Lucy Harrison wrote:
> I tentatively asked a question about this issue at the RDA update at ALA
> Midwinter ("tentatively" because I haven't done any cataloging in 9+
> years, and not much back then).
>
> They had just updated us about how RDA would be available online for a
> fee. I said something along the lines of: "If you want a standard to
> be widely adopted, shouldn't you make the instructions for those
> standards freely available to be reused in any fashion anybody might
> want?"
>
> I got a blank look from the panel, and no audible response.
>
That means, a telling response.
Not many libraries will currently be thinking that AACR2 is on its
last legs and badly in need of a replacement. So, to warm them to
the idea, free and comfortable access to the new standard seems a
sensible incentive. There'd still be room on the market for a
value-added, fee-based online service and a print product.
For those who read German:
Some time ago, I provided a self-developed online version of our
cataloging code, RAK:
http://www.allegro-c.de/regeln/
Every paragraph of the rules is a database record and is indexed
by title, keyword and rule number plus other things.
In addition, from this database, we could also produce an HTML
edition (2 megabytes large):
http://www.allegro-c.de/regeln/rwb.htm
It has the advantage of giving you the whole document in one fell swoop,
and there are built-in reference links carrying you to straight to the
referenced rule number. Very plain, but also very popular, as we are
told and as we can see from access statistics on our webserver.
B.Eversberg
Received on Wed Apr 09 2008 - 08:02:25 EDT