Using MarcEdit to Bridge the Distance Between AACR2 and RDA

Abstract

The transition between Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, second edition (AACR2) and the Resource Description and Access (RDA) metadata standards has had a number of impacts on how libraries create and update bibliographic data. For libraries committed to RDA and its implementation within their organizations, new workflows and best local practices around the creation of new records and the updating of existing bibliographic metadata have needed to be developed. However, these workflows often ignore existing record data or bibliographic data purchased from third party vendors, creating an environment in which only a small percentage of new bibliographic content may actually be encoded using RDA guidelines. To help facilitate the transition between AACR2 and RDA, MarcEdit introduced a new tool in January 2013 called the RDA Helper. The RDA Helper provides a straightforward, scriptable method that can be integrated into most existing workflows, allowing librarians the ability to automatically migrate existing bibliographic data as well as bibliographic data received from third parties, from AACR2 and into RDA.