Library Futures: Cataloging - New Perspectives 4/8/11

This College of DuPage teleconference focused on changes occurring in the realm of cataloging right now, specifically RDA. There was also much discussion about how entities outside of the library world are interested in library data and the importance of the semantic web. To date, there isn't much library data available "in the cloud," but there are places on the web where bibliographic data is used (e.g., Amazon), but it isn't necessarily following the consistent format laid out like we do with library bibliographic formats.
Although I've listened to a handful of sessions regarding RDA over the past year, today's point about FRBR being the conceptual backbone of RDA struck me. The process of how RDA came into place was reviewed throughout the presentation.
The presenters have compiled a great starting list of resources on these topics that can be found at http://www.dupagepress.com/library-learning-network/cataloging/resources.
The two presenters (Karen Coyle and Christopher Cronin) ended the presentation reiterating points about how the library community needs to be involved in this process and that librarians need to recognize that changes are happening. It's time to jump in and learn all we can so we can be active participants in the change.