Latest News on Soft-deprecated Terms
At yesterday's RSC Public Session, voting members of the RSC approved RSC/TechnicalWG/2026/1 (with amendments proposed by RSC/TechnicalWG/2026/1/NARDAC) and RSC/TechnicalWG/2026/2 (with amendments proposed by RSC/TechnicalWG/2026/2/ORDAC). Full Decisions Documents will be published as soon as practicable.
Chair of the Technical Working Group Chris Holden (pictured) thanked the wider RDA cataloguing community for its ongoing willingness to contribute to the discussion of soft-deprecated elements, highlighting the significance of the use cases that many libraries have shared.
The next two proposals, which will be discussed in the July Public Session of the RSC, are available for constituency review. They are:
- RSC/TechnicalWG/2026/3 -- Resource-to-resource digest, review, and critique elements. Full deprecation of a range of soft-deprecated elements is recommended by the Technical Working Group.
- RSC/TechnicalWG/2026/4 -- Soft-deprecated elements specific to content and carrier types. Full deprecation of a range of soft-deprecated elements is recommended by the Technical Working Group.
Your Regional Representatives will share the date by which they need to receive your comments in order to compile them for the July Meeting, which will take place on Tuesday 28 July at 18:00 - 20:00 UTC. (There is a handy time converter here). As a reminder, here are their contact details:
- If you are based in Europe, your Regional Representative is Dr Ahava Cohen. If you are part of EURIG, please feedback in the usual way. If you are not a EURIG member yet, please contact Ahava directly: Ahava.Cohen@rdatoolkit.org
- If you are based in Latin America or the Caribbean, your Regional Representative is Dr Filiberto Felipe Martinez Arellano. If you are part of ALyC, please feedback in the usual way. If you are not an ALyC member yet, please contact Felipe directly: felipe@rdatoolkit.org
- If you are based in North America, your Regional Representative is Trina Soderquist. If you are part of NARDAC, please feedback in the usual way. If you are not a NARDAC member yet, please contact Trina directly in the first instance: tsod@rdatoolkit.org
- If you are based in Oceania, your Regional Representative is Jack Ennis Butler. If you are part of ORDAC, please feedback in the usual way. If you are not an ORDAC member yet, please contact Jack directly: jack@rdatoolkit.org
- If you are not based in any of these Regions (i.e. you are based in Asia or Africa), please contact the Wider Community Engagement Officer (WCEO) Elect, Dr Getaneh Alemu. He will be happy to hear responses from members of the RDA community from these regions: getaneh@rdatoolkit.org