ABSTRACT
Resource Description and Access (RDA) is the new content standard that builds on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2). It is more than a “successor” because it moves beyond AACR2 through its alignment with the conceptual framework expressed in Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)1 and Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD).2 The theoretical structure expressed in the FRBR and FRAD models shapes the organization and wording of RDA. At the same time, RDA is also written with the explicit goal of producing descriptions that are compatible with existing records. Although there are some changes in the text of the guidelines, the fundamental change is not in the content of individual guidelines, but in the way we think about cataloging.
