMI may be transcribed in RDA. To evaluate participants’ understanding on RAMI, exercises were given at the end of his presentation.

          

Recording Attributes of Person, Family, and Corporate Bodies by Mr. Ruben Marasigan        

Mr. Marasigan’s another presentation is about Recording Attributes of Person, Family, and Corporate Bodies (RAPFCb) where he provided general guidelines and instructions in constructing preferred and variant access points. To further enlighten participants on how to create preferred and variant access points representing persons, families, and corporate bodies, several examples were given and then followed by activity exercises.

Recording Relationships of Person, Family, and Corporate Bodies/

Recording Relationships between Works, Expressions, Manifestations, and Items

by Ms. Corazon M. Nera

Ms. Nera’s presentation dwelled on two parts namely Recording Relationships of Person, Family, and Corporate Bodies (RRPFCb) and Recording Relationships between Works, Expressions, Manifestations, and Items (WEMI). In her talk, she explained guidelines and instructions on the use of relationship designators to indicate the functions performed by PFCb in relation to the resource. Subsequently, she also discussed instructions on recording relationships between WEMI. At the end of her presentation, practical applications and examples of RRPFCb were demonstrated to the participants.

Punctuations, Capitalization, and Abbreviations by Ms. Susan Pador

Ms. Pador spoke on prescribed Punctuations, Capitalization, and Abbreviations being used in RDA. She said that transcribing in RDA is as easy as by “taking what you see, and accept what you get”, no more complicated rules. In her talk, she pointed out that institutions considering using the new cataloging standard does not necessarily need to adapt all cataloging rules in RDA. Furthermore, she expressed that cataloging rules to be followed in RDA may depend on the particular needs of an institution. In addition, institutions like libraries may adapt RDA and generate in-house cataloging rules at the same time. At the end of her talk, related examples were presented to the participants.

Basics of Resource and Description and AccessToolkit by Mr. Carlos Eclevia Jr.

Mr. Eclevia, Senior Sales and Marketing Executive of Libtech Source Philippines provided an overview of RDA toolkit. He highlighted the following features in RDA toolkit namely, searchable and browsable RDA instructions, user-created workflows, maps, and other tools, two views of RDA content: table of contents and RDA element set, full text of AACR2 with links to RDA and Library of Congress policy statement.

A panel discussion, which was moderated by PAARL officer, followed each lecture.

The Training-Workshop had been overwhelming with information on the new cataloging standard RDA. However, PAARL organizers and even the speakers were surprised of the level of engagement the attendees displayed after every lecture. Participants were eagerly asking questions and actively taking part in every exercises prepared by the lecturers. It is a fact that this new cataloging standard is quite a challenge amongst librarians especially with non-catalogers and to completely understand and apply all the information from the Training-Workshop may take a while. Policy creation on whether to adapt the new cataloging standard still depends on each institution. But due to effortless access to information, there are a lot of resources librarians and non-catalogers may consult with regards to the RDA like available training webinars, online videos, demonstrations, exercises and training-workshops.