Aiming for a Robust Metadata Infrastructure for the Future

An ALCTS webcast

The Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, and the National Library of Medicine  have jointly determined that to achieve a viable and robust metadata infrastructure for the future, RDA—Resource Description & Access should be in that future. This decision was not made lightly, but based on a substantive test using RDA in which 23 libraries and the three U.S. national libraries participated.  This shares the thoughts of LC's Associate Librarian for Library Services, Deanna Marcum, and its Director for Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access, Beacher Wiggins. Marcum gives her reactions to reviewing and accepting the recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee. Wiggins, a Coordinating Committee co-chair, describes the test, findings, and analyses that led to the recommendation to implement RDA not sooner than January 2013.