RDA and communities of practice

1. RDAandcommunities of practice Chris Oliver IAML 2012 Annual Conference July 26th, 2012

2. Why communities of practice? • recognize the role of the community of practice • impact on how we think about: RDA training RDA implementation future development of RDA

3. Outline • review RDA development process • review community involvement • what is a community of practice? • how is the concept useful?

4. How far have we travelled? Let’s go back 15 years 1997 • Toronto conference: International Conference on the Principles & Future Development of AACR • begins a massive revision process : 2004 AACR3 2005 RDA • from revision into something quite different • 2005: AACR2 amendment process stops

5. How far have we travelled? Let’s go back 5 years 2007 • in the midst of developing RDA • new organization for RDA • drafts of chapters made available for comment • commenting on drafts not an easy task: • new concepts and new vocabulary • see parts, not the full RDA • constantly evolving • those who must respond, do

6. How far have we travelled? Let’s go back 3 years 2009 • text of 1st release of RDA is finalized • software for the Toolkit is designed • work on putting RDA into software and completing the programming • RDA = version for release is not yet visible a collection of static draft Word documents

7. How far have we travelled? Let’s go back 2 years 2010 • RDA Toolkit is released on June 23rd, 2010 Photo by American Library Association Celebrating the launch of RDA and RDA Toolkit at ALA10

8. Where have we been as a community? at end of AACR2 era: • high level of familiarity • shared knowledge and experience • participation in the revision process

9. Where have we been as a community? during RDA development: • little or no familiarity with RDA • constantly shifting ground • difficult to engage in review without a substantial commitment

10. Development process • “incubator” period = activity concentrated in small group editor JSC constituency committee members experts from other metadata communities some, but not many, from broader community “need to balance community input with the need for RDA to be ready for publication within a reasonable timeframe” --- Strategic Plan

11. Community waits • unfortunate consequences: • weakened sense of engagement • loss of the habit of participation • in some cases, a shift of perception: lose feeling of “our standard” RDA as outside and alien

12. U.S. RDA test: Oct.-Dec. 2010 U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee Executive Summary, June 13, 2011 • RDA should be part of the metadata infrastructure for the future • before RDA is implemented, certain activities must be well underway • to allow sufficient lead time for these actions to occur, implementation not prior to January 2013 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/cataloging/RDA_report_executive_summary.pdf

13. Key recommendation: ensure and facilitate community involvement “it takes a village to raise a child” “it takes a community to implement RDA”

14. Where are we now as a community? at the beginning of the “RDA era”: ▪ sharp learning curve for all ▪ starting to build shared knowledge ▪ looking for resources to share ▪ beginning to re-engage as a community

15. Recent developments • RDA revision and updating process is formalized and starts • reminder that RDA is a standard that will continue to evolve • JSC encourages community input • collective contributions to the development process: for example, RDA Music Revisions Facilitation Task Force - music cataloguers from U.S. and Canada representing multiple institutions and associations: LC, ALA/MLA, CCC/CAML “issues identified by music catalogers who have used or are using RDA”

16. Recent developments • community laying the groundwork for implementation: training: ▪ introductory webinars: ALCTS (ALA), Education Institute (The Partnership, Canada), British Library, etc. ▪ authority records for NACO file: Program for Cooperative Cataloging ▪ FRBR/FRAD and bibliographic record: Library of Congress national libraries and PCC: freely sharing their resources with the community

17. Recent developments • community laying the groundwork for implementation: infrastructure: preparing the LC/NACO names authority file: Program for Cooperative Cataloguing – multiple committees OCLC creating a hospitable environment for RDA records expanding MARC 21 for encoding RDA data post-MARC bibliographic framework

18. Recent developments • expansion of the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA (JSC) to welcome Germany ― add a new representative to JSC: from Deutsche Nationalbibliothek • EURIG = European RDA Interest Group common professional interests of users and potential users of RDA in Europe • international translation teams: teams from more than one country ― German + French + Spanish (more translations coming)

19. Recent developments • informal collectives to prepare and deliver training: for example, Canadian Working Group on Cataloguing with RDA ▪ use existing community resources ▪ adapt for the particular community of Canadian cataloguers ▪ lead the process of “teaching ourselves” within Canada

20. Is it just by chance? 2004 2008 2012 more community involvement, more positive energy for going forward with RDA?

21. Community of practice? • useful concept • newly labeled but nothing new • social learning • informal learning • collective growth and achievement • engagement • it’s something we have done well in the past and are starting to do again

