Resource Description and Access “RDA”: New Code for Cataloging

Ohio State University's Magda El-Sherbini led a preconference session providing details about Resource Description and Access (RDA), the long-awaited successor to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2) cataloging standard. As RDA is primarily based on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model, El-Sherbini provided an in-depth background in FRBR's philosophical constructs and how they apply to RDA. She also illuminated a number of the biggest changes that catalogers will face when describing items using the RDA standard, most notably the elimination of abbreviations, and the identification of relationships between manifestations of works. El-Sherbini also described the RDA testing process and timeline for the major national libraries. RDA was officially released June 23, 2010.