RDA: What it is --
A Content Standard
RDA provides instructions on recording the content
of records.
- It
does not provide instruction on how a given library system (e.g.) should display
the bibliographic information (although there is information about
displaying RDA content).
- Nor
does it provide instruction on encoding the information. RDA is
schema-neutral. You can use it with any schema, including MARC, or Dublin
Core.
More International
RDA
is less Anglo-centric than AACR2. It
focuses on user needs, as stressed in the International Cataloguing Principles.
In
addition, the agency preparing the description can make choices regarding the:
- language of
additions to access points
- language of
supplied data
- script and
transliteration
- calendar
- numeric system
Wider Scope of Resources
RDA also
covers the wider scope of resources being acquired in libraries today. It
provides for more elements for:
- non-printed text resources
- non-text resources
- unpublished resources
But RDA
defers appropriately to the specialist manuals of collaborative communities in
situations where more detailed description is wanted than the general view
provided by RDA (e.g., music, sound recordings, moving images, electronic
resources, cartographic materials).
Authority Data
RDA
includes instructions on authority data, based on attributes and relationships
in the FRAD model. There were no AACR2 rules for authority data and authority
records. RDA doesn’t indicate how authority data should be encoded; but for
now, that information will continue to be documented by most libraries in
authority records.
Controlled Vocabularies
RDA has
many controlled vocabularies. Only a few of the vocabularies are closed (e.g.,
content type; media type; carrier type; mode of issuance). Most of the
vocabularies are open; you can either supply your own term as needed, or suggest
a term be added to the vocabulary (or do both).
Libraries
may decide to include some of these controlled vocabulary terms in templates;
ILS vendors could provide them in drop-down lists. And so on.
The RDA
vocabularies are now registered on the Web. The existence of those
machine-readable controlled vocabularies will allow more machine manipulation
of data than is now possible, including the mapping of RDA to other metadata
schemes.
[Source: Library of Congress]
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