The Future of RDA
The JSC meeting held in Chicago, 12–20 March 2009
Left to right: Marjorie Bloss, Margaret Stewart, Alan Danskin, John Attig, Barbara Tillett, Deirdre Kiorgaard (Australian Committee on Cataloguing representative), Hugh Taylor, Nathalie Schulz, Tom Delsey.
A major milestone in the development of Resource Description and Access (RDA) was achieved on 22 June 2009. After five years of intense effort, the text of RDA has been finalised and is in the hands of the publishers, ALA Publishing.
The successor to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), RDA has had a lengthy gestation. First conceived of as simply a new edition of AACR, since 2005 its development changed direction and RDA is now a new cataloguing tool designed for the digital age.
With the text completed, the publishers are developing the online product. You can see some mock screen shots from the product on the ALA Publishing website. Product development and testing will continue through to the end of November, and the National Library of Australia will be involved in functionality testing. RDA is expected to be released in December 2009, with implementation in Australian and overseas libraries in late 2010.
In the coming year, both the Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC) and the Library will work with the Australian cataloguing community to prepare for implementation of RDA. Similarly, colleagues at the National Library of New Zealand will work with the New Zealand cataloguing community.
Preparation for RDA will focus on providing information and advice on training, documentation, policy decisions, MARC changes, systems changes and any data conversions. Additionally, the exchange of records between local catalogues and Libraries Australia, OCLC and Te Puna will be tested. To keep up with the latest developments, join the Australian discussion list on RDA. Information on joining is available on the ACOC website.
The Joint Steering Committee for the Development of Resource Description and Access (JSC) has undergone some recent changes. Alan Danskin, Metadata and Bibliographic Standards Coordinator at the British Library, became the new Chair of the JSC on 1 July 2009. The JSC Secretariat moved to the British Library at the same time, ending eight years of outstanding work by Australian Nathalie Schulz (ex–Griffith University Library) in the role. And in August, Alan Poulter from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, replaced Hugh Taylor as the CILIP representative. The reinvigorated committee is starting to prepare materials for use in the transition to RDA. One recent example is a listing of changes to AACR instructions.
Deirdre Kiorgaard
ACOC representative to the JSC
Director, Serials Collection Management and Standards



