Changes to RDA Governance in the UK

Members of the Committee of Principals and JSC have looked at the options for the transition to Europe regional representation in the new governance structure for RDA. It is clear that the European RDA Interest Group, EURIG (http://www.slainte.org.uk/eurig/), would be the ideal body to take forward the representation of the needs of RDA communities in Europe.

We are currently working with EURIG to identify how to maintain continuity of UK and EURIG contributions to RDA during the transition to regional representation. If possible, we would like to see a transitional Europe regional representative in place for the November 2016 RDA Steering Group meeting as a way of demonstrating our clear commitment to the transition.

The initial plan for the transition from the current structure of the JSC was for the representation of the UK's Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) to end after the November 2015 meeting. However, the CILIP representative to the JSC is unable to attend the JSC meeting, so the timetable was brought forward to the annual meeting of the joint CILIP-BL Committee on RDA (http://www.slainte.org.uk/aacr/) on September 10 2015. The separate representations of the communities of the British Library and CILIP were merged to form a UK RDA community, with Alan Danskin, formerly the representative of the British Library and current Chair of EURIG, becoming the UK representative on the JSC. Responses to proposals submitted for the November 2015 JSC meeting are being made within this new structure.

This arrangement is temporary, and the plan is that, from 2016, UK interests will be represented by EURIG. As part of the implementation of this transition the Vice-Chair of EURIG, Verena Schaffner, has accepted an invitation to attend the November meeting.

The JSC offers many thanks to Galen Jones, the CILIP representative, for his personal contribution to the work of the JSC, and to the British Library and CILIP communities for their essential, long-term support for the development of RDA. The JSC looks forward to working with the UK and Europe communities during this period of transition to an international governance structure for RDA.

Date posted: 1 October 2015