A brief description of Resource description and Access

1. RDA
Udaya Varadarajan

2. Turning points
● Change in the:
○ Publishing sector
○ Carriers of the content
● Networked online environment
● Emerging database structure and technology
● Lack of cohesion and logic in describing other resources in AACR2

3. RDA
● Resource Description and Access
● Set of practical instructions (similar to AACR2) based on the user tasks as defined in
the FRBR and FRAD models
● International Conference on the Principles & Future Development of AACR was
held in Toronto in 1997 from which RDA came up.
● It is published jointly by the American Library Association, the Canadian
Federation of Library Associations, and the Chartered Institute of Library and
Information Professionals (CILIP) in the United Kingdom.
● Maintenance of RDA is the responsibility of the RDA Steering Committee (RSC).
● As of 2015, RSC is undergoing a transition to an international governance structure.

4. Purpose
● Support the production of robust and “well-formed” data
● Clearly define and contain the data
● Make data visible and usable in the web environment
● Define the elements required for the description and access
● Allow resource description in museums, archives, repository etc.

5. Advantages
● Based on a flexible and extensible framework for the description of resources
produced and disseminated using digital technologies
● Broader scope than AACR2
● Not only for libraries but also for archives, museums and digital repositories
● RDA is also designed to be compatible with the legacy technologies still used in
many resource discovery applications.
● There is a clear line of separation between the guidelines and instructions on
recording data and those on the presentation of data. This separation has been
established in order to optimize flexibility in the storage and display of the data
produced using RDA.

6. Principles
● Differentiation- The data describing a resource should differentiate that resource from
other resources.
● Sufficiency- The data describing a resource should be sufficient to meet the needs of
the user with respect to selection of an appropriate resource.
● Relationships- The data describing a resource should indicate significant relationships
between the resource described and other resources.
● Representation- The data describing a resource should reflect the resource’s
representation of itself
● Accuracy- The data describing a resource should provide supplementary information
to correct or clarify ambiguous, unintelligible, or misleading representations made on
sources of information.

7. Principles
● Attribution- The data recording relationships between a resource and an agent
associated with that resource should reflect attributions of the agent.
● Common Usage or Practice- Data that are not transcribed from the resource itself
should reflect common usage in the language and script chosen for recording the data.
● Uniformity- The appendices on capitalization, abbreviations, order of elements,
punctuation, etc., should serve to promote uniformity in the presentation of data
describing a resource or an entity associated with a resource.

8. Structure
● 10 sections
● 1-4 elements corresponding to the entity attributes of FRBR and FRAD
● 5-10 elements corresponding to the relationships in FRBR and FRAD
● In addition there are 13 supplementary guidelines and instructions

9. RDAToolkit
● RDA released as online tool called RDAToolkit.
● Divided into 3 sections – RDA Tab, Tools, Resources
● Helps in the inclusion of RDA in daily work.
● Aim : support the efficient implementation of the RDA
● Accessible via - https://www.rdatoolkit.org/

10. RDATab
● Full text of RDA instructions as approved by the
Joint Steering Committee
● Organised into hyperlinked sections for easy
navigation
● Nestled structure
● Allows filtering of the rules
● “quick search” and “advanced search” available
for document recovery.
● Built in mapping with AACR2 rules

11. Tools
● View and use the content of RDA
● 2 ways of viewing the RDA outline

12. Contd.
● RDA Element Set :
○ dictionary of RDA; element name,
definition, controlled vocabulary,
instruction.
● Entity – Relationship Diagram
○ Visual mapping of the RDA elements
○ Maps relationships and attributes
○ Shows alignment with FRBR and FRAD
models

13. Contd.
Mappings
1. Pathway to the text of RDA
2. Shows how to encode the RDA data
Workflows
3. Step-by-step procedure document
4. Written for a specific task
5. Customized for local practices
6. User can create a workflow for any task or follow the existing
workflows.

14. RDA Resources
● Contains – related documents and links to related
websites.
● Full-text of AACR2 available here.
● Contains links to various archives, libraries and so on
that have adopted the RDA in describing their
resources.
● Eg : Library of Congress – Program for Cooperative
Cataloguing Policy Statements
● Access available via institution subscription

15. Conclusion
● To understand RDA, understanding the concepts of FRBR and FRAD are necessary.
● RDA is a set of practical guidelines for cataloguing the “digital resources”
● RDA Toolkit is a online tool for the RDA implementation
● RDA Toolkit provides the instruction as well the practical tools for the
implementation of the RDA.

16. Reference
Websites
● https://anssacrl.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/frad-image1.png (pic1)
● https://anssacrl.wordpress.com/publications/cataloging-qa/frad-and-cataloging
2013-apr/
● http://access.rdatoolkit.org/
Books
● Introducing RDA : A guide to basics by Chris Oliver
● Implementing FRBR in Libraries by Yin Zhang and Athena Salaba