RDA, the Next Phase

Joy AnhaltMarjorie Bloss

Richard Stewart

FRBR this and FRBR that and FRBR once again, It's been a long, long time.

FRBR this and FRBR that and FRBR once again, It's been a long, long time.

RDA's been coming since we don't remember when; It's been a long, long time.

FRBR this and FRBR that and FRBR once again, It's been a long, long time.

RDA's been coming since we don't remember when; It's been a long, long time.

Now at last the JSC says they'll deliver, Every

cataloger's heart will start to quiver —

FRBR this and FRBR that and FRBR once again, It's been a long, long time.

RDA's been coming since we don't remember when; It's been a long, long time.

Now at last the JSC says they'll deliver, Every

cataloger's heart will start to quiver — Now we're all relational, so FRBRize me dear, It's

been a long, long time — It's been a long, long time!

History

• 1841 – Panizzi wrote 91 rules that were printed in the British Museum Catalogue

• 1876 – Cutter issued his rules• 1889, 1891, and 1904 – revisions of Cutter• 1902 and 1908 AL and the Library Association

in the UK worked together but issued separate rules

History

• The British and American Library Association with the Library of Congress continued to work on developing rules.

• 1961 – IFLA’s “Paris Principles”• 1969 – IFLA’s ISBDs• 1978 – AACR2 • AACR2 revised in 1988, 1998, and 2002

History

• Initial work on RDA was based on the development of a product with the working title of “AACR3 : Resource Description and Access.” After consideration at the April 2005 meeting of the feedback from the review of the draft of part I of AACR3, the JSC decided on a change of direction.

Why RDA?

• “…we see an opportunity to simplify the code and to establish it as a content standard for resource description.”

• “We want to address current problems with uniform titles and GMDs (general material designators), and the code will include new conceptual and procedural introductions to assist users and to link rules to the functions of catalogs, especially improving collocation in displays, building on the strong foundations of international cataloging traditions.”

The Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR2005

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR RDA

• RDA – Resource Description and Access will be a new standard for resource description and access, designed for the digital world.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR RDA

• RDA – Resource Description and Access will be a new standard for resource description and access, designed for the digital world.

• Built on foundations established by the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), RDA will provide a comprehensive set of guidelines and instructions on resource description and access covering all types of content and media.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR RDA

• RDA will enable users of library catalogues and other systems of information organization to find, identify, select, and obtain resources appropriate to their information needs.

• AACR2– Description– ISBD elements– classes of material– mode of issuance– type of description

– Access– choice of access points– form of headings– references

• RDA– Description– attributes of FRBR entities– types of content and carrier– mode of issuance– type of description

– Access– FRBR relationships– attributes of FRAD

entities– FRAD relationships– subject relationships

Level of Description

AACR2 first level of description

• title proper• first statement of

responsibility• edition statement• material specific details• first publisher, etc.• date of publication, etc.• extent of item• notes• standard number

RDA core elements• title proper• first statement of responsibility• designation of edition • designation of a named revision of

an edition• numbering of serials• scale of cartographic content• first place of publication• first publisher’s name• date of publication • title proper of series/subseries• numbering within series/subseries• identifier for the manifestation• carrier type• extent

RDA terminology

AACR2 termsHeadingMain entryAdded entryAuthorized headingSee referencesUniform title

RDA termsAccess pointAccess pointAccess pointAuthorized access pointVariant access pointsPreferred access point

RDA Going Forward

Tentative timeline• June 22, 2010: Public release of RDA Toolkit• July 1-September 30, 2010: Test partners use this three-month

period to become familiar with the content of RDA and with navigating the RDA Toolkit

• October 1-December 31, 2010: Test partners produce records and share them with the US RDA Test Coordinating Committee.

• January 1-March 31, 2011: The US RDA Test Coordinating Committee analyzes the results of the test and prepares its report to the management of the three national libraries (Library of Congress, National Agricultural Library and the National Library of Medicine).

“I think that the benefits of RDA will not be immediate by any means. It seems to be more about laying the groundwork for the future. Enabling us to move beyond MARC. But right now, it's not clear what that "beyond MARC” encoding standard will be. Or it might be several standards (which I think might be harder to manage than people assume). As we try to make changes to our ILS to accommodate the new MARC fields/codes for RDA, it's clear that our current system structure can't make use of most of this right now. Though we can imagine what neat things could be done with that data.”

Diana Brooking, Suzzallo Library, University of Washington