Terminology-R

Terminology… R

RDA

Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a set of instructions for the cataloguing of books and other materials held in libraries. RDA is intended to replace AACR2, a standard in widespread use in Anglo-American libraries. It is expected to be released online in 2009. RDA emerged from the International Conference on the Principles & Future Development of AACR held in Toronto in 1997. RDA departs from AACR in its foundation on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). These principles identify both the ’user tasks’ which a library catalog should make possible and a hierarchy of relationships in bibliographic data. Nonetheless, descriptions produced using the instructions of RDA are intended to be compatible with the large number of existing records created under the rules of AACR2. (wp)

Reference Records

Reference (code b or c) - An authority record in which field 100-155 contains an unestablished name or subject. A reference record also contains either field 260 (Complex See Reference−Subject), field 664 (Complex See Reference−Name), or field 666 (General Explanatory Reference−Name) to guide the user to the established form. Separate codes are defined in 008/09 for traced and untraced reference records. The distinction depends upon whether the heading in the 1XX field in the record is also given as a see from tracing in a 4XX field in another authority record. (m21)

Relator Codes

Subfield $e or $4 found in the MARC tags representing Personal, Corporate or Meeting names. The purpose of this list of relator terms and associated codes is to allow the relationship between a name and a work to be designated by codes in the MARC record. The relator code list is in two sections: Term Sequence, and Code Sequence. The relator codes are three-character lowercase alphabetic strings. In most cases they consist of the first letter of the first word of the relator term followed by two additional letters derived from the word(s) making up the relator term. (m21)

Remastered authority file

To remaster your existing authority file, MARS 2.0 will match the library’s existing file against the latest national database files using the MARS 2.0 Remaster Service and return the updated MARC authority records to the library. In this case the local authority records are not used to override standard heading practice, but rather as a means of selecting and forwarding national authority records in the library. This will bring your entire authority database up to current national standards. (mpg)

Replaced Authority Records

For each deleted authority record, MARS 2.0 programs search the entire appropriate national-level authority file to see if the deleted record has been replaced. If the record’s control number is found in the appropriate field/subfield in the national-level file (for example, 010 $z for LC authority records) the deleted record has been replaced by a different authority record. MARS 2.0 includes replacements records as new records in authority update files, and/or displays them in Authority Delete Reports. (mpg)

Romanized Authority Headings

Romanize means to translate into the Latin alphabet, especially a language traditionally written in a different system such as Chinese or Japanese. The Library of Congress’s authority file’s authorized headings are the Romanized version of the authority record. There is a move to include the vernacular form of the heading as a see reference in the authority file. In the bibliographic record the vernacular record is typically represented in the 880 tag. (ac)