Thomas Brenndorfer Succeeds Melanie Polutta as Back-up RSC Representative to North America

Thomas Brenndorfer, a man with silver hair and black-rimmed glasses, smiles at the camera. In the background are colourful tiles and a painting of a bearded iris.

RSC Chair Renate Behrens joined outgoing RSC Representative to North America Robert L. Maxwell and RSC Representative Elect Trina Soderquist in welcoming Thomas Brenndorfer as Back-up Representative to North America. He will succeed current Back-up Melanie Polutta on 1 January 2026.

Thomas is well-known in the RDA cataloguing community, having chaired the RSC Extent Working Group and being about to chair the RSC String Encoding Scheme (SES) Working Group which will succeed it. He was RSC Representative to North America 2018-2021 and currently co-chairs the North America RDA Committee (NARDAC). He is a Technical Services Librarian at Guelph Public Library in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He has worked in the public library sector for over thirty years, with prior experience in government libraries and National Library of Canada. He has also chaired the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, and is assisting in the development of RDA training in Canada.

Under NARDAC's terms, incoming RSC Representatives select their Back-up, and Thomas was happy to accept Trina's invitation to the role. Robert Maxwell's Back-up, Melanie Polutta, is finishing her term on NARDAC but will continue to be one of the Library of Congress's Policy Statement Writers, and a member of the Policy Statement Writers Group, chaired by Director of ALA Digital Reference James Hennelly. On behalf of the RSC, Renate Behrens extended her thanks to Melanie for all she has done and all she continues to do in the implementation of Official RDA in the Library of Congress and beyond.

Renate extended her thanks to Trina and Thomas, saying "It is wonderful that Trina will be supported by one of the most experienced members of the RDA community in North America. As Robert steps into his role as RSC Chair Elect on 1 January 2026, it is good to know that the North America Region continues to be so ably represented, with Trina and Thomas in their posts as Representative and Back-up Representative."

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