INTRODUCTION

 The Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard specifies how to format data
for resource description and discovery.
 It is designed for use by libraries as well as other cultural institutions such as
museums and archives.
 RDA is organised using the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
(FRBR).
 Any coding scheme, including the data environments used for existing records written
in accordance with the AACR2 guidelines, should be compatible with descriptions
written in accordance with the RDA specifications.
 This article specifically mentioned about RDA structure that consists of 10 sections.
MAIN BODY
 General guidelines of RDA
o It should be noted that this is a more structured and transparent approach
compared to AACR2, as cataloguers know upfront the elements within
each area and the core ones. Three different ways of describing a resource,
namely comprehensive description, analytical description and hierarchical
description are defined
 Attribute transcription also e.g. of element recorded in RDA
o Chapter 2 of RDA includes guidelines dealing with the preferred sources
of information. As in AACR2, a preferred source of information has to be
defined for each resource and then a number of core elements have to be
transcribed.
 Carriers, acquisitions and access
o Chapter 3 of RDA covers the elements for describing the characteristics of
the carrier of the resource. The elements concern the physical
characteristics of the carrier and the formatting and the encoding of the
information contained in the carrier.
CONCLUSION
 The manifestation and item for each resource must be described using instructions
similar to the AACR2 rules.
 RDA is a new cataloguing standard with a thousand pages of text in print that,
obviously, cannot be covered in a single chapter.
 The process may appear more difficult than in AACR2, but keep in mind that the
above steps concern both the description of the physical and intellectual aspects of the
resource, as well as, to use AACR2 terminology, the access points and headings.