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To: Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA From: Deirdre Kiorgaard, Chair, JSC Subject: RDA: Resource Description and Access Sections 2-4, 9 Constituency Review

of December 2007 Draft At the October 2007 meeting the JSC agreed on a new organization for RDA. For an explanation of the move to the new organisation of RDA see A New Organization for RDA http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rda-new-org.html. For an overview of RDA see the revised RDA Prospectus http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdaprospectus.html. In addition, a mapping of previously issued drafts to the new RDA structure can be found at the end of this cover letter. The JSC now invites comments on the attached draft, which consists of the following: This cover letter, which includes guidelines for commenting on the Draft, background

information on the Draft, and some composite examples. Drafts of the following chapters of RDA Resource Description and Access: Note: In terms of the previous organization of RDA drafts, these draft chapters correspond to Part B: Access Point Control.

Section 2: Recording attributes of work and expression Chapter 5: General guidelines on recording attributes of works and

expressions Chapter 6: Identifying works and expressions

Section 3: Recording attributes of person, family, and corporate body Chapter 8: General guidelines on recording attributes of persons, families, and

corporate bodies Chapter 9: Identifying persons Chapter 10: Identifying families Chapter 11: Identifying corporate bodies

Section 4: Recording attributes of concept, object, event, and place

Chapter 16: Identifying places

Section 9: Recording relationships between persons, families, and corporate bodies Chapter 29: General guidelines on recording relationships between persons,

families, and corporate bodies Chapter 30: Related persons Chapter 31: Related families Chapter 32: Related corporate bodies

Drafts of the following appendices of RDA Resource Description and Access:

Appendix F: Additional instructions on names of persons Appendix G: Titles of nobility, terms of rank, etc. Appendix H: Conversion of dates to the Gregorian calendar

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rda-new-org.htmlhttp://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdaprospectus.html

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Instructions for Submitting Formal Comments on this Draft The Statement of policy and procedures for JSC outlines the formal consultation process for the development of RDA. During the period between now and the release of RDA in 2009, it will be essential for the JSC to balance community input with the need for RDA to be ready for publication within a reasonable timeframe. Your JSC representative will be able to advise you on the types of comments that are appropriate at this stage of the development of RDA. Changes that are not considered essential to achieve the goals outlined in the Strategic Plan for RDA 2005-2009 may be addressed after the first release of RDA. You can assist by noting in your comments those issues which you consider essential to resolve in order to achieve the stated goals of RDA. Information specific to the formal process of commenting on this draft is given below. In addition to making formal comments on the Draft, you are also invited to discuss the draft informally (see RDA Discussion List below).

Type of comments requested In Background to each section of the draft below, the JSC has invited comments on some issues as indicated in bold italics. Comments are also invited on the following general issues:

Consistency: In preparing the draft, efforts have been made to ensure that the guidelines and instructions are formulated in a consistent manner. The JSC would appreciate your help in identifying any inconsistencies or any conflicts that might exist between one instruction and another in this draft.

Clarity: The JSC and the Editorial Team have tried to ensure that the guidelines and

instructions in the Draft are presented clearly and unambiguously, in plain English. We would appreciate your help in identifying any specific guidelines or instructions that need to be expressed more clearly, and in providing suggestions for alternative wording.

In order to facilitate the JSCs discussion, please provide all comments on the content of specific instructions in a single sequence, regardless of whether or not they are in response to questions raised in this cover letter. When making comments on this Draft, please keep in mind:

Web-based product. RDA is being developed as a web-based product, with the kinds of features you would expect in an online tool. The structure and style of the Draft are designed to function in a web-based environment, in which text is not necessarily read in a linear fashion. Text is repeated where needed to support a hyperlink reference structure and to allow individual instructions to be displayed on their own. In addition, various

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/docs/5policy4rev2.pdfhttp://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/stratplan.html

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views of RDA will be available by setting appropriate display options. Please remember these features when reviewing this Draft.

Proofreading. The Draft will undergo thorough line editing and copy editing when all the

substantive issues have been resolved.

How to make comments Comments from within countries represented on the JSC should be submitted as follows:

In Australia: contact the ACOC representative to the JSC, Deirdre Kiorgaard at dkiorgaa@nla.gov.au In Canada: contact the CCC Secretariat at ccc-l@lac-bac.gc.ca In the United Kingdom: contact the CILIP/BL Secretary, Katharine Gryspeerdt at Katharine.Gryspeerdt@bl.uk In the United States: use the web form at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/. Comments from within the Library of Congress may be submitted to the LC representative to the JSC, Barbara Tillett at btil@loc.gov

Comments from stakeholders outside of these countries and from international groups can be submitted to the JSC Secretary, Nathalie Schulz at N.Schulz@btopenworld.com. If you are (or might be) represented by more than one organization, or more than one subcommittee of an organization, please select a single channel for providing your comments.

Deadline for comments The JSC representatives are asked to submit their formal constituency responses by March 17, 2008. Each constituency committee will set its own internal deadlines for comments in the lead up to March 17. Those not represented by the JSC are asked to submit their comments by the same date. Any comments received on the draft, will be discussed at the JSC meeting in April 2008.

RDA Discussion List RDA-L is a forum for discussion that will allow contributors to share their thoughts on RDA. The list is not part of the formal mechanism for commenting on the draft of RDA. To join the list, and to view archive files, see: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdadiscuss.html

mailto:Dkiorgaa@nla.gov.aumailto:ccc-l@lac-bac.gc.camailto:Katharine.Gryspeerdt@bl.ukhttp://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/mailto:btil@loc.govmailto:N.Schulz@btopenworld.comhttp://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdadiscuss.html

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Background to the draft as a whole The JSC offers the following background information on this draft. RDA is intended to be consistent with the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR); the Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) and the Statement of International Cataloguing Principles being developed by IFLAs IME ICC (see http://www.imeicc5.com/download/Statement_draft_Nov_5_2007_with_IME_ICC5_recommendations_m.pdf). Any intentional differences between RDA and these models and principles are noted below. One long term aim of RDA is to achieve an effective level of alignment between RDA and the metadata standards used in the museum and archives communities (see Strategic plan for RDA 2005-2009 http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/stratplan.html). The JSC welcomes comments from these communities on this draft. Internationalization A number of changes have been made to instructions originating from AACR2 to make them more suitable for adoption worldwide. References to the English language in the instructions have been replaced by the phrase the language and script preferred by the agency creating the data. In addition, references to non-roman script have been removed. Abbreviations The decisions of the JSC on the RDA Appendices Groups recommendations on the use of abbreviations for persons, families, corporate bodies, places, and works, etc., are given in 5JSC/Chair/9/Chair follow-up/5. The use of abbreviations is generally avoided in RDA data in favour of the use of the word they represent. Examples Examples in the draft include only the element addressed by the instruction preceding the example. In some cases it has not been possible to reproduce diacritics used in transliteration. In these cases, double-underlining has been used in this draft, e.g. at 6.2.2.1.1. The correct diacritics will be included in the full draft issued in July 2008. Section 8: Recording relationships between works, expressions, manifestations, and items Section 8 on recording relationships between works, expressions, manifestations, and items has not been included in this draft. This is because the JSC has not completed its discussion of the comments received on the June 2007 Part A, Chapter 7 (Related resources). Section 8 will be avail