RDA Toolkit and Cataloger’s Desktop

For those of who were and/or are asking about access to the RDA Toolkit if you are a subscriber to Cataloger’s Desktop…

The Library of Congress and the co-publishers of Resource Description and Access (RDA) have announced that subscribers to Cataloger’s Desktop are now able to access the new RDA Toolkit, a separate subscription service, via Cataloger’s Desktop.

Once users subscribe to both Desktop and RDA Toolkit, they can access RDA through Desktop’s search and discovery interface. Hits (including hits in context) display in Desktop’s search-results pane. When subscribers click on a hit in RDA, they are taken immediately to the content in the RDA Toolkit. In addition:

* Once an RDA link is followed, Desktop users can access the full functionality of the RDA Toolkit, including workflows;

* Linking from LC Policy Statements (the successor to the LC Rule Interpretations) and the MARC formats to RDA is provided;

* Cataloger’s Desktop subscribers with RDA Toolkit logins can enter their RDA login in their Desktop preferences so that both products work seamlessly together.

Please note that the Cataloger’s Desktop Frequently Asked Questions have been updated to provide information about accessing RDA via Cataloger’s Desktop. These FAQs include information about recording your RDA login in your Desktop preferences, as well as technical information about logging into RDA Toolkit.

Cataloger’s Desktop: RDA Toolkit At-a-Glance: http://www.loc.gov/cds/desktop/training/6-RDA.pdf

RDA in Cataloger’s Desktop FAQs: http://www.loc.gov/cds/desktop/web-faqs.html#QAs-RDA

Sign up for RDA Toolkit: http://www.rdatoolkit.org/openaccess

Read the press release: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-043.html

New Version of Cataloger’s Desktop

Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0 is now available. It is a major modernization of the popular web-based subscription service. Desktop is the Library of Congress’s integrated, online documentation service with the most important cataloging and metadata resources. The re-systemization of the service features a significantly enhanced bibliographic web-based toolbox.

 

Desktop 3.0 now operates with FAST Search & Transfer’s ESP platform, greatly expanding the search and information discovery techniques available. InfoSolutions, the Crestview Hills, Kentucky web product developer that has supported Cataloger’s Desktop for the past 6 years, worked with LC staff on the re-systemization.

 

Updated quarterly by the Policy and Standards Division and available to users 24-7 through the Cataloging Distribution Service, Desktop provides access to more than 280 electronic manuals, cataloging and classification standards, procedures, and metadata resources. Desktop 3.0 now adds more new operational enhancements to the service than ever before.

 

Major Enhancements

Desktop 3.0 incorporates the most up-to-date searching and navigation,

including: fuzzy matching, finding/excluding similar resources, dynamic drill-downs, contextual analysis, search relevancy, remembering search histories, query federation, facetted search drill-downs, and a search engine that adapts to a user’s search behavior. “Desktop 3.0 takes advantage of state-of-the-art search and navigation techniques which help users find exactly what they need faster and easier than ever before,” said Bruce Johnson, Cataloger’s Desktop product manager.

 

New work environment and interface enhancements include a subscriber-customizable interface, intuitive resource organization, visual clues and icons to help users conceptualize the nature of a resource and see how it interrelates with other resources, RSS feeds from the Library of Congress and other sources, drag-and-drop shortcuts, pages built on-the-fly based on result sets, and automatic alerts to changes in Desktop’s resources.

 

“Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0,” said Beecher Wiggins, director of the Library of Congress’s Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, “is a good example of the Library’s continuing commitment to catalogers everywhere.” To that end, catalogers will soon have ample opportunity to see Desktop 3.0 for themselves.

“Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0 will be demonstrated continually in the Library of Congress exhibit booth at the ALA midwinter meeting in Boston in January 2010,” announced Dr. Barbara Tillett, chief of the Library of Congress’s Policy and Standards Division. “To help users make the most of the new product enhancements,” she added, “Library of Congress staff have been busy creating an array of helpful documentation.”

 

To help users optimize their use of Cataloger’s Desktop 3.0, a battery of learning aids and practical tips are now being developed and will be accessible online shortly. These include a series in webinars in both English and Spanish, free online training files, PowerPoint presentations, and “at-a-glance” how-to handouts.

 

For more technical details visit www.loc.gov/cds/notices/desktop09.pdf

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Visit the Cataloger’s Desktop website at www.loc.gov/cds/desktop .