Making the Move to RDA

A Self-Study Primer for Catalogers

With Sara Shatford Layne

Publication date:

13 January 2014

Length of book:

346 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780810887695

Making the Move to RDA: A Self-Study Primer for Catalogers is aimed at catalogers working in the MARC environment who currently create records using AACR2 and need to transition to using the new standard, Resource Description and Access (RDA). Since both RDA’s structure and content differ from AACR2 in many respects, this primer details the development and rationale for RDA as well as its intended goals, principles, and objectives. It then explains RDA’s theoretical underpinnings—collectively known as the FRBR Family of Models.

Framing the text along these lines provides readers the context for understanding the similarities and differences between AACR2 and RDA, both in terms of content and structure. With this foundation in place, the book takes the reader on a survey of RDA elements used to describe bibliographic and authority records and demonstrates how the MARC code has been expanded to accommodate new elements. Finally, it leads the reader field-by-field through MARC bibliographic records for book and non-book resources as well as through authority records for works, expressions, persons, families, and corporate bodies, describing the similarities and differences between AACR2 and RDA for each field.

Examples are provided throughout the text to help the reader visualize the concepts presented.

Preface
Part I. RDA Background Explained
Chapter 1. Development, Objectives, and Principles
Chapter 2. Underlying Models and Organization
Chapter 3. Major Differences between RDA and AACR2
Part II. RDA Instructions Summarized
Chapter 4. Attributes of Manifestations and Items
Chapter 5. Attributes of Works and Expressions
Chapter 6. Attributes of Persons, Families, Corporate Bodies, and Places
Chapter 7. Recording Relationships
Part III. RDA Applied in the MARC Environment
Chapter 8. Creating and Interpreting Bibliographic Records for Books
Chapter 9. Creating and Interpreting Bibliographic Records for Non-Book Resources
Chapter 10. Creating and Interpreting Authority Records
Acronyms
Bibliography

RDA is still a moving target, with ongoing revisions taking place in addition to the evolution of how MARC and environments like WorldCat accommodate RDA. Throw into the mix developing data carriers outside of MARC, and it becomes clear why a book on RDA must be able to speak to many perspectives all at once. Making the Move to RDA: A Self-Study Primer for Catalogers takes on this challenge effectively, providing context on RDA's structure and scope, explaining RDA's instructions for cataloging materials of all formats, and comparing its application in MARC to that of AACR2 in clearly defined sections that allow catalogers and administrators of all levels of expertise to easily find the chapters that address their specific needs. . . .Beyond the thorough and clearly explained treatment of RDA in this book, it is perhaps the flexibility it offers that is one of its greatest strengths. Catalogers from all types of institutions and of all types of learning styles will find the information in this book neatly organized, allowing them to read through the book in the order they prefer and later revisit the book's specifics without getting lost. Combined with other training resources and the ongoing monitoring of changes in RDA, catalogers will be prepared with this book to navigate the changing cataloging environment we face today; it is a thorough and versatile resource that will remain of continued use to catalogers for years to come.