Resource Description and Access
This website contains current information regarding the implementation of RDA in Australia as well as the development and implementation of RDA worldwide. The site is updated regularly and any progress towards implementation in Australia will be notified through this site and through the Australian discussion list on RDA
Background
The Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA (JSC) has developed a replacement for AACR called RDA: Resource Description and Access. Further background information on the development of RDA is available at the JSC site. ACOC is represented on the JSC and is a joint author of RDA.
The RDA project is overseen by the Committee of Principals representing the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, the Library of Congress, Library and Archives Canada, the British Library, and the National Library of Australia.
What is RDA?
RDA is an important building block in the creation of better catalogues and resource discovery systems. It provides for the creation of metadata which meets users' needs for data content and also facilitates machine manipulation of that data for searching and display.
RDA focuses on the data elements needed to meet the user tasks specified in the FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Records) conceptual models. The use of FRBR concepts allows the relationships between multiple versions of a resource to be presented to users in a meaningful way.

