RESOURCE DESCRIPTION AND ACCESS

What is RDA?
Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a project to develop new cataloging rules that would
supersede the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2). The standards effort is under the
auspices of the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of the RDA composed of representatives
from the American Library Association, British Library, Australian Committee on Cataloguing, Canadian
Committee on Cataloguing, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, U.K.) and
the Library of Congress.
Purpose of RDA
1. To develop a new standard for resource description and access designed for the digital world
2. To provide a set of instructions for recording data that can be applied independently of any
particular structure or syntax for data storage or display
Features of RDA
Some changes from AACR2 to RDA:
1. The General Material Designation (GMD) will no longer be used in records for nonprint resources.
It will be replaced by three data fields that describe the content, media, and carrier of the
resource.
2. Fewer abbreviations will be used in the catalog entry. For example, if the edition statement on a
resource reads Third edition, it will be transcribed as Third edition, not 3rd ed. Other
abbreviations to be spelled out are the following: ill. to illustration, col. to color, p. to page or
pages, v. to volume or volumes, and no. to number. RDA, however, permits abbreviations in
transcribed elements only if the data appears in an abbreviated form in the source.
3. The Latin abbreviations [s.l. : s.n.] in the publication area will be recorded as [place of publication
not identified] and [publisher not identified], respectively.
4. The abbreviated headings Bible. O.T. and Bible. N.T. in AACR2 will be transcribed as Bible. Old
Testament and Bible. New Testament, respectively.
5. If the resource has four or more authors, RDA will record in the statement of responsibility all the
names of the authors and provide an access point for every author of the resource. An option is to
indicate the name of the first author followed by [and four others] if there are five authors.
6. There is an option to transcribe as is the elements that are capitalized in the source, or to transcribe
capitalized data elements in the traditional practice of using capital and small letters.
7. Unlike AACR2, RDA does not go into details about the order and form in which to enter the data
elements nor does it address the issue of providing separating punctuation for the elements.
Recording of the elements is done through the MARC 21 format.
8. In RDA, the elements or attributes are not grouped by areas of description. For example, title
proper, parallel title, other title information, and statement of responsibility are each to be seen as
separate data elements.
9. RDA does not separate its instruction for different types of materials into different chapters. This
shifts attention from the fact that a work is provided in a particular carrier (e.g. book, volume, disc,
etc.) to focus instead on recording the important attributes of each data elements for the work.

10. RDA is an online tool rather than a printed text. As an online tool, examples and references to
other rules for clarification are keyword searchable. As a cataloging software, it can be
programmed to prompt us with appropriate RDA instructions for each data element as we enter it.
11. There are also some changes in AACR2 vocabularies, such as the following:
AACR2
RDA
heading
to
authorized access point
author, composer,
etc.
to
creator
main entry
to
preferred title + authorized access point for creator if
appropriate
uniform title
to
(1) preferred title (+ other information to differentiate)
(2) conventional collective title
see reference
to
variant access point
see also reference
to
authorized access point for related entry
physical description
to
carrier description
GMD
to
media type + carrier type + content type
chief source
to
preferred source
Some Changes in the MARC 21 Format:
1. The subfield code $h for [GMD] in tag 245 is no longer used.
2. Field tag 336 for content type, tag 337 for media type, and tag 338 for carrier type are added to
replace general material designation [GMD].
3. Field tag 260 for publication, distribution, etc. area is changed to tag 264 with second indicators
0 for production data elements, 1 for publication elements, 2 for manufacture elements,
3 for distribution elements, and 4 for copyright date.
4. Field tag 246 is used for variant title such as correction to an incorrect title, part of a title,
alternative title, parallel title, variations of title on cover and spine of books, and earlier and later
titles of serials.
Advantages of RDA
1. RDA was designed with the users in mind; it eliminates confusing practices and the use of
abbreviations.
2. RDA is a strong code because it is based on principles and it was designed to create records that will
coexist with bibliographic records in library catalogs.
Concerns of RDA
Due to the cost of the RDA Toolkit and the expense of training catalogers, school libraries,
special libraries and small public libraries may still continue to use AACR2.

References:
RDA Toolkit.
Tillett, Barbara B. Recording Manifestations and Items : paper read during the RDA Train the
Trainors Workshop, DLSU Learnning Commons, Manila, April 3-5, 2013.