Helping cataloguers catch-up on their training: IFLA/LRM Training

 The issue of developing and implementing new cataloguing and metadata standards and models is one that has been with us for the past few decades.  While cataloguers have been slowly changing their practices - especially since the introduction of RDA about 8 years ago, many other library workers aren't aware that there is a plan in the works for a metadata revolution.  Or, maybe they know about it but perhaps they don't care.  I remember a librarian tell me a few years ago that she just couldn't get excited let alone be interested in my talk about RDA.  She felt that there has been too much talk and too little action for her tastes.

The reality is that the discipline of cataloguing and metadata is talking about revolutionary change. Making that change takes a lot of thinking, talking, planning, and experimentation.  I've shown non-cataloging librarians some of the experimental tools such as OCLCs Classify (http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/ ), Worldcat Identities (https://www.worldcat.org/identities/) and VIAFs authority data (https://viaf.org/) as examples of the outcome of experimentation and a preview of what is to come.  While some are interested in the services, they react to them as if they are just fun little toys and not evidence of steps being taken towards a brave new world in cataloguing and resource discovery.

Hopefully, some of my readers have a more positive experience than I have when they speak to other library workers about current and upcoming changes in cataloguing and metadata.  However, based on conversations I've had with other cataloguers at conferences, it sounds like a lackluster response from colleagues regarding these changes is unfortunately common.  Sometimes, even the managers of the technical services area arent too interested in hearing about what's coming down the pipe in cataloguing. That's a problem.  Maybe that will be a topic of discussion for a future post if readers are interested....

So, maybe it's not entirely surprising to hear that a lot of cataloguers and metadata librarians have had a hard time finding the time and intellectual energy to learn the latest about the LRM model.  I have to admit that keeping up to date with the training has fallen off my radar in the past year or so.  I think that the last day I spent any time thinking about it was a very cold winter day when I was trying to make sense of the concepts of nomen and res in terms of how they might help with improving serials cataloguing.   I suppose I could say that the holidays and then a deadly virus that sent us into isolation overtook the little bit of attention I had left.  The other day I thought that it might be time for me to pick up my quest to keep up with LRM development.

One thing that I found is that the Catalogers Learning Workshop (CLW) added some training on serials cataloguing and LRM.  So, maybe this is where I can pick up where I felt off.

I thought that the readers of this column may be interested in the LRM training series that is available through the CLW website https://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/RDA2020/index.html