Difference between revisions of "RDA 4.0"

Revision as of 09:23, 2 August 2012

STEP 4.0 : ABBREVIATIONS

abbreviations overview

One of the big differences between AACR2 and RDA is the notion of "key it as you see it." So when cataloging an item in RDA, you should not be abbreviating common terms as you would with AACR2.

MARS 2.0 utilizes several lists of commonly abbreviated terms so they can be expanded into their unabbreviated form.

One caveat to consider with regards to expanding abbreviations is with regards to headings under authority control. If an abbreviation is expanded in a controllable heading but the authority record still contains the abbreviated form, the heading in the bibliographic record would no longer match the heading in the authority record.

Another issue to consider when expanding abbreviations to their fuller form is that the actual item may have the term abbreviated. In cases such as this, RDA would specify that the term should still be abbreviated.

Since an automated process cannot tell whether or not the term on the actual item was abbreviated, these options mandate that either all of a certain term are expanded or all are kept in their abbrevated form. Several reports are available that will list every abbreviation that has been expanded so you can review these to find any terms that should still be abbreviated.

The options within Step 4 that could possibly alter these authority controllable headings (1XX, 4XX, 6XX, 7XX, and 8XX) are 4.1, 4.2, and 4.6. Other options within this step include changing relator terms, imprint, and physical description abbreviations.

TOPICS

• Step 4.1 - Department Abbreviations
• Step 4.2 - Date Abbreviations
• Step 4.3 - Relator Term Abbreviations
• Step 4.4 - Imprint Abbreviations
• Step 4.5 - Physical Description Abbreviations
• Step 4.6 - Other Abbreviations

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