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RDA: cataloguing for the twenty-first century

Ann Chapman

Policy & Advice Team



RDA = Resource Description & Access

• A new standard for creating bibliographic metadata drawing on:– Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules

• In development since 1841 (Panizzi’s rules for the British Museum)

– Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR) entity-relationship model

• Resources = works, expressions, manifestations, items

• Tasks = find, identify, select, obtain

• Not AACR3 – but much re-use of AACR2



What is wrong with AACR?

• Increasingly complex and lack of logical structure• Mixing content and carrier data• Problems with seriality and hierarchical

relationships• Anglo-American centric viewpoint• Written before FRBR• Not enough support for collocation and

relationships• Unclear relationship with MARC format



RDA – The Aims• Rules should be easy to use and interpret• Be applicable to an online, networked environment• Provide effective bibliographic control for all types

of media• Encourage use beyond the library community• Be compatible with other similar standards• Have a logical structure based on internationally

agreed principles• Separate content and carrier data• Improve examples – more of them, more

appropriate



How is RDA being developed?

• Joint Steering Committee on RDA (JSC) is made up of representatives of ACOC, ALA, BL, CCC, CILIP, LC– UK has 1 representative nominated by BL and 1 nominated by

CILIP, who draw on the expertise and knowledge of:– CILIP-BL Committee on RDA

• 3 x BL, 4 x CILIP plus several specialist members (e.g. art, digital resources, LIS education, record suppliers)

• Consultation with further specialist areas (rare books, law, music)• Editor: Tom Delsey• Task focused working groups

– GMD/SMD, Examples, MARC• Draft – responses – revised drafts – responses –

acceptance• Final product – the publishers (ALA, CILIP)



An increasingly open process

• Initial work replicated closed AACR process– Drafts and proposals by partner committees– Each committee responsible for assessing and reporting

their community’s response– No public view until publication

• 2006 onwards - more open process– Later drafts and documents openly available from JSC

web site– Increasing contact and consultation with other

communities also using metadata– Setting up of RDA-L email discussion list



What will RDA look like?10 sections divided into 2 groups• Recording attribute information

– Sections 1 to 4 (status – near final text)• Recording relationship information

– Sections 5 to 10 (status – early draft of some parts only)In all, there will be 37 chapters of varying lengths

• Appendices A to M (work in progress)• Glossary (work in progress)

– Online product expected to hyperlink from text to glossary entry• Index



RDA terminology

• FRBR– Work, expression, manifestation, item– Entities: person, family, corporate body and place– Attributes and relationships

• User tasks– Find, identify, clarify, understand, select

• Preferred / Variant– Used with ‘access point’, ‘title’ and ‘name’– Preferred access point = preferred name, etc– Variant access point (AACR2 added entry or reference)– Preferred title (includes AACR2 uniform title)



FRBR model

Work Symphony no. 1

Is realised through

Expression 2

Is embodied in

LSO recording

Manifestation 1.1 Manifestation 2.1 Manifestation 2.2 DVD-A

Is exemplified by

Item 1.1.1 Item 2.1.1 Item 2.2.1 Item 2.2.2Copy on shelf

Expression 1



RDA structure and language

• Rule references– Chiefly uses numerals (e.g. 9.2.1.4.1)– Occasional use of letters (e.g. Appendices)

• Removal of Anglo-American bias– Use the language and script preferred by the

agency creating the data

• Abbreviations– Spell out (‘place not recorded’ or ‘place not

known’ instead of s.l.)



Some changes from AACR

• Authorship – no longer requires use of rule of three

• More emphasis on information from first item received

• Compilations: supports more frequent entry under compiler

• The Bible– individual books are direct sub-headings of

Bible (Bible. Genesis not Bible. OT. Genesis)• Treaties: entry under first named party



Content and carrierCONTENT TYPE EXAMPLES• Text• Still images• Moving images• Cartographic …• Notated movement,

notated music• Sounds, performed music,

spoken word• Tactile text, images …• 3D form ... and more

CARRIER EXAMPLES• Sheet, card, volume• Audiocassette• Videocassette• Computer disc• Online resource• Objects

– (made objects) quilt, toy– (found objects) mineral

samples

… and more



User-centred features

• Enables FRBRization of catalogues • Clearly distinguishes content from carrier

– E.g. moving pictures on DVD, text on CD-ROM– Restrict searches by format (e.g. only non-

visual resources)• Multinational• Independent of technical metadata formats

– Can be used with MARC, Dublin Core (DC), and others

• Designed for the digital environment



Cataloguer-centred features (1)

• Online product designed to interface and integrate with cataloguing modules– Work-flow integration will give step-by-step and

contextual access to content rules– Possibility of adding local examples– Possibility of ‘MyRDA’, removing unwanted

rules and unused options– LMS vendors being kept informed



Cataloguer-centred features (2)

• More emphasis on cataloguer’s judgement– Guidelines rather than ‘rules’

• Rules grouped by bibliographic element rather than format

• Bibliographic elements related to FRBR entities (related to user tasks)– “Why am I including this information?”

• Authority control included• Generally compatible with AACR



Access points• Distinguishing access points

– Field of activity of a person– Identification of prominent member of a family– History of a corporate body

• Status of access point– Authorised by [e.g. LoC]– Provisional / preliminary [e.g. local or pre-authorisation]

• Some incompatibility of access points created using RDA and AACR2

– British Library, Library and Archives Canada, Library of Congress and National Library of Australia have agreed to co-ordinate implementation of RDA.

– Co-ordination to cover training, production of related documents and national decisions on implementation



RDA and other standards

• RDA/ONIX framework for resource categorisation– Better interoperability for library and publisher metadata

• RDA and Dublin Core Metadata Initiative– RDA controlled vocabularies as namespaces– RDA metadata element set to be a namespace

vocabulary– DC Application Profile for RDA

• RDA and MARC– RDA/MARC Working Group– Initial RDA/MARC mapping report November 2006



RDA – What will it be?• Complete text as an online resource

• Other possible electronic versions:– Concise text– Tailored texts (e.g. law, rare books, art works)– Training resource– Incorporated into LMS cataloguing modules

• Loose-leaf print version(s)– Survey of potential requirement in 2007– No decision yet on complete versus concise version or

publication date



RDA – when will we see it?

• Online resource (complete text)– Demonstration at IFLA in August 2008– Public release in early 2009– First release may not include section 10

• Other electronic version(s)– To be developed over time– Some development by LMS vendors

• Print version(s) – under discussion– No dates yet available



Find out more …

Ann [email protected]

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/bib-man/

Joint Steering Committee for RDAhttp://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/

CILIP-BL Committee on AACR/RDAhttp://www.slainte.org.uk/aacr/index.html

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