Dear Professionals,
I do completely agree with Dr. Shahab. RDA is the new content standard in
resource description activity. It brings positive changes to the OPACs
and they are (changes) likely to be more user friendly. RDA is developed
to cater to the description of various kinds of information resources
including the digital ones. It removes the Anglo-American bias which was
evident in AACR2. RDA is based on the conceptual model FRBR published by
IFLA as early as 1998. RDA employs many new terminologies suggested by
FRBR and the organization of RDA is completely different than that of
AACR2. However, RDA rules are not completely different than AACR2; as such
it is to be perceived as the next stage in the evolution of cataloguing
rules. RDA was published in 2010 (RDA Toolkit) and in place as an
official cataloging standard from 2013 onwards in many leading national
libraries including Library of Congress and other libraries across the
world.
It is high time that India also participate in this transition at its
earliest. I am of the construed opinion that unless we adopt RDA, we can
not meet sufficiently the requirements of changing needs of cataloguing
description. Hence, I suggest the following for consideration of the
concerned:
1) The National Library of India should implement RDA for its cataloguing
activity and declare that RDA to be the national standard for all
cataloguing activities in government and other public libraries.
2) Library schools should start teaching RDA and AACR2 should be phased
out as quickly as possible.
3) Library software vendors should implement RDA in their systems at the
earliest.
4) Library associations have to educate and impress upon the libraries
under their jurisdiction to implement RDA at the earliest.
5) There should be some national policy to identify the standards to be
followed by all types of libraries in India.
6) Series of training programmes should be conducted to train the
librarians and teachers in RDA by library schools and libraries.
7) Academic staff colleges can come forward to conduct short term programs
to train the teachers and librarians.
At this juncture I would also like to point out that BIBFRAME is another
standard in resource description activity which is evolving and likely to
replace MARC very soon. Let there be discussion about these standards
among Indian librarians and we should come out with plan of action for
implementing these with all seriousness. Incidentally it may be noted that
I introduced these two standards in the refresher courses held recently at
Mysore, Calicut and Goa.
On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 11:18 AM, T. Shahab .
Dear Moderator Very lively discussions are going on the OCLC forum regarding the problems associated with the implementation of the RDA (Resource Description & Access) which is the new system of cataloging rules that is replacing the traditional AACR-2 convention. I hope the professional librarians and academicians should take-up the thread of discussion to educate about the changes in cataloging practices in the Indian context. Regards Dr. T. Shahab HMS Central library Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi
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