Our RDA Planning Guide and revised Authority Control Planning Guide is now available for download on our website:

We have also revamped the wiki pages:

http://ac.bslw.com/community/wiki/index.php5/Profile_Guide

The RDA Guide clocks in at under 80 pages. The revised Authority Control Guide is now a svelte 180 pages.

We anticipate needing to make adjustments to the RDA Guide as the weeks roll by, based on a variety of feedback we receive.

For instance, we are considering expanding our RDA Authority Control options again, based on recent comments. Currently, we have two separate RDA authority databases that we maintain:

1. RDA-1: contains authorities where the original 1XX has been moved to 4XX, and the (rda) 7XX has been moved to 1XX. This facilitates options for clients interested in flipping to the RDA version of the heading

2. RDA-2: contains pure RDA authorities, that have been newly created (040 $e rda); hence, no 7XX

A third option we are working to implement would be to change the (rda) 7XX to 4XX. This would allow clients to match against the RDA heading, yet still flip the heading to the AACR2 version (1XX) instead. There are still a few more wrinkles we are trying to iron out with this option.

Of course, in a year’s time, once LC starts copying/moving their AACR2 authorities to RDA equivalents (expanding abbreviations, etc), we might be back to one RDA database to maintain. Or, we could just as easily be up to 4. So we are also anxiously invested in the directions RDA is heading.

In the next update, we will outline some of the changes we are planning to implement for generating the CMC options (33X) in records. The online profiles for both “regular” authority control and RDA-specific options should also be ready by the end of next week.

Until then, if you are attending ALA in Dallas, please stop by our booth (#1229) to discuss RDA. Also, if you can make it, we are having our dessert reception across the street from the Dallas Convention Center, held at the Omni (5th floor), from 7:30pm to 9:30pm (Friday).

Thanks!

Nate Cothran - nate@bslw.com

Product Manager, Automation

Backstage Library Works

533 E 1860 S, Provo UT 84606

(p) 801.342.5697 - (f) 801.356.8220