Resource Description & Access (RDA) is intended to provide a flexible and extensible framework that can accommodate all types of content and media within rapidly evolving digital environments while also maintaining compatibility with the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2). The cataloging community is grappling with practical issues in navigating the transition from AACR2 to RDA; there is a definite need to evaluate major subject areas and broader themes in information organization under the new RDA paradigm. This article aims to accomplish this task through a thorough and critical review of the emerging RDA literature published from 2005 to 2011. The review mostly concerns key areas of difference between RDA and AACR2, the relationship of the new cataloging code to metadata standards, the impact on encoding standards such as Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC), end user considerations, and practitioners' views on RDA implementation and training. Future research will require more in-depth studies of RDA's expected benefits and the manner in which the new cataloging code will improve resource retrieval and bibliographic control for users and catalogers alike over AACR2. The question as to how the cataloging community can best move forward to the post-AACR2/MARC environment must be addressed carefully so as to chart the future of bibliographic control in the evolving environment of information production, management, and use.

RDA: Resource description & access—a survey of the current state of the art

This article discusses Resource Description and Access (RDA) and new catalogers' errors in Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. (AACR2).

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Inadvertent RDA: New Catalogers’ Errors in AACR2

The cataloging community is at a crossroads. Will catalogers need to continue learning both Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition (AACR2) and Resource Description and Access (RDA), or will learning RDA alone be enough? Through a selective literature review and examining the RDA Toolkit, it seems that there is currently a collective need to have access to both codes. However, when considering both Library of Congress-Program for Cooperative Cataloging (LC-PCC) and OCLC initiatives and an example from this author's institution relating to authority control in RDA and bibliographic record hybridization, it may only be necessary to learn RDA in the future. Additional research into practitioner experience could be done in the future to further examine this.

AACR2 to RDA: Is Knowledge of Both Needed during the Transition Period?

In 2010 and 2011 a number of libraries engaged in RDA testing in order to evaluate its readiness for adoption. Case studies from these testing experiences are now emerging in the literature and provide an interesting community-sourced view of the uses, impact and challenges associated not only with RDA but of the shift to new metadata models and systems. This column explores these case studies, identifying common themes and unique experiences while also exploring what the adoption of RDA will mean for libraries. In examining the experiences of these libraries, this column asks questions about how libraries might prepare themselves for RDA adoption and what key research questions remain in this area.

Is RDA Ready?: An Analysis of Case Studies on RDA Testing

This paper surveys the English-language literature on cataloging and classification published during 2011 and 2012, covering both theory and application. A major theme of the literature centered on Resource Description and Access (RDA), as the period covered in this review includes the conclusion of the RDA test, revisions to RDA, and the implementation decision. Explorations in the theory and practical applications of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), upon which RDA is organized, are also heavily represented. Library involvement with linked data through the creation of prototypes and vocabularies are explored further during the period. Other areas covered in the review include: classification, controlled vocabularies and name authority, evaluation and history of cataloging, special formats cataloging, cataloging and discovery services, non-AACR2/RDA metadata, cataloging workflows, and the education and careers of catalogers.

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Positioning Libraries for a New Bibliographic Universe

Research and academic libraries worldwide have substantial collections of materials in non-Western languages. Communities cataloging such esoteric materials expected that Resource Description and Access (RDA) would move away from the English/Anglo-American focus of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition (AACR2) and provide guidance for handling non-Western bibliographic and publishing practices. This article looks at the experiences of two official Test catalogers who work with materials in Hebrew script. How they sought solutions to cataloging questions and what they learned may guide other specialized communities called on to describe resources according to RDA. Input from catalogers will be needed to “internationalize” RDA.

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Joan Biella

Papers

The RDA Test and Hebraica Cataloging: Applying RDA in One Cataloging Community

" Hayah noten ba-hem simanim ": Hebrew Abbreviations, Chiefly Rabbinic, and Their ALA/LC Romanization