[DCRM-L] Future publication of DCRMs

[Margaret F Nichols]

I find the wording of Peter Seligman's statement mildly promising: "CDS made an investment in printing the Books and Serials
publications; and the same will 	hold true for Graphics. Because the two earlier ones are still active products, for sale, and the Graphics publication will also be for sale, we cannot, at this time, agree to have the RBMS web site post those three manuals online."

This suggests to me that once DCRM(B), (S), and (G) stop being actively sold, we might be able to post them online. In the meantime, I agree that it would be preferable to make future DCRM modules available for free if at all possible. I share Larry's dim view of ALA for charging a subscription fee for the RDA Toolkit. Not only does it impose an unfair financial burden on small libraries, year after year, but it also creates a financial incentive for them *not* to keep up with ongoing changes to RDA. With budgets getting ever tighter, I'll bet many libraries will eventually drop their RDA Toolkit subscription as a luxury they can no longer afford. And if they drop Cataloger's Toolkit too, those DCRM modules that are freely available on the RBMS website may be one of the few cataloging manuals that they can still access. Sigh ...

Best,

Margaret 


___________________________________

Margaret F. Nichols
Rare Materials Cataloging Coordinator
Cataloging & Metadata Services in RMC
2B Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-5302
Tel. (607) 255-3530 * E-mail mnr1 at cornell.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence S. Creider [mailto:lcreider at lib.nmsu.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 3:14 PM
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Cc: DCRM Revision Group List; 'bsc at rbms.info'
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Future publication of DCRMs

Well, at least we know where LC stands.  I am not nearly as concerned that the DCRM manuals be available in print format as that they be available at minimal or no cost.  This means that the manuals must ultimately be available outside of Cataloger's Desktop. I have always felt badly about the fact that I could not refer catalogers directly to the DCRM manuals from the Directory of Web Resources as the site does to the controlled vocabularies.

It seems like LC is dissolving the publishing relationship between RBMS and itself, and we should take advantage of that.  Since there will be a turnover of existing DCRM modules as we adapt to RDA, BSC should take advantage of the opportunity and publish these materials on its own imprint.  As a cataloger who is still outraged by ALA's attitudes towards making RDA available and forcing online access to AACR2 through the prices of RDA Toolkit, I believe that BSC should not publish through ALA or ACRL.
 At this point, I think that we should take our own responsibility for distribution through the internet of these tools that we all use and not hand it off to a corporate body with less interest in making special collections materials available than in covering costs or making a profit.

As a side note, I am not very impressed with Peter Seligman's argument (actually Congress's) about recovering production costs.  How about the thousands of hours put in by members of the rare book cataloging community to provide the content and much of the display for these manuals?  It is unlikely, but can we use this as a (moral) bargaining chip?  The law may be the law, but sometimes the law is also an ass.

There should be some interesting discussions at ALA.

Larry

P.S. I just saw Richard's note, which makes many good points.  I would prefer doing something on the BSC level rather than the RBMS publication committee because there seems to be some sort of organizational law that the higher up in the structure you go, the less understanding there is of what life on the ground is like.  The rare materials cataloging community has done a remarkably good job of keeping its focus on improving and making standards public.  With the constantly changing membership of the section Publications Committee, we are likely to get a Pharoah who did not know Joseph and end up making bricks without straw.

--
Laurence S. Creider
Interim Head
Archives and Special Collections Dept.
University Library
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM  88003
Work: 575-646-4756
Fax: 575-646-7477
lcreider at lib.nmsu.edu

