Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a standard for cataloguing
that provides instructions and guidelines on formulating data for resource
description and discovery. Intended for use by libraries and other cultural
organizations such as museums and archives, RDA is the successor to the Anglo-American Cataloguing
Rules, Second Edition (AACR2), the current cataloging standard set for
English language libraries. RDA was initially released in June 2010. In March 2012, the
Library of
Congress announced it will have fully implemented RDA cataloging by March
31, 2013. Several other national libraries including the British Library, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of Australia,
and Deutsche Nationalbibliothek also
planned to implement RDA in 2013.
Background
RDA emerged from the International Conference on the Principles & Future
Development of AACR held in Toronto in 1997. It was quickly
realised that substantial revision of AACR2 was required,
which encouraged the adoption of a new title for what had been envisaged as a
third edition of AACR.
The primary distinction between RDA and AACR is structural. RDA is organised
based on the Functional
Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). These principles identify
both the 'user tasks' which a library catalog should make possible and a
hierarchy of relationships in bibliographic data. Descriptions produced using the instructions of RDA are intended to be
compatible with any coding schema, including the data environments used for
existing records created under the AACR2 rules.
RDA is published jointly by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and
the Chartered
Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in the UK. RDA
instructions and guidelines are available through RDA Toolkit, an online
subscription site, and in a print format. Maintenance of RDA is the
responsibility of the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA (JSC).
The JSC is composed of representatives from the American Library Association,
the Australian Committee on Cataloguing, the British Library, the Canadian
Committee on Cataloguing, CILIP, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and the Library of
Congress.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Designed for the digital world and an expanding universe of metadata users, RDA: Resource Description and Access is the new, unified cataloging standard.
Built on the foundations established by AACR2, RDA provides a comprehensive set of guidelines and instructions on resource description and access covering all types of content and media.
[Source: RDA Toolkit]
