Resource Description and Access (RDA)

Resource Description and Access (RDA) is the new cataloging standard that replaced the Anglo American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition, revised, (AACR2) on March 31, 2013. RDA is specifically designed for today's digital environment and with the user in mind, to make it easier to find, identify, select and obtain a particular resource.

The general changes from AACR2 to RDA consist of more detailed information, additional contributors named in the catalog record, and a limited use of abbreviations. Some of the specific changes include replacing the 260 field with a repeatable 264 field, which allows for the differentiation of production, publication, distribution and manufacture information, and additional physical description fields (336, 337, 338) to provide additional detail about the resource.

The RDA Toolkit is available by subscription, and is the new access point for the Cataloger's Desktop, the Library of Congress (LC) web-based cataloging documentation subscription service.

Perma-Bound is now cataloging according to the LC recommended practice of RDA. Our default format will be AACR2. Customers can choose between the RDA format and the AACR2 format for their catalog records.



The following websites offer additional information about RDA and the latest RDA news: