News

This is the first of what will be a series of status updates on the progress of the 3R project. You may recall from the October announcement that 3R stands for the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign.

Effective immediately, Keri Cascio will represent the American Library Association (ALA) on the Board of Directors for Resource, Description and Access (RDA), a unified cataloging standard designed for the global, digital world and metadata users in many environments.

We are excited to roll out a new rdatoolkit.org site! Just to clarify rdatoolkit.org is this very information and communication site that serves as a kind of entrance way to the RDA Toolkit proper.

This full-text print version of RDA offers a snapshot that serves as an offline access point to help solo and part-time catalogers evaluate RDA, as well as to support training and classroom use in any size institution.  An index is included. The online RDA Toolkit includes PDFs, but purchasing the print version offers a convenient, time saving-option.

The RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project (3R Project) will be a major focus of discussion at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The project aims to significantly improve the functionality and utility of RDA Toolkit and will include revisions to RDA based on the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM).

Two new diagram examples of specific RDA related work relationships have been posted by the RDA Steering Committee. One example shows whole-part relationships, and the other example shows adaptations. Click here to access these examples. The examples are freely available to all. No subscription to RDA Toolkit is required to access and download the examples.

In 2017 the Co-Publishers of RDA and RDA Toolkit will undertake a major project to enhance the RDA Toolkit website so that it can better meet the needs of its users and play a more productive role in their work. The Toolkit debuted in 2010 and by any standard practice it is time for a site redesign to adjust to changes to the online environment.