In the news
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to unilaterally rename Lake Ontario, the westernmost of North America’s Great Lakes, to ‘Lake America’, following the breakdown of trade talks with Canada. The change is already taking effect in the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and will, presumably, shortly follow in the relevant LCSH record. The Canadian bibliographic response is not known at this time.
NSLA RDA Project
Great news from the NSLA RDA Project, as per the NSLA website:
Australia’s Official RDA policy statements are now complete, marking a significant milestone for the NSLA Official RDA Project. These policy statements outline how to apply the Official RDA standard in an Australian context.
This achievement follows more than a year of collaboration, testing and refinement by experts from Australia’s national, state and territory libraries, working alongside partners from AIATSIS, the University of Technology Sydney and the National Gallery of Australia.
Together, the project has developed the policy statements and metadata application profiles that will support Australia’s transition to Official RDA ahead of its adoption in 2027.
With this milestone reached, the project now moves into its final phase, focusing on the development of guidance documentation to support implementation across the Australian library sector.
NSLA thanks all members of the project’s working groups and partner organisations for their expertise, commitment and contribution to this important national initiative.
ORDAC
ORDAC are seeking feedback on three follow-up proposals for the November RSC meeting:
- RSC/ExamplesEditor/2026/2 Proposal to revise guidance chapter section Introduction to RDA: Examples: This proposal recommends the addition of a new paragraph in the guidance chapter section Introduction to RDA: Examples to clarify how and when string encoding schemes are used in examples in the RDA Toolkit. There is also an RSC news item about this and the below proposal here.
- RSC/ExamplesEditor/2026/3 Proposal to add condition options regarding preferred recording source in Data provenance: Recording a source of metadata that is a manifestation that is being described: This proposes to add a new condition option to record metadata from a source on a manifestation in which information is most formally presented. This will allow cataloguers more flexibility and does not specify an order of preference that may not apply to all cultural and historical contexts. This is a follow up proposal to RSC/ExamplesEditor/2026/1. You can read a summary of the responses and discussion here.
- RSC/TranslationsTLO/2026/3 Proposal to revise engraver agent, etc: This proposal clarifies the definitions of engraver agent etc to make the distinction between wood engraver, woodcutter and engraver clear. This is likewise a follow-up proposal after feedback and discussion from the last meeting, which can be read here.
Feedback closes Wednesday 30th September by email to jack@rdatoolkit.org.
Reparative description
The Alexander Turnbull Library, part of Te Puna Mātauranga National Library of New Zealand, has published a detailed and insightful blog post on their reparative description programme, He Kupu Ora. Their work has included an audit of harmful language in metadata records, special handling of problematic subject headings, and the implementation of Prejudicial Works terms from the RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloguing.
Surveys
Karen Snow, LIS professor of Dominican University in Illinois, USA is conducting a research study about cataloguing practitioners’ perspectives on the ongoing transition from Original Resource Description and Access (RDA) to Official RDA. The study builds on survey research she conducted in 2010 during the transition from AACR2 to Original RDA. The associated questionnaire should take approximately 10–15 minutes to complete. It can be accessed here and closes Monday 31st August.
Michelle K. Hahn, Doctorate of Business Administration candidate at the University of Maryland, USA is conducting a study titled From Vendor Signal to Consumer Search: Return on Investment in Academic Libraries, examining how the source of descriptive metadata for academic library ebooks affects discoverability and organizational return on investment. The associated online survey, which will ask you to ‘evaluate descriptive metadata data points supporting users in finding relevant and usable textual monographs and to share your perspective on which data points are required, helpful, or unnecessary’, takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete and can be accessed here.
Zannelle Iwen, MLIS/MAS student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and associate of the international linked data vocabulary Homosaurus is running a survey about where and how the vocabulary is used. The survey is brief and can be accessed here.
Other
Episode 690 of the long-running American library radio show Lost in the Stacks is titled ‘Rejecting Neutrality’ and features two cataloguers discussing this thorny concept in Library of Congress Subject Headings. The episode is available here as well as wherever you get your podcasts.