On Wed, February 27, 2013 12:31 pm, Carpenter, Jane wrote:
> Manon,
>
> The publication issues and options regarding the DCRM manuals are
getting
> more and more complex by the minute!  Peter has just informed me that
any
> of the manuals in print--Books, Serials, Graphics-- cannot be made
available for free on the RBMS website.
>
> 		"CDS made an investment in printing the Books and Serials
publications;
> and the same will 		hold true for Graphics. Because the two earlier ones
are still active products, for sale, 		and the Graphics publication will
also be for sale, we cannot, at this time, agree to have 		the RBMS web
site post those three manuals online.
> 		Congressional legislation mandates that we return the cost of
production
> plus an additional 		percentage back to the U.S. Treasury. So, we don't
have really any leeway here."
>
> Unfortunately, I do understand that LC would be reluctant/unable to
provide free access through the RBMS website to publications that it is marketing for sale as print publications and for paid accessibility through Catalogers Desktop.
>
> I asked him how LC would feel about allowing free access through the
RBMS
> website to DCRM manuals that AREN'T available in print.  If
Cartographics,
> Music, and Manuscripts will be appearing only on CatDesk, would LC 
> allow
RBMS to make those files available on its site? He responded that because
> CDS will not be publishing in print any DCRM publication after 
> Graphics,
LC would have absolutely no say on whatever arrangements RBMS/BSC would wish to make.  Ironically, it seems that those manuals without a print version could be made more widely available--through the RBMS
> website--than the ones with a print version.
>
> Another possible option to consider might be the current model of the
RBMS
> Controlled Vocabularies, which is hosted on the RBMS site, but
"available"
> through a seamless link on CatDesk.  This is the what the Standard
Citations Forms Revision Group is hoping to do with its new completely revised and expanded edition which is nearing completion, and is slated for publication sometime before year's end.
> I'm not sure putting all the manuals, Examples, and SCF on the RBMS 
> site
is feasible for the Web Team as it stands now.  It would certainly be a lot more work for them.
>
> Annie's suggestion to explore the possibility of securing 
> another/other
publisher(s) for the remaining DCRM manuals is worth considering. But again, if a publisher were selling the DCRM manuals, would they agree to have RBMS post it for free online?  I'd also like to know if LC would post
> the manuals on CatDesktop if someone else were publishing them.  I'll
wait
> to hear from Bruce Johnson on the CatDesk issues.
>
> I'm becoming quite concerned about keeping multiple RBMS/BSC
publications
> uniformly accessible in this changing publication landscape, with some
available in print, some print and online, some online only, some through
> LC on CatDesk, some through RBMS but linked to Cat Desk.. This is
clearly
> a discussion topic for the BSC agenda at Annual.  Perhaps BSC should 
> set
up a Publications committee to ensure that BSC has a consistent and sustainable plan for making its manuals and other cataloging tools as widely and easily available as possible.  Would this be something for the
> DCRM Steering Group to consider, if their charge were expanded?  That
might be another option.
>
> Jane C.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] 
> On
Behalf Of Manon Theroux
> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 10:31 AM
> To: DCRM Revision Group List
> Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Future publication of DCRMs
>
> Jane,
>
> I like the idea of having them freely available on the RBMS website 
> for
people to download (and print, if they want a print version). Is there some doubt that this can be done? (I notice the words "we hope"
> ...).
>
> I would not want them to *only* be available through Cataloger's
Desktop.
> That would price out a lot of people/institutions. And there are times
when a print version is highly desirable.
>
> If LC will remain the publisher, it would be good to confirm with them
whether they will still be responsible for contracting out the indexing.
And whether they can still do the graphical work to produce the covers (basing them on the existing DCRM covers). Although the covers wouldn't display in Cataloger's Desktop, it would be nice to be able to incorporate
> them into the versions of the DCRM documents posted on rbms.info (and 
> I
should think it shouldn't be hard to create these cover images).
>
> -Manon
>
> --
> Manon Théroux
> Head of Technical Services
> U.S. Senate Library
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 12:33 PM, ANN W. COPELAND <auc1 at psu.edu> wrote:
>> Jane,
>> Thank you for sharing this news. I wonder if we would seek another
publisher for the remaining 3 manuals when they are ready, or do they have to be LC to be including in Catalogers' Desktop? For instance, the Music Library Association does some publishing I believe.
>> Thanks, Annie
>> ________________________________
>> From: "Jane Carpenter" <jfcarpenter at library.ucla.edu>
>> To: "dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu" <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
>> Cc: "Jose Fernando Pena" <Jose.Pena at liu.edu>, "bsc at rbms.info"
>> <bsc at rbms.info>
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 12:24:09 PM
>> Subject: [DCRM-L] Future publication of DCRMs Dear Colleagues, As 
>> most of you already know, LC informed BSC this week that with the
exception of DCRM Graphics, all future DCRM publications will be online only.  I'm passing on some additional information received today from Peter Seligman of LC's Consumer Products and Services Section of the Office of Business Enterprises, which now oversees print publications:
>>                 "Given the projected manuscript production and 
>> delivery schedule, we felt that the Graphics publication was too far
along for us to suddenly inform everyone that we could no longer do it in print.  Music and Cartographics were not quite so imminent. We're truly sorry to deliver this unexpected news but these are business decisions we must make. Yes--Bruce [Johnson] will be handling the three manuals inclusion in Cataloger's Desktop. As for the
>> sequester--who knows what effects it will have on everyone? The 
>> Library
of Congress is planning for almost  a week of unpaid staff furloughs, but nothing is written in stone."
>> So DCRM Graphics, currently undergoing close reading by BSC members 
>> and
other BSC colleagues, will join the DCRM Books and Serials manuals already in print.  However, all future DCRMs--Cartographics, Music, and
>> Manuscripts-- will be available only online through Catalogers 
>> Desktop, and, we hope, through the RBMS website as well.
>> LC has always been an excellent partner with RBMS/BSC in publishing
these important cataloging tools, and I don't see that changing in the future.
>> As always, comments and discussion are welcome, Thanks, Jane Jane 
>> Carpenter, Ph.D., M.L.I.S.
>> Chair, Bibliographic Standards Committee UCLA Library Special 
>> Collections jfcarpenter at library.ucla.edu
>