Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee 9 May 2011 revised for public release 20 June 2011 Committee Co‐Chairs: Christopher Cole, National Agricultural Library Jennifer Marill, National Library of Medicine (January 2011‐‐ ) Diane Boehr, National Library of Medicine (acting June 2010‐December 2010) Dianne McCutcheon, National Library of Medicine (2008‐May 2010) Beacher Wiggins, Library of Congress † Committee Members: Diane Boehr, National Library of Medicine Barbara Bushman, National Library of Medicine Michael Esman, National Agricultural Library Judith A. Kuhagen, Library of Congress (December 2010‐‐ ) Susan R. Morris, Library of Congress Regina Romano Reynolds, Library of Congress Tina Shrader, National Agricultural Library * Barbara B. Tillett, Library of Congress ‡ Member of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control † Member of the Committee of Principals for AACR *NAL liaison to MARBI (Machine‐Readable Bibliographic Information Committee of the American Library Association) ‡ Member of the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee public release 20June 2011 Contents Table of Figures ................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... vii Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 9 Recommendations............................................................................................................................. 13 Implementation Recommendations to LC/NAL/NLM .............................................................................13 Recommendations to the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC) ..............................15 Recommendations to ALA Publishing .....................................................................................................17 Recommendations to the Community, Including PCC.............................................................................18 Recommendations to Vendors................................................................................................................23 Background........................................................................................................................................ 25 Criteria for Evaluation.............................................................................................................................26 Testing Timeline ......................................................................................................................................27 Meetings .................................................................................................................................................27 Training ...................................................................................................................................................27 Communication.......................................................................................................................................27 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Objectives/Evaluative Factors.................................................................................................................29 Assumptions............................................................................................................................................29 Selecting Test Partners............................................................................................................................30 Informal Testers ......................................................................................................................................31 Test Design..............................................................................................................................................31 Common Original Set ..............................................................................................................................32 Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee public release 20June 2011 ii Common Copy Set ...................................................................................................................................33 Extra Original and Extra Copy Set ...........................................................................................................33 User Review.............................................................................................................................................33 Surveys ....................................................................................................................................................33 Test Records Collection ...........................................................................................................................34 Record Review and Assessment ..............................................................................................................35 COS Record Review and Analysis ............................................................................................................35 Survey Data Collection and Analysis .......................................................................................................36 Archiving the Original Collected Data.....................................................................................................37 Data Cleanup...........................................................................................................................................37 Data Analysis...........................................................................................................................................38 Findings ............................................................................................................................................. 40 Findings: Community Response.............................................................................................................40 Findings: Record Creation ......................................................................................................................43 Record Analysis: Quantitative and Qualitative Overview ...................................................................43 Time Analysis.......................................................................................................................................45 Comparative Record Evaluation (Common Original Set)....................................................................52 Non‐MARC Record Evaluation ............................................................................................................66 Findings: Record Use ..............................................................................................................................67 Record Use Surveys .............................................................................................................................67 Positive Features of RDA Records .......................................................................................................68 Negative features of RDA records.......................................................................................................69 Findings: Training & Documentation Needs..........................................................................................71 Training Methods Utilized During the Test .........................................................................................71 Impact and Costs of RDA Implementation on Documentation ...........................................................72 Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee public release 20June 2011 iii Findings: Use of RDA Toolkit..................................................................................................................76 RDA Toolkit: Workflows ......................................................................................................................76 RDA Toolkit: Navigation......................................................................................................................77 RDA Toolkit: Searching........................................................................................................................77 RDA Toolkit: Tools/Resources Tabs.....................................................................................................77 RDA Toolkit: Local Annotations/Bookmarks .......................................................................................78 RDA Toolkit: General Comments.........................................................................................................78 Findings: RDA Content ....................................................................................................................... 79 RDA Content: Readability Analysis......................................................................................................79