http://www.loc.gov/cds/notices/141023c.pdf

Library of Congress (LC) and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) have been testing the RDA changes they plan to make to the name authority file. Our own Karen Anderson is part of the task group that is looking into this; other members include (but are not limited to): Gary L Strawn, Richard Moore, Paul Frank, Ana Cristan, and David Williamson.

As the link above states, Phase 3 has been split into two parts: 3a & 3b. Phase 3a primarily concerns itself with changes to the 1xx field, though other corollary fields or minor edits are also included. Approximately 350,000 records will be affected. The timeline, while mentioned in the link as between December 1st and 19th, is still not quite decided. Though if it does happen that Phase 3a runs & completes in December, Backstage will be able to easily absorb the changes and distribute those out to our customers. Of course, this means that your next Notification update after that December timeframe could be substantial, depending on how many of those 350k authority changes are reflected in your own authority database.

Phase 3b is not scheduled to commence until June 2015 at the earliest. The task group is supposed to submit their final proposal by March 2015 regarding the changes for 3b, the most exciting of which is the inclusion of ISNI identifiers (presumably in 024 fields).

I know that there has been some expression of frustration that neither Phase 3a nor 3b has had much exposure on the various listservs to this point. We’re hoping that this is remedied soon so others can have a voice about what to expect and how to prepare.