22. Why is it useful? recognize the vital role of our communities recognize that we do not implement RDA as single individuals To implement a standard ─ need a supporting infrastructure • very little money available for training, documentation • need to prepare the environment for RDA records • areas of RDA need further development • we are all RDA beginners (“Current experts are now beginners” -- Emma Rogoz, BL) So ... how are we going to move ahead? reliance on our communities of practice

23. Community of practice? communities of practice are: groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do + learn how to do it better as they interact regularly -- Etienne Wenger

24. Community of practice 3 characteristics: • a domain: • a shared domain of interest or concern, passion about a topic • commitment to the domain • shared competence • a community • build relationships that enable them to learn from each other • share knowledge • meet because they find value in their interactions • a practice • practitioners • shared repertoire of useful resources

25. Community of practice • NOT a formal organization though it can exist within an organization • NOT people doing the same job or having the same title members must interact and learn together learn through participation in the community • NOT simply a community or a chance meeting of like minds have relationships of trust and confidence share a domain of practice share experiences, stories, tools, resources sustained interaction

26. Community of practice • all cataloguers preparing to implement RDA • music cataloguers • law cataloguers, etc. some communities coalesce around “formal” groups: • CONSER: Cooperative Online Serials Program • RBMS: Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ALA • OLAC: Online Audiovisual Catalogers “the Internet and AV Media Catalogers’ Network” some communities do not have a formal focus point: • Canadian Working Group on Cataloguing with RDA

27. Music cataloguers as an example • music cataloguers – a strong community of practice • within associations, across associations, beyond associations • long history of moving the practice forward: sharing resources, offering expertise collective problem solving • in RDA era: • collective preparation of revision proposals: RDA Music Revisions Facilitation Task Force (LC, ALA/MLA, CCC/CAML) • share experience and documentation: MLA RDA Music Implementation Task Force (official workflows, best practices)

28. Purpose of EURIG • To promote the common professional interests of all users, and potential users, of “RDA: Resource Description and Access”, in Europe; • To provide a forum in which prospective European users of RDA can participate; • To encourage and promote co-operation, communication and the exchange of experienceamong prospective users in order to facilitate implementation of RDA in Europe; • To disseminate information and co-ordinate proposals for the development of RDA according to the bibliographic needs of European libraries and users by working closely with the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA. • To encourage and promote co-operation in the translation of RDA into European languages by the exchange of experience. EURIG Cooperation Agreement

29. Why is the concept useful? • we learn best as a community of practitioners • the community is more than the sum of the parts • focus on the collective and social aspects of knowledge “learning occurs through interested participation with other learners” – Barbara Rogoff • establish the baseline of knowledge for the community • share the challenge of keeping up-to-date when knowledge is dynamic and increasing exponentially • develop and maintain the long-term community memory • encourage engagement

30. Why is the concept useful? • communities large and small • communities that overlap: in the same domain and not identical

31. More than one community using RDA RDA domain AACR2 constituencies e-theses e-resources AV music rare French archives German ir

32. More than one way to use RDA • use for all aspects • use RDA for some parts – metadata projects using registered vocabularies for example, Out of the Trenches: Linked Open Data of the First World War for example, project with American Planning Association • use RDA in conjunction with compatible but more specific guidelines for special types of resources for example, work of the DCRM/RDA Task Force • use RDA to describe resources such as archives for example, RDA and DACS(Nimer, Whittaker)

33. More than one way to use RDA • JSC goal to enable use of RDA in different communities around the world: • options and alternatives for example, initial articles (6.2.1.7) • local decisions about choice of language of cataloguing, scripts, numerals, calendars, units of measurement • integrating translations into one web product • expanding JSC representation

34. Implementing RDA ensure and facilitate community involvement • during RDA development, the involved community shrank • communities of practice: an essential role in RDA implementation ◊ passionate cataloguers ◊ interacting in a community ◊ improving their practice “it takes a community to implement RDA” “it takes many communities of practice to implement RDA fully”

35. Some references Communities of practice Lave, Jean and Etienne Wenger. Situated Learning : legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of practice : a brief introduction.http://www.ewenger.com/theory/ RDA training/documentation http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/index.html http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/rda/RDA%20Implementation.html http://www.oclc.org/rda/default.htm https://wiki.d-nb.de/display/RDAINFO/RDA-Info images from Microsoft Office