News

The October 2026 release of the RDA Toolkit was published last week.

The North American RDA Committee (NARDAC) Update Forum is a biannual event aimed at bringing together experts in the field of library and information science to present/discuss developments in RDA and RDA-related cataloging work. In addition to an update on NARDAC's work, this fall’s forum will feature presentations on recent developments in RDA.

The Hungarian translation of RDA is being developed by the Hungarian Library Institute at the National Széchényi Library since 2017. Since then, the Institute has translated the Registry, and is planning to release the full translation of the Toolkit by the end of 2026. This effort is a part of a greater transition to semantic cataloguing.

Join the Oceania RDA Committee (ORDAC) for a three-part webinar series that uses an Original RDA MARC record as the foundation for developing an Official RDA Metadata Application Profile. The three webinars will focus on examining how RDA elements map to MARC, what to consider when planning for Official RDA implementation, and what to include in an Official RDA Metadata Application Profile.

The RDA Mexico Group under sponsorship of the National Autonomous University of Mexico has organized the “RDA Webinar Series: RDA Concepts” for Spanish speaking catalogers. Its objective is to introduce participants with the essential RDA terminology and concepts on RDA for transitioning to Official RDAToolkit.

Like the February release, the June 2026 release is another light one. It includes a the addition of a few examples to guidance on normalized transcription. Updates and corrections were made to policy statements from the British Library, the U.S. Library of Congress - PCC, RMBS, OLAC, MLA, and the National Library of New Zealand.

The RDA Steering Committee is pleased to host an introductory RDA webinar series for African cataloguers. This program will introduce attendees to foundational terminology and concepts found in Resource Description and Access (RDA), an international standard used for cataloguing and bibliographic data creation, and that is based on the IFLA Library Reference Model.

The Countdown Clock for the Original RDA Toolkit began on May 11. This short webinar will explain what the countdown clock means for cataloguing institutions; what will happen to the Original RDA Toolkit; and how to transition to Official RDA.

The Countdown Clock

• On May 11, 2026 a Countdown Clock appeared in the top blue banner of the Original RDA Toolkit.
• This clock will count the final 365 days that the Original Toolkit will be available online and serve as a daily reminder that your institution needs to prepare for the transition to the Official RDA Toolkit.

The 3rd Meeting on Education for Information Organization “New Pedagogical and Technological Perspectives for Teaching and Applying the Official RDA Toolkit in the Training of Librarians”