Theology Cataloging Bulletin Vol. 22, No. 4 • August 2014 3-1 Section 3 Section Three: News and Views of the Members of the ATLA Technical Services Section Edited by Leslie Engelson LC GENRE/FORM TERMS FOR RELIGIOUS MATERIALS PROJECT There is no news to report. The religion genre/form terms document submitted in August 2012 is still under review. Staff changes at LC have made it impossible to adhere to the planned schedule. Submitted by Erica Treesh, Database Manager for Religion Complete (ATLA RDB®) American Theological Library Association BEST PRACTICES TASKFORCE REPORT At the 2014 Annual Conference in June, both the NACO Listen and Learn session attendees and the NACO Funnel members gathered to discuss best practices for personal name authority records. Those gathered discussed the usefulness and purpose of the optional fields in name authority records. If the purpose of the optional fields is solely to uniquely identify the individual whose name is being established, then the only information that needs to be recorded in the optional data fields is information which will do just that. If the purpose of providing the optional information in coded fields is also to retrieve information about individuals by searching on common characteristics, then recording all readily available information as well as consistency of terminology used becomes equally important. The majority of participants seemed to favor providing as much information as is readily available and to work towards consistency of terminology. One major area which lacks appropriate terms in standard sources is the area of occupation. Neither the Library of Congress Subject Headings nor the Dictionary of Occupational Titles include many relevant occupations for the field of religion. Participants suggested that a thesaurus of occupations in the field of religion should be developed and published as a recognized standard. Once that is done, the occupations can be used in the MARC 374 field and coded as from a standard in the subfield 2. Such a thesaurus is now under development and will be widely circulated once a draft is ready. The Best Practices Taskforce is also working on a draft of a Best Practices for Personal Name Authority Records. That draft will also be circulated once it has been approved by the Taskforce. Submitted by Judy Knop Chair of the Best Practices in the Field of Religion Taskforce CHANGES IN RECORDING UNIFORM TITLE DATES FOR BIBLE The Joint Steering Committee at its November 2014 meeting will be considering a proposal to change the way dates are recorded in Bible uniform titles. Specifically, the proposal calls for replacing the instructions in RDA 6.24 Date of Expression of a Religious Work with a reference back to the instructions in RDA 6.10 Basic Instructions on Recording Date of Expression. The impact of this change is that catalogers will need to search for the earliest manifestation of the expression rather than using the publication year of the item in hand (6.24.1.4). My understanding is the date of publication of each manifestation of the Bible is useful to scholars because each manifestation is significant due to the sacredness of the Theology Cataloging Bulletin Vol. 22, No. 4 • August 2014 3-2 Section 3 text. Scholars are interested in each printing since any change in wording or typos can be significant. Perhaps in our secular society that is no longer meaningful. The proposal also calls for eliminating the Alternative option for facsimile reproductions in RDA 6.30.3.2 Authorized Access Point Representing an Expression of a Religious Work. This means that catalogers will record only the date of the original publication of that text of the Bible. If the text is a facsimile of a 1535 edition of the Bible, the only Bible authorized access point will include the 1535 date. There will not be an entry to indicate that this is a 2010 printing of that facsimile. Submitted by Judy Knop, Metadata Curator American Theological Library Association NEWS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES Rudimentary RDA. Part 1, What RDA is and Webinar provided by OCLC When it Will Happen (TMQ) This two-part course is a start on learning about the basics (the 'rudiments') of RDA to prepare you for switching to following the new guidelines and instructions for cataloging, when you are ready to do so. We will explain: what RDA is, who is responsible for it, when we will implement it, why we need it, what's so different about it, and how we can get ready for it. Available 24/7 FREE http://tinyurl.com/m6lxedx Library 2.0 Conference Conference "The fourth annual Library 2.014 Worldwide Virtual Conference...is online, in multiple time zones over the course of two days, and free to attend." Proposals are currently being accepted for this is a unique opportunity to share your knowledge and research to a worldwide audience. October 2-8, 2014 FREE http://www.library20.com/ Integrating Researcher Identifiers into OCLC Researchers University and Library Systems Karen Smith-Yoshimura and Micah Altman address the challenges of incorporating authoritative research identifiers into databases and systems that use name authorities. Slides and draft: http://tinyurl.com/qjo7rwr YouTube presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQXeFa7UabA&feature=youtu.be Just for Copy Cats, Part 1, Background Material Webinar A series of short webcasts that explain the basics of copy cataloging: what it is and how we do it, useful elements of the bibliographic record, and search strategies. For beginning catalogers. Available 24/7 FREE https://oclc.org/support/training/partners/tmq/jcc1.en.html MARC21 In Your Library Webinar A series of mini-courses that introduce MARC21 and how it works in a library automation system, what MARC records are, and how to tie in the MARC standards with AACR2 Available 24/7 FREE http://www.oclc.org/support/training/partners/tmq/m21p1.en.html