Thursday, July 28, 2005

RDA Prospectus

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The Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR has just released the RDA Prospectus that was promised after their April meeting. I've just finished reading it, and my initial impressions are positive, for several reasons:
  • I like the fact that they've made this a public document, and that they've provided clear information about the structure and intended content of the full document.
  • I like the way they're relating the code to FRBR, in particular the way they explicitly connect elements to FRBR user tasks.
  • I heartily approve of including authority control and greater support for expressing relationships between resources.
  • I also like the fact that guidelines for using the code with different dispay standards, not just ISBD, will be included in the appendices. Since most OPAC displays aren't really based on ISBD, it makes sense to provide some explicit guidance for using our descriptive cataloging rules with other display standards besides ISBD.
I'm sure I'll have more to say after I've had more time to think this over, but those are my initial impressions.


posted by Tina Shrader @ 11:17 AM