Introducing RDA: A Guide to the Basics

Citation

Lee Eden, B. (2011), "Introducing RDA: A Guide to the Basics", Collection Building, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 113-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604951111127515

There has been considerable confusion, discussion, and controversy surrounding the implementation of resource description and access (RDA), the new cataloging standard that is meant to replace the Anglo‐American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition. There have been many attempts to explain it, as well as its foundations and theoretical underpinnings, to those in the librarian community; some have been successful, but many have not. This book is meant to be a kind of “RDA for Dummies” volume, in that it keeps explanations and examples simple. It is also written by someone who has been intimately involved in the construction and teaching of RDA.

The first chapter (What Is RDA?) provides a straightforward presentation of RDA's theoretical framework, its design for the digital environment, its expanded scope and use outside libraries, its relationship to AACR2 and its proposed impact. The next chapter (RDA and the International Context) examines how RDA is built on the Paris Principles of 1961 and the International Cataloguing Principles (ICP). Chapter 3 (FRBR and FRAD in RDA) discusses how the functional requirements for bibliographic records (FRBR) and the functional requirements for authority data (FRAD) have been incorporated into RDA. This chapter also provides a very good “FRBR and FRAD for Dummies” explanation of these two confusing standards.

Chapter 4 (Continuity with AACR2) explains how RDA was built on AACR2 but intends to go well beyond it in terms of its radical approach to the organization and description of resources. Chapter 5 (Where Do We See Changes?) walks the reader through the key features of RDA with examples: principles, objectives, and conceptual models; focus on the user; extensible framework for describing all types of resources; mode of issuance; data elements; additional elements; core elements; take what you see; and emphasizing relationships. Chapter 6 (Implementing RDA: Transition from AACR2 to RDA) discusses the RDA Toolkit, along with its features and functionality; what the encoding and displaying of RDA data will look like; and how important coordinated implementation will be. Finally, Chapter 7 (Advantages, Present and Future) presents RDA's advantages for users, advantages for institutions, and advantages for catalogers and metadata creators. Each chapter includes a notes section, and there is an extensive “Selected resources and readings” section along with an index at the end of the volume.

This is the best explanation I have yet seen on RDA as a whole. I would strongly recommend buying this book for your library, so that everyone can understand the new changes and standards that will influence how libraries and others will deal with the description and organization of information in the future.