A: It is a metadata encoding standard used for digital collections developed in Dublin, Ohio, which consists of fifteen metadata elements. To learn more about Dublin Core, go to “http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/”.

A: It used to be that the 830 field was only added when there was a difference, but the practice has changed. Keep in mind that most series titles that are generic will have an established title.

A: The 830 has a nonfiling character indicator and requires punctuation where the 490 does not.

A: The 830 can be added even if there is no change in the established heading. This is a common practice.

A: There are three new MARC fields associated with RDA: 336, 337, and 338. These fields are replacing GMDs (General Material Designation), but this is new for books. They indicate the type of material; for example, you are more familiar with GMD in records for electronic resources–you will always see this indicated next to the title in square brackets (e.g., |h [electronic resources]). RDA is replacing this in the 245 and adding this information in these three fields. Also, the 336, 337, and 338 will change depending on the format of the work. For books, we have textual material. So we can now indicate this in the record. To be consistent, this information will now be added to book records.

A: There is no change with cm since the symbol is internationally known. RDA makes a distinction between abbreviations and symbols. That is, ed. (editor with a period at the end) is an abbreviation whereas cm (without the period at the end) is a symbol.

A: Some examples. The abbreviations we are talking about that are no longer necessary are found in area 4 (spell out the larger jurisdiction) and area 5 (spell out pages and illustrations). Our users will have a better idea of what we are trying to say in our records. They do not understand the latin s.l. (sine loco) and s.n. (sine nomine), but when we can state “no place of publication” and “no publisher name” instead, this is much clearer. Moreover, the other big change for no more abbreviations is with area 2. We can now spell out the edition statement as we see it on the source.

A: RDA is trying to do away with abbreviations, so if you want to follow RDA, you should not use the abbreviations, because most library users don’t understand what the abbreviations mean.

A: The abbreviations are kept if abbreviated on the source. An example of abbreviation is,

|e illustrator (RDA) versus |e ill. (AACR2).

A: Nothing changes in the 245. You still transcribe title and statement of responsibility exactly as found on the source. With access points, you now step back and look at the 245 |c to make some determinations for main and added entry. In AACR2, there are only 4 designation of function codes; in RDA, there are many more. Further, in AACR2 you have to use the abbreviation; in RDA you can spell out the entire word.