Organization of Information & RDA

What is the goal and how is it to be achieved?

James Nauenburg

After visiting the link from my previous article we now know the goal of RDA practice, but let’s elucidate the facets of that goal:

1.      Convenience of the user – in describing and providing access librarians should allow “user need” to supersede professional preference.

2.      Common usage – the descriptions and access provided should meet the standards of those who are its most frequent users.

3.      Representation – Names and descriptions should be derived from the manner in which the cataloged entity describes itself.

4.      Accuracy – the cataloger should be faithful to the entity she is entering into the catalog.

5.      Sufficiency and necessity – only those data which are required to fulfill user tasks and uniquely identify an entity should be included.

6.      Significance – based on 5; the only data included should be bibliographically significant data.

7.      Economy – an Occam’s razor of sorts; if a number of ways of describing and providing access to an entity exist, then the simplest should be chosen.

8.      Consistency and standardization – descriptions and access should share the broadest possible means of interchangeability among the largest number of potential users.

9.      Integration – material types and controlled name forms for certain entities should be based on a common set of description rules. (We should all agree on a description of what plaster is before we begin cataloging plaster statues).

And now the means of achieving the goal as outlined in the FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records), through the use of attributes and their relationships.

In providing descriptions and access via RDA, a cataloger must identify and properly place attributes for 4 categories of possible entities, all previously described in my post last week. These categories are:

·  Attributes of manifestations and items

·  Attributes of works and expressions

·  Attributes of the authorship, whether a person, group or corporation

·  Attributes of a concept, object, event, or place

Next week we will begin to see how the dynamic of relationships between these categories and attributes provides a robust scheme for cataloging in the digital era.

-Jim Nauenburg