Greetings Everyone, Back in May 2009, Backstage was chosen as one of three vendors to participate in the national RDA testing phase. Born from that experience, as well as direct feedback from our clients, we focused our efforts on providing authority control options for your RDA bib records. We started with an easy option and assigned it as the default: 1. Treat all incoming bibs, whether encoded as AACR2, RDA, or something else as AACR2 This option was a starting point and allowed us to stretch our legs, and discover more solutions for our clients: 2. Ignore all incoming RDA bibs, separating them out for later runs (if desired) 3. Match AACR2 & RDA bib headings against their respective databases first; unmatched headings have the option to be searched against the other respective database next 4. Match AACR2 & RDA bib headings against AACR2 (but include 700 x4 as a matching point), flipping all potential matches to respective authority's 1XX heading; unmatched headings can then be searched against the RDA authority database only These options, in an early form, were made available in late October 2010, with an official announcement from us in January 2011. Since that time, there have been a few modifications made, especially in regards to simplifying the language used to describe each option. Also, we sought to make option #3 match the PCC standard for RDA authority control as closely as possible. Still, we continue to have minor variations on each of these for certain customers and fully anticipate needing to make additional adjustments in the months ahead. For the last several months, our team has been hard at work putting together options to process & validate your AACR2 or RDA bib records using new RDA standards. We are trying to tackle this from multiple angles: 1. Full RDA cataloging, utilizing the expertise of our experienced cataloging staff 2. Convert entire collection of (pre)AACR2 bib records to RDA formatting 3. Upgrade ongoing (pre)AACR2 bib records to RDA formatting 4. Upgrade / Validate existing RDA records as part of current cataloging efforts 5. Provide options for hybridizing your records (e.g., both AACR2 & RDA elements co-existing within same record) 6. Applying the same type of customized options you are used to with our Authority Control service 7. Providing opportunities to test the waters before taking the plunge Over the next several weeks & months, we plan to roll out this service and make all parts of it available for your perusal. We are still making changes based on feedback from a beta-test partner, as well as our own quality assurance checks. By the end of January, we will have available a new online profile dedicated to RDA processing options. Our customers will be able to choose to view either the existing Authority Control profile (which we have also revamped) or the new RDA profile and make changes as necessary. In addition, we have created an accompanying 70-page profile guide (pdf, printed, wiki) to assist you with your RDA processing options. Backstage is also celebrating its 25th Anniversary of serving libraries and librarians. In honor of that, we invite you to our dessert reception held in Dallas, ALA MidWinter a week from today (please see attached). More information will be forthcoming, so please stay tuned! Nate Cothran - nate@bslw.com <mailto:nate@bslw.com?subject=Automation%20Services%20-%20Query> Product Manager, Automation Backstage Library Works 533 E 1860 S, Provo UT 84606 (p) 801.342.5697 - (f) 801.356.8220 www.ac.bslw.com/community/blog <http://ac.bslw.com/community/blog/>