Fare thee well, GMD

Since early 2014, SCIS has been working through its RDA implementation plan. For those who are not familiar with RDA, it stands for Resource Description and Access, the cataloguing standard introduced to replace Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AARC2).

SCIS is very pleased to announce the next major step in that plan. From April 2017, SCIS will cease use of the GMD (General Material Designation), a set of deprecated terms used to describe the ‘Type’ of resource.

SCIS will now use the RDA cataloguing standard of ‘Content, media and carrier type’ to describe the resource. This comes after consultation with, and preparation by, the library management systems who distribute SCIS metadata. While use of RDA for type was adopted as a SCIS cataloguing standard in 2013, GMD was maintained in order to support older systems, a move which is no longer necessary.

On a related note, SCIS is also working on a major infrastructure upgrade, with a new system launch planned for late 2017. In this new system, SCIS will be leveraging linked data technologies to provide a user-friendly description of resource type through a brand new vocabulary — a move that will make RDA implementation simpler and more intuitive for SCIS users. Watch this space.

SCIS: We love standards. And acronyms.

Further reading

Beilharz, R 2012, ‘RDA new cataloguing rules’, Connections, no. 83, https://www.scisdata.com/media/1345/83connections.pdf

Published by

Rachel

Rachel is General Manager at Education Services Australia, loves SCIS, and has a professional interest in content curation and advocacy.

4 thoughts on “Fare thee well, GMD”

  1. SCIS: We love standards. And acronyms. Big smile 🙂
    Look forward to seeing the new system.

  2. Thank you, Renate! We’re looking forward to sharing more information about the new system. Please do keep an eye on SCIS social media accounts and the next issues of Connections for more announcements. 🙂 – Nicole

  3. It’s great to see SCIS staying in the forefront of changes and developments for the advantage of schools’ libraries.
    I can imagine the number of meetings it must involve!!!

  4. Hi Anthea, Thank you for your comment – and for keeping in touch with us! 🙂 It’s a very exciting time here at SCIS. Cheers, Nicole.

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