[DCRM-L] Future publication of DCRMs

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Re-sending--I left something out ...

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It seems that we can either have a print manual published by LC or an online free manual published by us, but not both.

Typically, more than half the catalogers in my Rare Book School course do not have access to Cataloger's Desktop. It isn't just a few poor libraries who don't provide it to their catalogers. If we want to make our manuals reasonably available, we cannot rely on the Cataloger's Desktop to provide the only access.

If LC isn't publishing a manual, it is doubtful that they will do anything other than link to it from within CD--it takes a lot of staff time and energy to create the links. But if they are willing to publish our manuals on CD, and allow us to provide free electronic copies because they're not publishing a competing print manual, then that would be all right.

Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Head of Cataloging, Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 East Capitol St., S.E. | Washington, D.C. 20003
djleslie at folger.edu | 202.675-0369 | http://www.folger.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret F Nichols [mailto:mnr1 at cornell.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, 27 February 2013 16:22
To: Laurence S. Creider; DCRM Revision Group List
Cc: DCRM Revision Group List; 'bsc at rbms.info'
Subject: RE: [DCRM-L] Future publication of DCRMs

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