As relações entre resource description and access (RDA) e o código de catalogação anglo-americano (AACR2) : a busca de uma descrição bibliográfica completa

Abstract

The current tendencies in the area of cataloging is an issue that is at the apex of the discussions in the scientific field of Librarianship and Information Science. The Resource Description and Access (RDA) may contain deficiencies with the gaps left by the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2), and therefore it may become one more cataloging code that will face problems in establishing itself. With this problem in mind, this research will explore the relationships and differences between AACR2 and RDA codes, regarding to their structure and applicability in digital informational environments. The methodology consists in the state of the art of the studied cataloging codes, and analysis of AACR2 and RDA, comparing their main conceptual and structural aspects and their applicability, showing examples in constructing bibliographic records using both codes. As results, it is observed that the changes in the RDA’s structure is more visible in the organization of its chapters, which now correspond to the objectives of the tasks that users must identify and relate to the information they were searching for, i.e., additional elements were created, for example, authority records for works/expressions, persons, families, and corporations. With this, the RDA comes in a context of changes in Cataloging, where the focus during the creation of a bibliographic record is based especially on the user. Note that the RDA’s proposal is based on the principles of cataloging codes (AACR2), but now potentially extended to the description and representation of information resources in the digital realm.