Introduction to Resource Description and Access

The information environment is dynamic and requires cataloguers to respond to its fluid and active state. It demands that they work not only to describe the types of information resources available in a library collection, but also to show its users the relationships that exist between them. The goal of library cataloguing has always been to act as a catalyst for users' acquisition of information by providing description and access points that allow them to identify and distinguish items among resources contained within the library's collection as well as many beyond it. In a sense, cataloguers are interpreters of information resources. This new textbook introduces descriptive and subject cataloguing and classification as it is currently practised, and in particular introduces Resource Description and Access (RDA), the new set of cataloguing rules that replace the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR). The new rules represent the response of the international cataloguing community to the current global information environment. Their principal goal is to facilitate resource discovery with library catalogues in a more consistent and powerful way than was possible with AACR, and this book is a guide to how to use them to achieve bibliographic control. The key areas covered are: library cataloguing in the digital era; descriptive cataloguing; subject cataloguing; encoding catalogue records; and, sustaining and supporting the catalogue process. All library collections need to be organized logically in order to facilitate access to their contents, and decisions on type of description directly impact upon the successful retrieval of resources by users. This authoritative text will help cataloguers develop a firm understanding of cataloguing tools and resources, especially when synthesizing multiple sources of guidelines and standards, and will also be essential reading for LIS students.