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RDA: a new international standard for bibliographic description and access : 

RDA: a new international standard for bibliographic description and access Gordon Dunsire Presented at the International Conference In Honour of the 100th Anniversary of Eva Verona’s Birth, Zagreb, 2005 Based on a presentation created by the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR

What is RDA?: 

What is RDA? Resource Description and Access Working title for a new cataloguing code based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR). World’s most used content standard for bibliographic description and access

Why is it needed?: 

Why is it needed? To simplify the rules to encourage use as an international content standard for metadata Provide more consistency and less redundancy for easier use and interpretation Improve collocation in displays through work/expression relationships and a new approach to General Material Designations

Why is it needed?: 

Why is it needed? Get back to more principle-based rules that build cataloguers’ judgement Founded on international cataloguing principles Encourage the application of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records model

History: 

History 1841: Panizzi’s rules for British Museum. 1876: Cutter’s rules. 1902-1949: Separate U.S. and U.K. rules. 1961: Lubetzky, IFLA and “Paris Principles”. 1967: AACR, North American/UK differences. 1969: IFLA and International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). 1978: AACR2.

Supporting structure: 

Supporting structure Committee of Principals Joint Steering Committee AACR Fund Trustees/Publishers ALA CC:DA ACOC BL CCC CILIP LC

Recent history: 

Recent history 1997: International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR, Toronto. Worldwide experts invited by JSC identified issues: Principles Content vs Carrier Logical structure of the Rules Seriality Internationalization

Recent history: 

Recent history 1998: FRBR published by IFLA. Reinforces basic objectives of catalogues and importance of relationships for users to carry out basic tasks: Find – Identify – Select – Obtain Structure allows collocation at Work/Expression level Conceptual model of entities, relationships and attributes independent of communication format or data structure

Recent history: 

Recent history 2003-2007: IFLA updates and reaffirms Paris Principles. Regional meetings, world-wide Incorporates FRBR concepts Focussing on current environment of online catalogues and planning for future systems

Current environment: 

Current environment Metadata packaging (communication) standards MAchine Readable Cataloging (UNIMARC, MARC21, MODS/MADS, MARCXML) Dublin Core, Electronic Archival Description, ISBD, VRA, MPEG7, …!!! Cataloguing rules need to remain independent of any communication format JSC Strategic plan

JSC Strategic plan goals: 

JSC Strategic plan goals Continue to base rules on principles, and cover all types of materials Foster use world-wide, while deriving rules from Anglophone conventions and customs Make rules easy to use and interpret Make applicable to an online, networked environment Provide effective bibliographic control for all types of media Make compatible with other similar standards Encourage use beyond the library community

Strategic plan targets: 

Strategic plan targets New code in 2008 New introductions; content rules and updated examples; authority control; FRBR terminology; simplification to reduce redundancy and improve consistency Reach out to other communities to achieve greater alignment with other standards Web-based product/tool as well as loose-leaf With added functionality (internal and external links, customizability?)

Structure: 

Structure Pt.1: Description General guidelines; Identification of the resource; Technical description; Content description; Sourcing and item specific information Arranged by attribute, with FRBR user tasks, source and composition of attribute content, notes, and use as access point Categories of type and form of (separated) carrier and content

Structure: 

Structure Pt.2: Relationships Between FRBR bibliographic entities and agents (persons, etc.) Simplified choice of primary access point for citations of works Simplify or eliminate special rules Pt.3: Authority control Purpose, scope, authorized and un-authorized forms Appendices will cover display standards as well as ISBD, capitalization, abbreviations, numbers, and a glossary

Timetable: 

Timetable Jul 05: Prospectus published Oct 05-Apr 06: Pt.1; constituency review May-Sep 06: Pt.2; constituency review Oct 06-Apr 07: Pt.3; constituency review May-Sep 07: General introduction, Appendices, Glossary 2008: Publication of RDA

Recap: 

Recap RDA is a new standard for resource description and access, designed for the digital environment Multinational content standard covering all media Independent of technical communication formats Aimed at all who need to find, identify, select, obtain, use, manage and organize information

Thank you: 

Thank you Participation required! Direct Encourage others in different communities to engage More information from JSC website www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc Contact me g.dunsire@strath.ac.uk