Broadening the appeal of RDA through the 3R Project and RDA Governance

At their 2017 meeting in London, the RDA Board reaffirmed their commitment to the changes being made to improve the structure of the Toolkit as part of the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project, also known as the 3R Project, and the continuing implementation of the new Governance model.

Both projects are key to the Board’s vision for RDA; making the standard relevant to the broader community and, in particular, increasing internationalisation.

Whilst we understand that it is frustrating to the community that we have had to stop proposals for the duration of the project, there is significant value in doing this work now. This includes:

• The opportunity to align RDA with the new Library Reference Model (LRM) and CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM); offering value to both traditional library communities and future cultural heritage communities
• Making important changes to the website; making it more user friendly and responsive to user needs, enabling a greater level of personalisation, and ensuring it is compliant with accessibility standards
• Making structural changes to RDA content to optimize the flexibility and reuse of the content
• Implementing new translation software which will allow for faster more reliable updates to Toolkit translations

The new Toolkit including all changes is due to be launched by April 2018, though RDA Board and RDA Steering Committee (RSC) have committed to the current version of the Toolkit being available for the period of one year to facilitate the transition and take into account those who find it useful to compare the old and new versions.
Once the 3R Project is completed, the community will be able to resume providing input into the content of the standard through discussion papers and revision proposals.
In addition, RDA Board discussed the importance of the changes to the governance model and how this intersects with the 3R Project.

RDA Board have been delighted with the work completed by European RDA Interest Group (EURIG) to take up European representation on the RSC. They have also been encouraged by work currently underway to create the new North American RDA Committee (NARDAC) and Oceania RDA Committee (ORDAC).

We believe it is vital for continued internationalisation that, once communities are able to submit proposals following the 3R Project, they should be submitted using these new communities. For this reason, we have tasked NARDAC and ORDAC with formalising their constitution and proposed ways of working by the end of 2017. This will allow new ways of working to be tested ahead of the reintroduction of community proposals and provide assurance for communities regarding the timescale for moving to the new structures.

RDA Board were also pleased to receive a report from the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile who were attending for the first time in their role as National Institution Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. In particular, it was noted that they had begun to work with other key stakeholders in the region to identify how they might come together to create an RDA Community; enabling the region to be represented on RSC.

RDA Board believe these changes are extremely important as we continue to make RDA more relevant to international communities and we appreciate the community’s patience during this time.

Simon Berney-Edwards
Chair of RDA Board

French, German and Spanish versions of this statement will be available shortly.

Posted on 16 June 2017

French translation posted 11 August 2017
German translation posted 28 June 2017
Spanish translation posted 29 July 2017