Charlene Chou Begins Second Term as Wider Community Engagement Officer

The RDA Steering Committee (RSC) is pleased to announce that Charlene Chou has accepted an offer to continue in her role as its Wider Community Engagement Officer (WCEO), and has been re-appointed for a further term until December 2025.

During her first term, Charlene, who is Head of Knowledge Access Department at the New York University Libraries, has worked extensively with RDA catalogers outside the areas covered by Regional Representatives (Europe, North America and Oceania), forging new links and presented at conferences (in-person or online) across the globe, and has brought her perspective to RSC meetings. She is also a valued member of the Religions in RDA Working Group and Technical Working Group.

Beyond the RSC, Charlene is well-known within the cataloging profession, actively serving on the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging), CEAL (Council on East Asian Libraries) and ALA committees. She has always been at the forefront of professional activities to improve the discovery of multilingual resources, identity management/controlled vocabularies, artificial intelligence/natural language processing tools for subject indexing, digital scholarship and inclusive metadata.

Renate Behrens, RSC Chair said, "Charlene has been an active member of the RSC cataloging community for many years and as a member of the RSC has worked tirelessly to represent those outside Europe, North America and Oceania. She has forged links and provided training in many places, and has assisted the RSC's understanding of cataloging practices in different parts of the world. We are delighted that she has agreed to continue her work for the RSC."

If you are cataloging in RDA or exploring RDA for potential use in your region, and are based outside Oceania, North America and Europe, Charlene is happy to be your first point of contact. Her email address is available from our list of RSC members.