Review: Introducing RDA

The blurb on the back of this book says, “No cataloger or library administrator will want to be without this straightforward guide to the changes ahead.” I agree. (I would also add that LIS professors should assign this book as required reading for aspiring catalogers.) Chris Oliver, chair of the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing and Coordinator of Cataloguing and Authorities at McGill University, has written a book that is as straightforward as her subject allows.
RDA is replacing our beloved AACR2. As succinctly as possible, this text explains: what RDA is; why it is needed; how FRBR and FRAD factor into RDA; how RDA builds on AACR2; how RDA is different than AACR2; how RDA should be implemented; and what we can anticipate in the future. This is an amazing feat to accomplish in 117 pages.
Introducing RDA: a guide to the basics makes sense of all the disparate rules, and tries to answer the question we have all thought at one time or another: is this change really worth it? AACR2 has served us well, but RDA is here to stay. Anyone with an interest in cataloging should buy this book or at least borrow/ILL request it.