Join three cataloguing instructors from Western as they explain the shift from AACR2 to RDA from a teaching perspective. We start with a distinction, originating in linguistics, between prescriptive and descriptive language rules, and argue that AACR2 is primarily a prescriptive code, much like the French language: it defines and prescribes correct procedures for successful and consistent cataloguing. RDA, on the other hand, is a descriptive code, much like the English language; it accepts many different conventions, and provides a code for identifying the various parts of the description created within those conventions. Students learning RDA, therefore, emerge with a rich sense of choice, but with poorer training in adhering to the precise and consistent rules that library catalogues require. This prescriptive dimension of cataloguing, formerly embodied in AACR, has now been downloaded to libraries, who must, in local and consortium contexts, decide, construct and enforce the rules for themselves.
Learning Outcomes
Upon attending this session, conference attendees will:
1. Have a clearer expectation of students graduating from library schools and taking up library cataloguing positions;
2. Understand how new cataloguing standards are changing the stresses and demands on technical services departments and their operations;
3. Recognize the need for libraries to work with library schools to produce competent and knowledgeable new cataloguers.
