This GitHub repository contains Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (RDA Edition) (DCRMR). The RBMS RDA Editorial Group can be contacted at dcrm.rda@gmail.com.
DCRMR is one of several manuals providing specialized cataloging rules for various formats of rare materials typically found in rare book, manuscript, and special collection repositories. Together, these manuals form Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (DCRM), an overarching concept rather than a publication in its own right.
The DCRMR is an RDA-compliant DCRM manual aligned with the RDA element set intended to be an integrated and consolidated manual which will eventually include specific instructions for several rare materials formats (for example, books, graphics, music, serials, etc.).
Currently, DCRMR allows for RDA-compliant rare book cataloging. The integration of specific instructions for graphics material into DCRMR is under development, with instructions for other rare materials formats to follow. Language in DCRMR is heavily based on the original DCRM manuals.
The new manual is published as a free online resource outside the RDA Toolkit. Like the Toolkit (and the 2002 revision of AACR2), DCRMR is considered an integrating resource and updates are incorporated as needed.
The editorial group is also tasked with creating a set of policy statements for publication within the Toolkit. The policy statements will be short and concise and link to DCRMR for fuller instructions/guidance. (For example, apply this option; see DCRMR X.X for additional guidance.)
In January 2013, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, the Bibliographic Standards Committee charged the DCRM(B) for RDA Revision Group to move rare materials cataloging forward in terms of harmonization with RDA. The formation of this new editorial group was recommended by the DCRM-RDA Task Force, which submitted its final report to BSC in October 2012.
At the June 2013 ALA Annual Meeting in Chicago, the DCRM(B) RDA Revision Group and the Bibliographic Standards Committee discussed a change of approach for developing an RDA-compatible version of DCRM. Rather than working on the DCRM(B) text in isolation, the revision group proposed to work on a consolidated DCRM based on RDA, incorporating guidelines for all formats in a single text.
At, and after, the June 2014 ALA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, the group determined that rather than a complete stand-alone version of DCRM for RDA, a task force could be formed to draft a more concise set of cataloging guidelines consisting of rules for rare materials cataloging only where deviation from RDA is necessary or where RDA requires elaboration. This approach is modeled on the Library of Congress-Program for Cooperative Cataloging Policy Statements. The task force was formally commissioned as the ACRL/RBMS Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials Task Force in 2014. In 2016, the task force decided to formally name their guidelines the RBMS Policy Statements (RBMS PS), in alignment with the naming conventions of other RDA policy statements.
At ALA Annual 2017, the Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials Task Force submitted an initial draft of the RBMS Policy Statement to RDA and disbanded. The RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee assumed the work of completing and publishing the RBMS PS. This corresponded with RDA Toolkit content being frozen while the text and toolkit underwent a major overhaul (RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project (3R Project)), putting the completion of the policy statements on holding until 3R was complete. A policy statement editorial group made up from a subset of Bibliographic Standards Committee members was formed in 2018.
Stabilized English text for the 3R project was released on April 30, 2019. At ALA Annual 2019, the RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee had several discussions regarding what tools and guidance the rare materials cataloging community needs in order to catalog rare materials in conjunction with the new RDA. The conclusion of the discussions was that in depth of guidance that rare materials catalogers rely on in the current Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (DCRM) manuals cannot effectively be reproduced by policy statements in the Beta Toolkit alone and a change of approach was necessary. The RBMS Policy Statements Editorial Group was renamed the RBMS RDA Editorial Group and charged with developing guidance and tools for cataloging rare materials according to RDA as needed by the community.