From Allison Yanos:
Resource Description and Access, more commonly known as RDA, is the new cataloging code that is replacing AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd Edition). On March 31, 2013, the Library of Congress (LC) and other national libraries officially adopted RDA rules for all new cataloging/bibliographic records. Additionally, only RDA authority records are now permitted to enter the LC/NACO Authority File. Note: for those unfamiliar with authority control this Wikipedia article is informative.
The implementation of RDA-based authority control was handled in two main phases by the Library of Congress. In Phase 1, authority records that were not suitable for RDA use were flagged with a particular MARC field stating that the heading in the 1XX field cannot be used under RDA until the record has been reviewed and/or updated. These records include elements not compatible with RDA or that require evaluation. These headings will be upgraded over time by LC and NACO participants. Phase 2, which occurred in March 2013, consisted of certain automated revisions that were made to all appropriate authority records so that they could be re-coded as RDA and re-distributed. See the list below for some of the automated revisions that were made.
At the end of April, our authority control vendor, LTI, sent our quarterly files of new/modified authority records and existing bibliographic records with changed name, title, or subject headings. This quarterly update included the Phase 2 authority record changes, which resulted in very large files: over 170,000 bibliographic records with changed headings and over 75,000 new or modified authority records. For the past two weeks, I have loaded those records into BearCat, so you may have already noticed some of the changes listed below.
Notable Changes from Phase 2 of RDA Authority File Implementation:
- Bible Headings:
- O.T. and N.T. have been removed from the headings for specific books of the Bible. For example: the subject heading Bible. N.T. Acts — Criticism, interpretation, etc. changed to Bible. Acts — Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- When referring to the entire Old Testament or New Testament, the words are spelled out. For example: the subject heading Bible. O.T. — Hermeneutics changed to Bible. Old Testament — Hermeneutics.
- As yet, many of these changes have not been implemented on the subject side under Bible stories.
- Koran / Qur’an:
- “Koran” has been changed to “Qur’an”. Adjectival use on the subject side has also been changed to “Qur’anic”
- Note that the “alif” special character is used. It is not an apostrophe.
- Example: the subject heading Koran and philosophy changed to Qurʼan and philosophy.
- Dates in Name Headings:
- Most dates in name headings are now in RDA form. This includes changing “ca.” to “approximately”, “fl.” to “active”, spelling out names of months, expanding “cent.” to “century” and changing “16th cent.” to “active 16th century”, etc.
- For a range of dates in ancient names, B.C. is used both before and after the hyphen, e.g Caesar, L. Julius (Lucius Julius), active 90 B.C.-43 B.C.
- More examples:
- Adam, de Saint-Victor, d. 1192 changed to Adam, de Saint-Victor, -1192
- Bennett, Andrew J., b. 1841 changed to Bennett, Andrew J., 1841-
- Akeroyd, Samuel, ca. 1650-ca. 1706 changed to Akeroyde, Samuel, approximately 1650-approximately 1706
- Anthonello, de Caserta, 14th/15th cent. changed to Anthonello, de Caserta, active 14th century
- “Selections” in Author/Title Headings:
- Author/title records that previously had $tSelections have been changed to $tWorks.$kSelections.
- For instance: Nicetas, of Byzantium, 9th cent. Selections. German has been changed to: Nicetas, Byzantios, active 9th century. Works. Selections. German.
- Most abbreviations have been expanded:
- “Dept.” has been changed to “Department” where it is appropriate. This includes geographic headings such as Doubs (France : Department) and the corresponding use in geographic subdivisions of subjects e.g. Dwellings – France –Doubs (Department)
- Month names have been expanded to full form. This includes use in treaty and conference headings.
- “arr.” has been changed to “arranged”
- “unacc.” has been changed to “unaccompanied”.
- Violoncello / Cello:
- “Violoncello” has been changed to “Cello”. This is true for all occurrences in the Name Authority File, as well as some instances in the Subject Authority File.
- Also included is the change from “violoncellist” to “(Cellist)” as a qualifier to name headings.
