RDA Phase I: Important Message for MARCIVE Authorities Notification Service Customers
June 5, 2012
Alert: Anticipate Temporary Change of Authorities Notification Service Frequency from Monthly to Weekly Due to Volume of LC RDA Distribution.
Distribution of Phase I Resource Description and Access Authority Records.
The Library of Congress is testing a plan to compare approximately 313,000 authority records to RDA standards. LC has announced they expect to evaluate test results in the second half of June, leading us to speculate that distribution of those records may begin as early as July 2012. LC intends to distribute replacement records through normal channels in weekly batches of up to 160,000 records each. They call this Phase I and say similar numbers of RDA compliant authority records will be distributed in Phase II sometime at the beginning of 2013.
Timing.
Immediately upon receipt of each Phase I RDA batch from LC, MARCIVE will run your full Notification process.
Weekly distribution during Phase I.
You can expect to receive weekly (instead of the usual monthly) Notification files for some period starting as early as July 2012. We will continue that pattern until full distribution of the Phase I authority records is complete. We will then resume normal monthly distribution.
Characteristics.
We understand that these authority records will include additional fields, but not all will have changes to 1XX headings. It may be that the number of changes to bibliographic headings in your catalog is minimal in the Phase I distribution.
Volume.
Weekly file volume from LC seldom exceeds 10,000 authority records; Phase I files may be 160,000 authority records each.
It is difficult to predict how many records your library can expect. Plan to receive at least as many records in each weekly file as you would expect in a normal monthly file. You could receive two or three times as many records as usual.
Longer file retention on server.
We will retain Phase I weekly Notification files on our FTP server for 45 days instead of the usual 15 days. We hope this gives you additional flexibility in loading the records and reduces the burden this situation may place on some library systems. Load the files in the order in which you receive them.
Notification.
All MARCIVE Authorities Notification Service customers received an email with the above information from us.
LC has said they will give at least 10 days notice before the first batch of Phase I authority records is released. When MARCIVE receives that notice, we will send another message to alert you that the process will begin soon.
Costs.
There will be no increase in the cost of your MARCIVE Authorities Notification Service subscription as a result of this increase in frequency and volume. You may want to consider non-MARCIVE costs, such as increased system storage or workflow changes.
As always, please contact your MARCIVE representative if you have any questions.
