The tools of our trade: AACR2/RDA and MARC

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk www.bath.ac.uk

UKOLN is supported by:

The Tools of our Trade: AACR2/RDA and MARC

Guest lecture at London Metropolitan University

13th March 2009

Ann ChapmanCommunity and Outreach Team



What are our Tools?• AACR/RDA = content standard for resource description

and access• MARC = communication and exchange format providing a

structure for encoding the content of bibliographic and authority data

Related to:• ISBD = rules that organise the display of a bibliographic

description of an item in a catalogue• FRBR = a entity-relational model of the data required to

find, identify, select and obtain resources



ISBDs• International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions• Developed 1969 onwards by IFLA

• Defined seven areas of description and their order– Title– Statement of Responsibility– Edition– Resource specific information– Publication details– Physical description– Series information– Notes and standard identifiers



FRBR

• Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records

• IFLA study; report published 1998

• Entity-relationship model that defines:– Tasks: find, identify, select, obtain– Resource relationships:

work, expression, manifestation, item– Entities: people, corporate bodies (agents)– Entities: concepts, objects, events, places



AACR

• Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules– A content standard for bibliographic description

and access– Bibliographic – not just books– Built on other, earlier sets of rules

• Key principles– One principle entry per resource– Catalogue from item in hand– Chief source of information



AACR timeline

• 1967 UK and US editions• 1978 Second unified edition, consistent

with ISBDs; several further revisions

• 1997 Toronto conference on AACR2• 1998 FRBR

• 2005 Develop RDA not AACR3• 2009 RDA launch (provisional)



AACR 2• Part 1: Description

– Chapter 1: General rules– Chapters 2 -12: Resource type - specific rules– Chapter 13: Analytic entries

• Part 2: Headings, Uniform Titles, References– Chapter 21: Choice of access points– Chapters 22 – 26: Construction of access points

• Appendices– A: Capitalisation, B: Abbreviations, C: Numerals,

D: Glossary, E: Initial articles



What’s wrong with AACR?

• Increasingly complex• Lack of logical structure• Mixing content and carrier data• Hierarchical relationships missing• Anglo-American centric viewpoint• Written before FRBR• Not enough support for collocation• Unclear relationship with MARC Format



RDA – The Aims

• Rules should be easy to use and interpret • Be applicable to an online, networked environment• Provide effective bibliographic control for all types

of media• Encourage use beyond the library community• Be compatible with other similar standards• Have a logical structure based on internationally

agreed principles• Separate content and carrier data• Examples – more of them, more appropriate



Who is working on RDA?

• Joint Steering Committee (JSC)– 1 representative each from:

ACOC, ALA, BL, CCC, CILIP, LC– JSC reps consult with their ‘constituency’

• In UK, CILIP/BL Committee on RDA plus specialist groups (e.g. Rare Books Group, IAML(UK & Ireland)

• RDA Editor: Tom Delsey• RDA Project Manager: Marjorie Bloss



And also

• Task focused working groups– RDA GMD/SMD Working Group– RDA and ONIX Initiative– RDA Examples Working Groups

and– DCMI RDA Task Group



How is RDA being developed?

• Draft – (responses – revised drafts – further responses, etc.) – acceptance

• Latest draft released 17 Nov. 2008;responses from:– ACOC, ALA, BL, CCC, CILIP, LC– France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain,

Sweden– ISSN International Centre

• Final product – the publishers (ALA, CILIP, CLA)



RDA Timelime• 2005

– Prospectus issued– Draft of chapters relating to description– Content and carrier studies

• 2006 and 2007– Further drafts of chapters on description and access– Work on appendices and glossary

• 2008– Screenshot demo in August at IFLA conference

• 2009– Launch of online product (late February 2009?)



RDA Outline Structure

• Introduction

• Attributes– Sections 1 to 4 (chapters 1 to 16)

• Relationships – Sections 5 to 10 (chapters 17 to 37)

• Appendices A to M

• Glossary



What will RDA look like? - 1

• Section 1: Recording manifestation attributes– Ch. 1 General guidelines– Ch. 2 Identifying manifestations and items– Ch. 3 Describing carriers (technical description)– Ch. 4 Providing acquisition and access

information (terms of availability, etc.)



What will RDA look like? - 2

• Section 2: Recording attributes of work and expression– Ch. 5 General guidelines (incl. construction of

access points for works and expressions)– Ch. 6 Identifying works and expressions (e.g.

uniform and collective titles, etc.)– Ch. 7 Describing additional attributes of works

and expressions (incl. nature and coverage of content, intended audience, etc.)



