How does where we are compare with where we are heading?

RDA & AACR2

James Nauenburg

 

Resource Description and Access is designed with the intent of being implemented on a database built according to the policies found in the Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records, but these policies are the direct result of our new digital era. Therefore, because there is not yet a comprehensive database design structured on FRBR policies RDA has been developed with retro-fitting in mind, that it might be used by libraries which are still operating in the MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) environment of the present day and yesteryear. Because of this incorporated non-exclusivity it is possible for AACR2 records to exist in MARC side-by-side with the new RDA.

The first thing users may notice is that errors in the entities will no longer be pointed out as they were in AACR2. Where a misspelled word in a title might once have had (sic) inserted it will now simply be the title of the work with the error included. RDA transcribes information to the record without interposing, exactly replicating what is found in the artifact entity.

Also, the GMD (General Material Designation) will be replaced by three new material element descriptors:

• ·  Content type
• ·  Media type
• ·  Carrier type

Previously, in AACR2 after a title let’s say, one might have found: [sound recording].

Whereas, in RDA the same piece would now bear the following:

• ·  Media type: audio
• ·  Carrier type: mp3
• ·  Content type: speech

This kind of specificity provides more clarity to the user than did the GMD and facilitates increased precision in searches. Because of the openness of such innovations, access to organized information is delimited in the way that digital databases require. For instance, AACR2 pressed a limit of three authors on works of shared authorship due to inherent limitations in the MARC environment. Because RDA has no limit to its relationship building dynamics it creates access points in the database for users which simply would not exist in our present day AACR2 catalogs.