This is a cooperative site originally created by James Weinheimer [profile] as an alternative to accepting RDA. The basic idea is to have a site where the current rules can continue to be updated. There are also the related Google Groups site, and the Blog. For more information, see the Official Announcement on the Blog.

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For many developers of metadata, their primary interest has been in the realm of format, that is, concentrating on the computer coding such as <dc.creator> or <Contributor> or <datafield tag="100" ind1="1" ind2=" "><subfield code="a"> instead of the information that goes within the computer coding. This should not be surprising since after a glance at:

    100 0_ ‡a Elizabeth ‡b I, ‡c Queen of England, ‡d 1533-1603. ‡t Correspondence. ‡k Selections

or as it is in MARCXML


it appears that the hard part is the computer coding. After all, everything there is totally incomprehensible for those who don't know it, while the text that describes Queen Elizabeth appears to be very easy.

What many may find surprising is that in reality, it is the computer coding that is the easy part, while the real challenge lies is constructing:
    Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603. Correspondence. Selections
and then adding the computer coding is relatively simple and straightforward.

The purpose of all this work is to ensure that no matter what the form of name or title that is put onto the selected versions of letters of "Good Queen Bess," that they can be found reliably and consistently. Therefore, the computer coding and the information inside must work together to function correctly. With poor coding, good textual values will not function correctly, and with poor textual values, computer coding will also not function correctly. This single example certainly does not end the problem of deciding what text should should go inside all of that computer coding and how it should be entered--every computer code and each textual value has its own unique problems.

While there have been some advances in the coordination of different computer coding, there has been less advance in coordinating the area of cataloging rules, or the guidelines for entering the text values. One of the purposes of the Cooperative Cataloging Wiki is to help the metadata creators in the world to coordinate their work by letting others know their practices. This is the purpose of the Conceptual Outline on the home page.

The other main purpose is to provide those libraries who decide not to implement RDA with some additional options that may even be attractive. For more information on that, see the related post in the Blog.

The information in this site attempts to bring together all the publicly-accessible information on metadata practices. All of the current Library of Congress Rule Interpretations have been incorporated into this site and can be found through browsing the rules or through the index. Links into the publicly-available ISBD in .pdf format have been made. Links have also been made into the Canadian Rule Interpretations, the TEI, ONIX and other rules. Links into more specific parts of these rules still need to be made, and coordinated into the Conceptual Outline. All of this will most probably be in a state of continual update.

As always, with any open development, this project can only succeed with your participation. Please get involved!