What will RDA look like? - 3• Section 3: Ch. 8, 9, 10, 11

Recording attributes of person, family and corporate body (= name headings)

• Section 4: Ch. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16Recording attributes of concept, object, event and place (= subject headings)

• Section 5: Ch. 17Recording primary relationships between work, expression, manifestation and item

• Section 6: Ch. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22Recording relationships to persons, families and corporate bodies associated with a resource



What will RDA look like? – 4

• Section 7: Ch. 23Recording subject relationships

• Section 8: Ch. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28Recording relationships between works, expressions, manifestations and items

• Section 9: Ch. 29, 30, 31, 32Recording relationships between persons, families and corporate bodies

• Section 10: Ch. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37Recording relationships between concepts, objects, events and places



What will RDA look like? - 5• Appendices

A: CapitalisationB: AbbreviationsC: Initial articlesD: Record syntaxes for descriptive data (ISBD, M21, DC)E: Record syntaxes for access point control dataF: Additional instructions on names of personsG: Titles of nobility, rank, etc.H: Conversion of dates to Gregorian calendarJ, K, L, M: Relationship designatorsGlossaryIndex



Using RDA

• Analyse the resource being described– What is the content type?– Held in what carrier form?– To what other resources is it related?– To which persons, families or corporate

bodies is it related?– To what concepts, events and places is

it related?



One rule for all …

Mostly:• Rules apply to all content types• Rules apply to all media typesWith• Examples of application to specific content and

media

Occasionally:• Rules apply to specific materials or contents

(e.g. treaties, religious texts, music)



Words, words, words …• Can look opaque or ‘going round in circles’• Trying to avoid reference to specific content and carriers• Hope to improve wording over time

‘Use as the preferred source of information a source forming part of the resource itself that is appropriate to (a) the type of description and (b) the presentation format of the resource.’

Means preferred source of information may vary according to• Comprehensive or analytical description• Multiple pieces, early print, moving images, or ‘all other

materials’



RDA – What will it be?• Initially an online resource

– Complete text– Pricing, subscription, etc. – still not decided

• Potentially:– Concise text– Tailored texts (law, music, serials, etc.)– Training resource– Incorporated into LMS cataloguing modules

• Loose-leaf print version(s)



RDA and beyond

RDA aims to be:

• Independent of communication formats– UNIMARC, MARC, MARCXML, MODS/MADS– DC, EAD, ISBD, VRA, MPEG7

• Compatible / better aligned with other similar standards– Archives: ISAD(G)– Museums: Cataloging Cultural Objects



RDA and MARC

• Mapping RDA and MARC 21– Report issued in Nov. 2006; various proposals

subsequently go through MARBI process

• How will RDA impact on MARC 21?– Some new fields / subfields are being defined

• How will MARC 21 impact on RDA?– Data provisions in MARC 21 not covered in

current draft of RDA



MARC – 1960s

– Library of Congress project• Database of catalogue records• Production of catalogue cards

– US & UK versions• Reflected differing cataloguing practices• Developed in parallel but not identical ways



MARC – 1970s

Variant formats developed• Based on either US or UK formats

(AUSMARC, DANMARC, KORMARC, etc.)• USMARC developed 8 material formats

(Books, Serials, Maps, etc.)

UNIMARC developed in 1977 by IFLA• Intended as exchange format• Used as the Bib format in some countries

(e.g. France)



MARC – Recent changes• Expansion of USMARC to a family of formats

– Bibliographic, Holdings, Authority, Classification, Community Information

• Integration of USMARC bibliographic format– Previous 8 formats integrated

• Widespread adoption of MARC 21– Some countries simply adopt USMARC– 1997 – USMARC & CANMARC become MARC 21– 2003/4 – MARC 21 enhanced by UK proposals; British Library

adopts MARC 21– 2006/7 – MARC 21 enhanced by German proposals: this will

enable libraries to move from MAB to MARC 21



MARC Structure• Leader• 0xx – control numbers, coded data• 1xx – primary access point• 2xx – description, GMD, edition, publication• 3xx – physical description• 4xx – series• 5xx – notes• 6xx – subject access points• 7xx – additional access points• 8xx – series added entries• 9xx – local fields



Maintaining MARC 21

• Twice yearly MARBI meetings– Discussion papers– Proposals

• UK and MARC 21BIC Bibliographic Standards Group

[email protected]://www.bic.org.uk/16/Bibliographic-Standards/



MARC and XML

• MARC has alpha-numeric 3-digit tags– 100.1 Personal Name– 245 $a Title $b Subtitle

• XML has element labels– <namePersonIndirectOrder>– <title> <titleSubtitle> <titleCoverTitle>



Looking into the crystal ball

• FRBR– Potential influence on cataloguing systems– Authority records, uniform titles, work records

• OPACs– Multiple interfaces for different audiences– Enhance for accessibility - supports all users– Links (actual resources, restrictions, supporting

or associated resources)• RDA

– Potential use outside the library domain



Contact details

• Ann Chapman• [email protected]• http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/bib-man/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence.

The tools of our trade: AACR2/RDA and MARC

Education

Transcript of The tools of our trade: AACR2/RDA and MARC