rda basics: foundations and background september 13, 2011 tami morse mcgill & susan wynne logo...

RDA Basics:Foundations and Background

September 13, 2011

Tami Morse McGill & Susan Wynne

Logo used by permission of the Co-Publishers for RDA (American Library Association, Canadian Library Association, and CILIP: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals)

What area of the library do you primarily work in?

Technical Services (Acquisitions, Cataloging, Collection Development)

Administration Reference Systems Other

How much do you know about FRBR, FRAD, and RDA already? Never heard of them I’ve heard them mentioned, but I don’t know

much about them yet I’ve looked at some of the documentation, but

don’t quite get it I have a pretty good grasp of the models and

looked at some RDA records I’ve created catalog records using RDA

Outline

What is RDA? Why was it developed? History of RDA Influences and foundations The FRBR family of models Objectives and principles Organization and structure

RDA in a nutshell RDA=Resource Description and Access New international cataloging standard to replace

AACR2 Content standard, not display or encoding

standard Designed to apply to resources in any format Greater emphasis on “cataloger’s judgment” (i.e.,

more options and alternatives) Greater emphasis on relationships

Why not just update AACR2?AACR2 has been described as… Difficult to adapt to digital resources Very complex and intricate Little used outside of library profession Some conventions still tied to the catalog card Too Anglo-American centric

Potential benefits of RDA

Based on slides from Barbara B. Tillett, Deutscher Bibliothekartag, Berlin, June 2011, http://www.rda-jsc.org/docs/US-RDA-Test-Deutsche-Bibliothekartag-June-2011rev2.ppt

Based on a data model for a more logical structure

Adds/enhances relationships missing or not fully realized in AACR2

Separates content from carrier Supports data that can play well in the Web

environment and be more easily manipulated by machines

Increased focus on user needs

A brief history of RDA Developed by the

Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC)

Began as AACR3 in 2004 Shift in 2005 to RDA New structure of the RDA draft in 2007 to align more

closely with the FR… models Full draft issued for community comment in late

2008 Published in RDA Toolkit (online) in June 2010 U.S. national libraries coordinated a test in late 2010

Announced results and implementation decision June 2011

Earliest implementation (with conditions) January 2013

Influences and foundations

The “FRamily” of models: FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic

Records) FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) FRSAD (Functional Requirements for Subject

Authority Data), eventually AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd

ed.) Statement of International Cataloguing

Principles ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Des

cription) (But RDA does not follow ISBD order and ISBD punctuation is no longer required)

RDA’s Predecessors: What Are FRBR and FRAD? Reports written by IFLA subcommittees – the

“FRamily” Answers to perceived user needs An evolving conceptual entity-relationship

model

FRBR and FRAD: The “FRamily”

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

Published in 1998 by the IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

Functional Requirements for Authority DataPublished in 2009 by the IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records

There is a third report, Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data, published in 2010, but it does not affect RDA (yet?)

FRBR and FRAD: User Tasks

User tasks in FRBR: Find IdentifySelectObtain

User tasks in FRAD: FindIdentifyContextualize (Clarify)Justify (Understand)

FRBR and FRAD:Conceptual E-R Model Conceptual model: high-level, general Entity-relationship model: identifies things and

how they interact with each otherEntitiesAttributesRelationshipsInstances

E-R Diagrams

The E-R Diagram for RDA In the toolkit, this diagram can be found under

the “Tools” tab, Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), Overview, Relationships

Introducing the Entities

Group 1: Bibliographic Entities Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item

Group 2: Responsibility Entities Person, Family, Corporate Body

Group 3: Subject Entities Concept, Object, Place, Event

FRAD Entities Name, Identifier, Controlled Access Point, Rules, Agency

Group 1 Entities Work

“Distinct intellectual or artistic creation”

Expression “Intellectual or artistic realization of a work…”

Manifestation “Physical embodiment of an expression”

Item “A single exemplar of a manifestation”

Group 2 and Group 3 Entities Group 2: Responsibility Entities

Person: “an individual or an identity established by an individual”

Family Corporate Body

Group 3: Subject Entities Concept, Object, Place, Event Section 4 of RDA covering these entities has not been

developed yet (FRSAD?)

Attributes in RDA (Group 1) Three classes of attributes: Core,

Enhanced, and Specialized Work: Title, Date, Place of Origin, Form Expression: Content Type, Date, Language Manifestation: Publication Statement,

Edition Statement, Extent, Carrier Type, Copyright Date, Series Statement, Numbering of Serials

Item: no core elements; enhanced elements include Restrictions on Access, URL, Preferred Citation

Attributes in RDA (Groups 2 and 3) Person: Name, Fuller Form of Name,

Profession or Occupation, Field of Activity, Title, Date

Family: Name, Place, Prominent Member, Type, Date

Corporate Body: Name, Place, Date, Associated Institution

Group 3 entities: Name, Source Consulted, Status of Identification, Cataloguer’s Note

Relationships in RDA Relationships between the entities

Primary relationships: relationships between Group 1 entities

“Relationships to…”: relationships between Group 1 and Group 2 entities

“Relationships between…”: relationships between instances of entities

Back to User Tasks

So you want a copy of Leaves of Grass? Yes, I want a copy of Leaves of Grass

The user knows the title, maybe the author, which are attributes of a Work

Yes, but I want the Chinese translationLanguage is an attribute of an Expression

Yes, but I want the “deathbed” editionThe user is looking for a particular edition, which is an attribute of a Manifestation

Yes, I want the copy I found the other day with the green cover

This could be considered an “item-specific carrier characteristic”, an Item attribute

Well, I guess, but I’m really looking for something about an electric body???

Example: Wyoming Blue Book WYLDCAT record for the Wyoming Blue Book Possible “FRBRized” display:

Wyoming Blue Book (Work) Print edition, CD edition (Manifestations) Holdings in each library (Item)

Another example: Variations/FRBR Variations/FRBR is a testbed for FRBR,

developed by Jenn Riley and her team at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, focusing on music (primarily classical music): http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/vfrbr/

Prototype catalog, Scherzo

Objectives (from RDA 0.4.2) Responsiveness to user needs (find, identify,

select, obtain, understand) Cost efficiency Flexibility (independent of systems, format,

storage or communication media of data) Continuity (interoperable with legacy data and

other standards)

Principles (from RDA 0.4.3) Differentiation Sufficiency Relationships Representation Accuracy Attribution Common Usage or Practice Uniformity

Organization and structure RDA Toolkit

Selected Resources: BooksMaxwell, Robert L. FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed. Chicago: American Library Association, 2008.

Oliver, Chris. Introducing RDA: A Guide to the Basics. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010.

Taylor, Arlene G. Understanding FRBR: What It Is and How It Will Affect Our Retrieval Tools. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

Selected Resources: LinksIFLA, Functional Requirements

Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA, RDA Brochure

Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA, RDA FAQ

Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA, Presentations on RDA

Tillett, Barbara, “What Is FRBR?”

WLA Technical Services Interest Group Cataloging Resources

Selected Resources: Free WebcastsEllett, Robert. “Introduction to RDA.”

Oliver, Chris. “RDA Benefits for Users and Cataloguers.”

Tillett, Barbara. “FRBR: Things You Should Know, But Were Afraid to Ask.”

Thank you!Tami Morse McGill

tmorsemc@uwyo.eduSusan Wynne

swynne@uwyo.edu

WLA Technical Services Interest Group Wikihttp://wlatechservicesig.wikispaces.com/