National Library of Australia

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Resource Description and Access

The Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA (JSC) is currently working on the replacement for AACR called RDA: Resource Description and Access and scheduled to be published in early 2010. ACOC is a joint author of RDA. ACOC responses are compiled from the comments of ACOC members at Meetings, and from comments received from the ACOC Focus Group on RDA Proposals.

RDA will be an important buidling block in the creation of better catalogues and resource discovery systems. It will provide 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 will allow the relationships between multiple versions of a resource to be presented to users in a meaningful way.

Drafts of RDA

A full draft of RDA was released on the 17 November 2008. Further information on RDA is available on the JSC website including a Prospectus, and FAQ

Comments on the draft of RDA have closed. Responses to the draft were discussed at the March 2009 JSC meeting.

Implementation of RDA

The final release of RDA is planned for early 2010 with implementation approximately 12 months later in early 2011.

The British Library, Library and Archives Canada, the Library of Congress and the National Library of Australia have agreed on a coordinated implementation of RDA and have issued a statement confirming this.

The Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Agricultural Library have also issued a joint statement on RDA.

As more detailed plans are developed, information on how training and implementation will occur in Australia will be provided.

Australian Discussion List on RDA

The National Library of Australia has established a new email list for discussion of RDA as it relates to specific to Australian libraries, including implementation and training matters.

To subscribe to the list send a message to: sympa@nla.gov.au

In the subject line of your message, type in: subscribe rdaaust Firstname Name (replace Firstname Name with your own first name and last name).

For example

subscribe rdaaust Mary Smith

Leave the message body blank

You should then receive a welcome message with details of how to post messages to the list etc.

Training courses and seminars on RDA

A list of currently available Australian training courses and seminars on RDA can be viewed here.

FAQs for Australian libraries

FAQs on RDA providing information from an Australian library perspective can be viewed here.

Presentations and articles on RDA

Resource Description and Access (RDA) information session
Deirdre Kiorgaard
AGLIN RDA information session + Q&A, November 2, 2009

Resource Description and Access
Deirdre Kiorgaard
Information Online 2009, ALIA 14th exhibition and conference, January 22, 2009

MARC 21, RDA, and the FRBR and FRAD models: making the connections
Tom Delsey
Internationalisierung der deutschen Standards: Umstieg auf MARC 21, June 2, 2009

From rules to entities: cataloguing with RDA
Gillian Cantello, Pat Riva, Chris Oliver, Tom Delsey, Laura May, Marg Stewart, Mireille Huneault, Trina Grover
Preconference of the Canadian Library Association Conference, May 29, 2009

Getty Ready for RDA: What You Need to Know
Barbara Tillett
Massachusetts Library Association Conference, May 7, 2009

Looking to the future: information systems and metadata
Barbara Tillett, Chief, Cataloging Policy & Support Office, Library of Congress
American Library Association Annual Conference, Denver, January 23, 2009

Getting ready for RDA: what you need to know
RDA Implementation Task Force, ALCTS/CCS
American Library Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, June 28, 2008