Maxwell's Handbook for RDA: Explaining and illustrating RDA: Resource Description and Access using MARC21

by Robert L. Maxwell

Winner of the 2014 ABC-CLIO Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature Winner of the 2015 Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Outstanding Publication Award In this clear and comprehensive resource, cataloging expert Robert Maxwell brings his trademark practical commentary to bear on the new, unified cataloging standard. Designed to interpret and explain Resource Description and Access, this handbook illustrates and applies the new cataloging rules in the MARC21 environment for every type of information format. From books to electronic materials to music and beyond, Maxwell A guided tour of the new standard from a respected authority, this essential handbook will help catalogers, LIS students, and cataloging instructors navigate RDA smoothly and find the information they need efficiently.

Genres: Reference, Library Science

608 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Robert L. Maxwell is a senior librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, USA, where he is chair of the Special Collections and Metadata Catalog Department. He is the author of books on cataloging, including FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago: American Library Association, 2008); Maxwell’s Guide to Authority Work (Chicago: ALA, 2002), which won the 2002 Highsmith Library Literature Award; and Maxwell’s Handbook for AACR2 (Chicago: ALA, 2004). He has taught cataloging at Brigham Young University and the University of Arizona, and is a voting member of ALA’s Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access, the ALA body responsible for developing official ALA positions on AACR2 and RDA. In addition to an MLS from the University of Arizona, he holds a JD from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in classical languages and literatures from the University of Toronto.

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished this 900 page book of minute detail -- fortunately, I was allowed to read it "on the clock" at work over the last three months. Those who are library catalogers know what this is and why I needed to read it; the rest of you have no need to know, but if you're curious, RDA is the new set of cataloging rules which is designed to make the transition to related database structures for cataloging, IF the software vendors ever decide to do anything with it. Meanwhile, it is just a change in everything we have to do in cataloging.

I was fortunate to have learned RDA in a week long course taught by Bob Maxwell, the cataloging guru and BYU special collections librarian; this book is a longer and more detailed version of what he taught us. It is organized in the WEMI structure of RDA (Works, Expressions, Manifestations, Items) -- the first and longest chapter, after a short historical/theoretical introduction, is the rules for describing Manifestations and Items -- that is, the actual books, etc. that come across my desk to catalog. The next four chapters are on describing Persons, Families, Corporate Bodies and Geographical Entities -- the sort of things we have to put in as authors, illustrators, translators, publishers and places of publication, and so forth. (There is nothing in the book on describing subjects of books, as that part of RDA has not yet been written -- it was "rolled out" very incomplete and imperfect, and the first couple years have been a nightmare of constantly changing revisions in the rules, with new decisions handed down every few months.) Then there are chapters on Works and Expressions, which the Manifestations are the published editions of -- think, Work = The Iliad; Expression = Pope's translation; Manifestation = a particular publisher's edition of Pope's translation; Item = the specific copy with its own barcode number. The last chapter is on Recording Relationships between all of the above. Then there are a couple hundred pages of "appendixes" on specific types of resource such as books, videos, books on CD and so forth -- basically the "cheat sheets" that show how to actually do it.

I'll be fortunate if I remember ten percent of all this, and mostly what has to do with books, but at least I know where to look up things. Not the most exciting book I've ever read, but necessary for my job and clearer than many other sources on the topic.

[Jaq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful for the trainee cataloguer