Abstract

After seven years of intense work, the final version of Resource description & access: RDA was published in the summer of 2010. This set of guidelines and instructions was developed to replace the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. The text pro voked a great deal of criticism and debate in the library community in the United States, prompting the three U. S. national libraries to conduct a test before deciding to implement the new code. The article reviews and discusses the results of this test and the effects that the implementation of the new rules will have in the medium term.

Abstract

The article discusses new RDA (Resource description and access) cataloguing rules, which are based on the FRBR and FRAD conceptual model. The basic entities (work, expression, manifestation and item), as well as their attributes and relationships are described, and RDA structure and substantial changes from existing AACR2 rules explained. New terminology, new cataloguing models, and specifically “the rule of three” are included, no abbreviations, annotations of numbers and errors, and use of square brackets. New MARC 21 fields are explained: the 264 field for publisher data and the 3XX field for content, media and carrier types. The paper addresses the application of these changes in cartographic documents, especially in the 255 field for mathematical data elements, containing a sub-field for scale, cartographic projections and coordinates, and in the physical description field, including record samples. The essential role in the RDA development and training of cataloguers for cartographic documents is carried out by an expert group called Magirt (ALA). The rules offer freedom of application for cataloguers and cataloguing agencies; therefore, their interpretation is required, taking into account national cataloguing conventions. The instructions have already been translated into the major world languages.