RDA : Resource Description and Access

Deirdre KiorgaardAustralian Committee on Cataloguing Representative

to the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA

AACR to RDA

AACR and descriptive cataloguingAACR is a robust standard, but …

– ‘Class of materials’ approach is no longer valid• Need for principles-based instructions • Need for extensibility

– Designed for the card catalogue not digital world• Data needs to be usable in the web environment

RDA offers better coverage– Visual, Archival & Online resources

Brave new world?

The power of the search engine

Next generation catalogues

tagging

reviews

synonym control

links

full text

table of contents

“The OPAC has tended to favour an increase in the number of access points over the effective presentation of the relationships between resources. … It has been the failure to exploit the navigational potential of this rich metadata that has given

the OPAC such a bad name.” Danskin, 2006.

Navigation and relationships

Controlled forms of name

Preferred names for works

Carefully crafted subject vocabularies

RDA and relationships

Preferred titles for works and expressions Links & relationships between works,

expressions, manifestations and items Relationships between works etc, and their

creators, etc Relationships between persons, families and

corporate bodies

RDA and FRBR/FRAD/FRSAR The value of conceptual models

– Identify & define the things that are important - entities

– Identify & define the attributes that characterise the entities

– Identify & define significant relationships between entities

FRBR/FRAD/FRSAR – Identify & define bibliographic entities, attributes and relationships

FRBR – user tasks“ a structured framework for relating the data recorded in bibliographic (and authority) records to the needs of the users of those records.”

FRBR in practice

Used in databases Red Light Green, Fiction Finder, xISBN,

Austlit, Music Australia, Trove

Used in library systems and catalogues VTLS – Virtua

FRBR Bibliographyhttp://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/wgfrbr/bibliography.htm

FRBR in practice – Fiction finder (1)

FRBR in practice – Fiction finder (2)

Work

FRBR in practice - Trove

Work

FRBR in practice - VTLS

Work

Expression

Manifestations

FRBR in practice – Austlit (1)

Work

Related works

FRBR in practice Austlit (2)Expression

Manifestations

Benefits of FRBR

A new way of providing access– Improved navigation of the catalogue for users– Improved catalogue displays

• For researchers – a more organised display• For the general public – a less cluttered display

Improved efficiency of data creation & maintenance

The (not so) secret life of catalogue data (1)

“metadata increasingly appears farther and farther away from its original context” Shreeves, Riley and Milewicz (2006).

Shared library databases

Digitisation projects

Institutional repositories

The (not so) secret life of catalogue data (2)

The GLAM sectorGalleries, libraries, archives

and museums

The Internet

Catalogue records have jumped the fence

Leading to:

Services based on data aggregations

Sharing of library data with other sectors

Exposure of library data to the internet

Whose standards?

“Standards are like toothbrushes; everyone agrees they are a good idea, but nobody wants to use anyone else’s.” Baca (2008)

Library standards

Digital library standards

Cultural institutions

Publishing

“Seeing Standards:A Visualization of the Metadata Universe”

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/

Achieving commonality

When choosing the standards to use within the library sector:– use existing standards where they exist– influence the development of existing standards to cover

any perceived gaps or to address any issues

When working with other communities:– use elements from existing standards where needed,

rather than re-inventing the wheel – use and/or develop common vocabularies wherever

possible– use or build upon common models and principles– make our element sets available on the web

RDA and achieving commonality

Uses external vocabulariesJointly develops new vocabulariesDraws on standards in related

communitiesIs built on common models and principlesIncludes mappings to other

standards/schema

RDA in the digital world Clearly defined element set

– better granularity, improved mapping to other schema, e.g. Dublin Core, ISBD, MODS/MADS, MARC21

Greater emphasis on relationships– Better navigation and displays

Better interoperability - common vocabularies– Content type, carrier type, media type; Relationship

designators; Encoding formats, etc.– Making vocabularies accessible

RDA and the semantic web

Sample – RDA instructionsRDA as a cataloguing tool

Interactive and onlineIntegration with policies and processes

Draft implementation timeline

March/April 2010 ACOC survey on RDA training in Australia

June 2010 RDA released

31 August 2010 RDA Toolkit open access period ends

July 2010-March 2011 US libraries test RDA

November 2010 Train-the trainer courses begin

Early 2011 Implementation of MARC changes on Libraries Australia

Mid 2011 Implementation of RDA in Australian and overseas libraries

Further information

Australian implementationhttp://www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/rda.html

Enquiries: nlarda@nla.gov.au

Subscription options and Australian pricinghttp://www.rdatoolkit.org/

MARC changes to support RDA

http://www.loc.gov/marc/RDAinMARC29.html

US testing

http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/rda/index.html

Forthcoming publications Practical Cataloguing: AACR, RDA and MARC21 / Anne

Welsh and Sue Batley ISBN: 978-1-85604-695-4

Introduction to Resource Description and Access : Cataloguing and classification in the digital era / Shawne D MiksaISBN: 978-1-85604-683-1

Introducing RDA: A Guide to the Basics / Chris Oliver ISBN 978-0-8389-3594-1

Thanks …. Questions?