Update to Chapter 7
FRBR and RDA: Resource Description and Access

Barbara B. Tillett

RDA is intended to be a set of instructions for the content of descriptive metadata, whether packaged as a bibliographic record, an authority record, or some other structure. It will be a standard for the Web environment, meaning it is being designed to describe both analog and digital materials, it is intended to be used for access to resources through a Web environment, and it will itself be a Web-based tool (current plans also intend for it to be available as a paper, print-product).

In 1997, the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC) organized a conference to look at future directions for the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. This had followed years of criticism about the inconsistencies and inadequate structure of the rules for today's resources that often consist of multiple types of material. Some of the topics under consideration were FRBR, content versus carrier, internationalization, seriality (modes of issuance, as we call it now), and principle-based rules. The JSC invited international participants to attend the conference with the hope to move away from the Anglo-American centricity of the rules to develop a code that could be used worldwide. A strategic plan was put in place, and the JSC began the work. A "Format Variations Working Group" was formed to look at FRBR's relationship to the new rules. Jennifer Bowen chaired this group. One member, Pat Riva from Canada, took her sabbatical to analyze where FRBR terminology might be substituted in the AACR2 rules. Among the recommendations was to use the term resource to be an overarching word to express the materials in a library's collection or things that would be part of the greater bibliographic universe. Another recommendation was to use only the FRBR terms when they accurately reflected the intention of the rule. The Working Group also recommended a structure for uniform titles that builds on the identification of the work, then the expression, then the manifestation, and finally the item, through added data elements as needed. If one needs to cite a work, then only the work elements need be included. If one needs to point to a specific item, then the full string including elements to identify the specific item are included.

Once the JSC decided to develop a new cataloging code, then called AACR3, Tom Delsey was hired as the editor. The JSC subsequently decided that in order to achieve many of its goals, they must abandon the title Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and take a more global view, which led to the title, Resource Description and Access. From the start, it was to build on the great Anglo-American cataloging traditions, the conceptual models of FRBR and FRAD (called FRANAR at the time), and international cataloging principles.

The scope and structure of RDA were documented in 2006 to clarify the foundation of FRBR, FRAD, and the IME ICC International Statement of Cataloguing Principles. The JSC scope and structure statement and related documents can be found at the JSC Web site for RDA: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rda.html

The influence of FRBR in particular can be seen in the very structure of the new draft code. As described in the JSC "News & Announcements" of November 13, 2007 on the new organization for RDA, the current plan is to begin with a General Introduction followed by "ten sections, which fall into two groups, focusing on recording the attributes of each of the FRBR entities and on recording relationships between these entities, respectively:

Recording attributes
Section 1. Recording attributes of manifestation and item
Section 2. Recording attributes of work and expression
Section 3. Recording attributes of person, family, and corporate body
Section 4. Recording attributes of concept, object, event, and place

Recording relationships
Section 5. Recording primary relationships between work, expression, manifestation, and item
Section 6. Recording relationships to persons, families, and corporate bodies
Section 7. Recording relationships to concepts, objects, events, and places associated with a work
Section 8. Recording relationships between works, expressions, manifestations, and items
Section 9. Recording relationships between persons, families, and corporate bodies
Section 10. Recording relationships between concepts, objects, events, and places¹¹

The Prospectus for RDA was revised in December 2007 and shows the current structure for the various chapters within the sections and the twelve appendices.¹²

Appendices
A-Capitalization
B-Abbreviations
C-Initial articles
D-Record syntaxes for descriptive data
E-Record syntaxes for access point control data
F-Additional instructions on names of persons
G-Titles of nobility, terms of rank, etc.
H-Conversion of dates to the Gregorian calendar J-Relationship designators: Relationships between a resource and persons, families, and corporate bodies associated with the resource
K-Relationship designators: Relationships between works, expressions, manifestations, and items
L-Relationship designators: Relationships between persons, families, and corporate bodies
M-Relationship designators: Relationships between concepts, objects, events, and places

RDA is expected to be issued in early 2009. There will be much discussion and debate between now and then, and details of the instructions will continue to be adjusted through the JSC process, which includes constituency review and consultation with rule makers around the world. The foundation of FRBR and cataloging principles will remain constant. It's a time of great expectations and hopes for improvements. Even more, there is the hope for international acceptance of an international cataloging code.

Notes

¹¹ "A New Organization for RDA" http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rda-new-org.html.

¹² The Prospectus can be found at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rdaprospectus.html.