Resource Description and Access

About: Resource Description and Access is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1859 publications have been published within this topic receiving 10957 citations. The topic is also known as: RDA & Resource Description & Access.

IFLA Section on Cataloguing

Abstract: The Bibliographic Control Division of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) consists of three sections: bibliography, cataloging, and classification. The cataloging section, which focuses on descriptive cataloging, is one of the oldest within IFLA, having been founded in 1935 as the IFLA Committee on Uniform Cataloguing Rules. It became the Committee on Cataloguing in 1970. The committee played a key role in planning and convening the International Conference on Cataloguing Principles held in Paris in 1961 and the International Meeting of Cataloguing Experts held in Copenhagen in 1969. The Copenhagen conference provided the impetus to develop the International Standard, Bibliographic Descriptions (ISBD). The Committee on Cataloguing established a systematic process for the revision of the ISBDs. The cataloging section focuses on traditional cataloging standards and on the impact of electronic resources and technology on these standards. The section has initiated several projects at the international level to facilitate access to information.

The British Library's International Engagement Strategy

Abstract: The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the greatest libraries in the world. It is also most emphatically a library for the world. Its collections can be said to contain both 'the memory of the nation' and also 'the DNA of civilization'. Indeed the Library uses the positioning statement: 'Advancing the world's knowledge'. The Library engages in international activity in a wide variety of ways and at all levels through the organization. However, prior to 2007 the Library had not had a systematic corporate-level focus for its international engagement activity. This paper addresses the British Library's International Engagement Strategy and sets out the contextual background that led to its development and adoption in 2007. It goes on to describe, by using a number of case studies, the range of international activity taken forward by the Library under this strategy in the past two years. These include the Library's support for the reconstruction of the Iraq National Library and Archive and its contribution to the World Collections Programme initiative.