Dear MIG colleagues,
Below is my final report at the Metadata Interest Group liaison to CC:DA. I'd like to welcome Katherine Manifold, who will take over as the new liaison to CC:DA!
ALA Annual 2026
Report of the Core Metadata Interest Group liaison to CC:DA
Core Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA)
CC:DA is the ALA committee that represents the ALA constituency in matters relating to the maintenance and revision of the RDA (Resource Description and Access) cataloging standard.
The meetings during this year's ALA Annual happened at the following times:
Sun. 28 June, 1PM-4PM, Hilton Chicago, Continental A
Mon. 28 June, 9AM-12PM, Hyatt Regency McCormick, Grant Park ABC/
Minutes from the Midwinter virtual meeting, agenda for the 2026 in-person meeting at ALA Annual, and liaison reports for ALA Annual 2026, have been posted to the Core CC:DA Public Space on ALA Connect.
Aside from the standard round of liaison reports, the only agenda item of note is a discussion of the dissolution of the Committee on Cataloging: Children's and Youth Materials (CC:CYM) and possible impacts thereof. During discussion, a few suggestions were made for individuals and other organizations / committees that the CC:DA chair should consult about the future of the work that CC:CYM conducted.
During open discussion, the idea was raised that CC:DA historically played a role not just in reviewing RDA proposals, but in identifying areas of the RDA standard that could use expansion or revision. The idea of a standing subcommittee to identify areas of Official RDA that merit revision or expansion was floated, but no motion to create such a subcommittee was raised. It was noted that creating such a standing subcommittee, rather than an ad hoc task force, is a bit more complex due to stipulations in the CC:DA by-laws.
Another possibility raised during the open discussion: creation of a task force for outreach. As background, diminishing numbers of librarians are able to participate in national professional organizations like ALA and PCC, and the RDA standard exists behind a paywall, which create serious barriers to implementation for librarians outside of large, well-funded research institutions. As a result, there are many librarians that are being left behind as RDA develops and changes. Historically, CC:DA played a more proactive role in training efforts. Discussion produced some ideas for increasing engagement, such as partnering with state and local professional organizations in which librarians at smaller institutions, public libraries, school libraries, and other types of libraries not well-represented by CC:DA participate. As there would be many considerations around scope of work of such a task force, it was agreed that any further discussion could occur asynchronously on the Core CC:DA Public Space on ALA Connect.
Task groups
Revision proposals discussed, and other activities over the previous year
Other notes
-
Library of Congress (LC) plans to implement Official RDA in early 2027, ahead of the May 2027 deadline for the sunsetting of Original RDA. Phase two of the LC-PCC Official RDA training will be released by end of 2026, and will include training decks (slides) and free webinars. Emphasis will be on pragmatic cataloging. Training materials will be tailored to basic monograph cataloging, and authority cataloging (persons, works, expressions). The free webinars are tentatively planned for the first quarter of 2027 ahead of the planned implementation date for Official RDA.
-
Free training materials from the 2026 ALA Preconference on RDA are posted to the PCC Wiki (see "Practice cataloging using Official RDA").
------------------------------
Timothy Ryan Mendenhall (he/him)
Metadata Librarian, Columbia University
CORE Metadata Interest Group Liaison to CC:DA
trm2151@columbia.edu------------------------------