Kathy Glennan

Librarian IV

Director, Cataloging and Metadata Services

Collection & Metadata Services

University of Maryland Libraries

Kathy Glennan currently serves as the Director of Cataloging and Metadata Services, managing all aspects of cataloging and metadata for the UMD Libraries’ digital and physical resources. She also is UMD’s NACO Coordinator. She has over 35 years of experience cataloging scores and audio recordings, commencing in 1985 with a one-year NEH grant funded position at the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, then located at the University of Southern California. She subsequently became USC’s music cataloger, a specialization she held until moving to a similar position at the University of Maryland in 2005. She holds a master’s degree in Library Science from UCLA, and a B.A. with Distinction in Music from Swarthmore College.

Nationally, Kathy is a member of the Music Library Association (MLA), where she has served as a member and later as the chair of: the MARC Formats Subcommittee, the Descriptive Cataloging Subcommittee, and the Bibliographic Control Committee. She became active in ALA, serving for four years as the MLA liaison to MARBI (the Machine Readable Bibliographic Information Committee), and later on CC:DA (the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access), as a liaison or as a voting member for over fourteen years. She also served as a member of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging’s Standing Committee on Standards for a three-year term. In 2012, she chaired the Task Group to Formulate or Recommend PCC/NACO RDA Policy on Authority Issues.

Since 2005, Kathy’s professional contributions and scholarship have focused on the development of RDA: Resource Description and Access, with a special emphasis on music cataloging instructions. Based on her expertise and ability to grapple with issues beyond those affecting music resources, she was appointed to two task groups for the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC): the Appendices Working Group and the RDA/MARC Working Group.

In recognition of her contributions and leadership skills, she served as the ALA Representative to the JSC (later renamed the RDA Steering Committee, or RSC) from 2013-2017. In this role, she interpreted RDA instructions, identified problems, and shepherded change proposals from ALA to improve RDA. She also contributed to the implementation of a new governance model for RDA, including the establishment of the North American RDA Committee (NARDAC), for which she served as a founding member in 2018. In late 2017, the RDA Board appointed her the RSC Chair-Elect; she served as RSC Chair from 2019-2022 and will serve as RSC Past Chair in 2023.

Kathy has given numerous presentations on RDA, FRBR, LRM, and MARC Formats issues, including four ALA Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) webinars relating to RDA; she also spoke during the 2017 ALCTS Exchange. Many of her RDA-related presentations are available on the RSC website. She recently authored an article in the Nov./Dec. 2022 issue of Technicalities: “Reality Check: The Development of RDA: A View from the Trenches”. She also published a peer-reviewed journal article in the March 2012 issue of the Music Library Association’s quarterly journal Notes, “The Development of Resource Description and Access and Its Impact on Music Materials.” She continues to speak about RDA to various professional organizations throughout the country and internationally. In June 2018, she received an ALCTS Presidential Citation recognizing “her outstanding leadership, contributions, and service as the ALA Representative to the RSC; her willingness to provide informational and practical presentations on RDA to the broader cataloging community; and serving as an exceptional leader in the constantly evolving areas of description and metadata.”

Selected presentations

Articles

Workshops (planned, facilitated, and presented)