Last month the first update to RDA instructions was published to RDA Toolkit. The release of the updated content was accompanied by the unveiling of the RDA Update History section to RDA Toolkit. This new section, located beneath the RDA Table of Contents browse in the RDA tab, is a major step forward in the quality of user interaction with the new code. And so it seems that a full explanation of these new and significant additions to RDA Toolkit is in order so that users may fully benefit from them.

Learning the Basics

There are some basic facts that should be known about RDA Updates.

• The updates are made by the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC).
• The JSC changes are the product of formal constituency proposals that are submitted to and reviewed by the JSC. Learn more about the proposal process.
• RDA updates include changes in intent of existing instructions and additions of new instructions to RDA
• RDA updates will be published only once or twice a year. The next update of RDA instructions is expected to be published in April 2013.
• Each RDA Update will be accompanied by a summary of the contents of the update and an archive of the obsolete versions of the altered instructions. These resources are available in the RDA Update History section, which, as mentioned earlier, has been added to the RDA tab.

Update vs. FastTrack

The JSC makes changes to RDA instructions that are both minor and major. As described above, the updates consist of major changes to RDA content. The JSC refers to minor changes as as "FastTrack" changes, and FastTrack changes typically cover typographical errors, additions or removals of examples, additions of terms to vocabularies, additions of references, and clarifications in wording. FastTrack changes are published multiple times throughout the year. It is important to note that FastTrack changes are not tracked in Update Summaries or the Instruction Archive. The changes made as the result of FastTrack entries are documented in the Secretary Document Series on the JSC website.

Icon spotting

An update icon (shown below) will appear alongside RDA text to indicate where a change has occurred to RDA instruction.

The icon is a link that will take users to the Instruction Archive and the previous version of the instruction.

Update icons include a number that indicates the year of the update and the number of the update. So the icon above reads 2012/01 signalling that a change was made as part of the first RDA update of 2012.

Understanding the Update Summary

Each Update Summary features a table (shown below) listing all of the the numbers of updated instructions and a brief description of the change. Update summaries are written and assembled by the JSC. The summary includes only In the table the RDA instruction numbers followed by an RDA icon are linked to the current RDA text. When an instruction has been deleted, the RDA number in the table will be followed by an update icon and will link to the deleted instruction text stored in the Instruction Archive.

Navigating the Instruction Archive

The Instruction Archive can be accessed through update icon links in the RDA text or through the browse on the RDA Tab. As you would expect, the archive contains the out-of-date versions of updated instructions. Only instructions that were updated are included in the archive. Finally, each archived instruction is preceded by the a description of the change, appearing in a light blue font. These descriptions are written by the JSC and are the same as the descriptions found in the Update Summary.