U.S. National Libraries RDA Test Partners
From Beacher Wiggins, Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, Library of Congress, for the US National Libraries RDA Test Coordinating Committee:
After some unforeseen delays, we have the pleasure of announcing the 26 partners that the US National Libraries RDA Test Coordinating Committee has selected to participate formally in our planned test of the content and online functionality of Resource Description and Access. Interest in participating in the test was far greater than we had anticipated. The Coordinating Committee devoted twelve hours, in two sessions, to reviewing more than 90 applications. Since there were so many excellent applications, ALA Publishing agreed to increase the number of temporary licenses to RDA Online that could be permitted during the test period. The Coordinating Committee’s goal was to be as inclusive as possible in terms of size and type of cataloging units, formats to be cataloged, and systems and rules used in the test. The final selections include representatives of all types and sizes of libraries--national, government, academic, public, school, special; archives; museums; book vendors; systems developers; library schools; and consortia and funnels. We also had to ensure that the test covered a very wide range of cataloging systems, OPACs, communication formats/schemas, and types of materials/resources cataloged. To be sure that the test would compare RDA to the full range of cataloging rules that are currently in use in the U.S., we selected partners that use AACR2, AMIM (Archival Moving Image Materials), DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), CDP (Collaborative Digitization Project), APPM (Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts), CDWA (Categories for the Description of Works of Art), DCRM (Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials), GIHC (Graphic Materials: Rules for Describing and Historical Collections), and CCO (Cataloging Cultural Objects).
The Coordinating Committee is confident that the 24 test partners will provide a reliable control group for testing RDA throughout the U.S. cataloging community. We thank all who applied to participate and look forward to receiving your feedback during and after the test. We’re eager to start the testing as soon as possible after RDA Online is released.
The list of selected test partners follows:
Individual Institutions (Lead Staff Member in Parentheses)
- Library of Congress (Beacher Wiggins)
- National Agricultural Library (Christopher Cole)
- National Library of Medicine (Dianne McCutcheon)
- Backstage Library Works (Karen Anderson)
- Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library (Robert Maxwell)
- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (Chuck Herrold)
- Clark Art Institute Library (Penny Baker)
- University of Chicago (Christopher Cronin)
- College Center for Library Automation (Florida) (Dave Whisenant)
- Columbia University (Kate Harcourt)
- Douglas County Libraries, Colorado (Nancy Kall)
- Emory University (Armin Siedlecki)
- GSLIS Group (Marjorie Bloss, Dominican University, with Hur-Li Lee and Steve Miller, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Cheryl Boettcher Tarsala, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- Minnesota Historical Society (Sarah Quimby)
- Morgan Library and Museum (Elizabeth O’Keefe)
- Music Library Association/Online Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc. (Led by Kelley McGrath, Ball State University)
- North Carolina State University Libraries (Erin Stalberg)
- University of North Dakota (Shelby Harken)
- North East Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas (Ric. Hasenyager)
- Northeastern University (Mary Menke)
- OCLC Metadata Contract Services (Linda Gabel)
- Ohio State University Libraries (Magda El-Sherbini)
- State Library of Pennsylvania (Thomas Duszak)
- Quality Books (Mike Tribby)
- Stanford University Libraries (Philip Schreur)
- George Washington University (Jackie Shieh)