Outcomes of the Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee
Held in Chicago, USA, 12-20 March 2009

L-R: Marjorie Bloss; Margaret Stewart; Alan Danskin; John Attig; Barbara Tillett; Deirdre Kiorgaard; Hugh Taylor; Nathalie Schulz; Tom Delsey

The Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC) met in Chicago, USA, from March 12-20 2009. The Committee of Principals for AACR and the Co-Publishers also met in Chicago during this period, and there was a joint meeting to discuss the RDA project.

The objective of the JSC meeting was to finalise the text of RDA for the first release. All changes will be submitted to the Co-Publishers in June 2009.

Accordingly, the majority of the meeting was spent discussing constituency responses to the full draft of RDA (5JSC/RDA/Full Draft). The JSC was able to complete discussion of all priority comments on RDA instructions (over 400 in total). As well as those comments identified as priorities by the constituencies, the JSC focused on decisions concerning:

• the element analysis;
• the definitions of elements, sub-elements, and element sub-types, and;
• changes to controlled lists of terms (and their definitions).

Significant changes to the element analysis include:

• Devised title is no longer considered an element sub-type of Title, but is actually another way of formulating the title. As a result, the instructions will be moved to be with others on the Title proper (chapter 2).


• A new element sub-type for Resolution under Digital file characteristics (chapter 3).


• A new element sub-type for Form of notated movement under Form of notation (chapter 7). See 5JSC/RDA/Full draft/LC response for information on this element.


• A new element for Number of a conference, etc. (chapter 11). This was formerly covered by the element for Other designation associated with the corporate body.


• The element sub-types for Numbering of serials (chapter 2) have been changed to:
• Numeric and/or alphabetic designation of first issue or part of sequence
• Chronological designation of first issue or part of sequence
• Numeric and/or alphabetic designation of last issue or part of sequence
• Chronological designation of last issue or part of sequence
• Alternative numeric and/or alphabetic designation of first issue or part of sequence
• Alternative chronological designation of first issue or part of sequence
• Alternative numeric and/or alphabetic designation of last issue or part of sequence
• Alternative chronological designation of last issue or part of sequence


• The names of some elements were changed, including Item of manifestation which is now Exemplar of manifestation (chapter 17); and, Producer in chapter 21 which is now Producer of an unpublished resource.

The JSC also agreed to some revisions to the instructions on musical works and expressions (5JSC/LC/12 series). These represent the culmination of a year of effort from representatives from the Library of Congress, the Music Library Association (MLA) and the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (CAML).

Details of the decisions made at the meeting will be provided in the meeting minutes. Until these are available, the ALA representative’s blog from the meeting may be of interest.

Nathalie Schulz
Secretary, JSC
1 April 2009

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