RDA prospectus announced
The Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules), which I’m proud to say you will find on a Canadian web site, has announced that a prospectus of Resource Description and Access is available. RDA, as you may know, is the new name for the next revision of AACR, and it’s very FRBRy. (I apologize for the acronymity of that sentence.)
A key element in the design of RDA is its alignment with the conceptual models for bibliographic and authority data developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The FRBR [1] and FRAR [2] models provide RDA with an underlying framework that has the scope needed to support comprehensive coverage of all types of content and media, the flexibility and extensibility needed to accommodate newly emerging resource characteristics, and the adaptability needed for the data produced to function within a wide range of technological environments.
A second key element in the design of RDA is that it establishes a clear line of separation between the recording of data and the presentation of data. The major focus of RDA will be on providing guidelines and instructions on recording data to reflect attributes and relationships associated with the entities defined in the FRBR and FRAR models. The aim is to provide a set of instructions for recording data that can be applied independently of any particular structure or syntax for data storage or display. Guidelines and instructions on formatting data elements for purposes of presentation according to specifications set out in standards such as the ISBD(G) [3] and GARR [4] will be provided separately in appendices.
This is major stuff that will affect libraries and catalogues all over the world, so don’t miss it. There is a form you can use to make comments, too.
If the web page shows up in a funny font or something, you can always grab the PDF version instead.