The British Museum has recently
switched from Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
(AACR2) to Resource, Description and Access (RDA) in a
hybrid-catalogue intervention.
Alan Danskin, Collection Metadata
Standards Manager at the British Library recently presented to the
Association of Pall Mall Librarians on the introduction of RDA. He pointed out
that for many; RDA was created due to the perception that AACR2 was not
fit for purpose. This is because it has not adapted well
to recent changes in user expectation and technology where information in
presented on different platforms such as the web. Therefore, managing the
cataloguing environment has become increasingly complex and the metadata
captured needed to change.
There are free online training
materials and webinars available for learning about RDA. However, the main
issue with implementing RDA in small libraries or museums is that
there are not many training courses or advice available. I have only come
across the ‘RDA in a day’ course offered by the BL. As many
will know this became very full, very quickly! Alan stated that the
course was success and would run again possibly this year.
