RDA Label changes

Sometimes in RDA, the label for an element changes (even though the RDA element per se, in linked data terms, has not changed).

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In version 248 of MARC Report, we have added a new cataloging checks that concerns itself exclusively with these label changes, which over time have grown to about 75 in number.

Up until now, relators that do not match a term in the RDA list would result in a message like:

Subf $e value is not RDA

Beginning with MARC Report 248, some of the terms that generated the message above will now generate a slightly different message.

For example, when MARC Report sees a heading like this–

700 1 $aDemy, Jacques,$edirector,$eauthor of screenplay. 

–the following brief message and note will be displayed:

700-01: Subf $e value is no longer used

700 subfield $e: author of screenplay. This relationship term is no longer used in RDA. 
Instead use: 'screenwriter' (An author of a screenplay, script, or scene.). 

This new brief message–value is no longer used–will appear whenever the program detects the older form of a label that has since been changed. In each case, an explanatory note will include information about:

1. what the current label should be, and
2. the latest definition of that label

A second example: if the label joint author were used, the following brief message and note would display:

700-01: Subf $e value is no longer used

700 subfield $e: joint author. This relationship term is no longer used in RDA. 
Instead use: 'author' (An agent responsible for creating a work that is primarily 
textual in content, regardless of media type or genre). 

Note that the error message (from the validation engine)

Subf $e value is not RDA

will still be used for any relator that is not in the list of RDA terms, and not in the list of RDA label changes.

In the present version, there is no interface in the software to customize the file of RDA Label Changes, as we did not think there was any compelling reason to do so.

However, in keeping with the mantra of everything must be configurable, here is what you can do to customize this module.

First, find the text file named rda-label-changes.txt. It should be located in your 'Documents\MarcReport\lists' folder. (If its not there, grab a copy of it from the installation folder and copy it to your 'Documents\MarcReport\lists' folder).

Next, open it in a text editor.

As the columns are tab-delimited, you can also open it in Excel. Just remember to clean up afterwards, as Excel will add a lot of double-quotes to the file which are not needed.

There are 6 columns in this file. The one you need to use if you are disabling a message is the one called 'Flag', which is the first column.

Find the message that you want to disable, and replace the contents of the first column with an 'n' (lowercase).

Save the file to the location mentioned above. The next time you run MARC Report, the message that you changed should no longer appear.

However, its likely that you will now see the message

700-01: Subf $e value not RDA

when that label is used, because having disabled the more specific error that targets only the label change, the default validation now kicks in.

Dealing with the validation error is beyond the scope of this page, but again, it can be done, by following the instructions here.

Here is a list of RDA Label changes that we have compiled over the last few years. This list (the one on this wiki page) is likely to become out-of-date over time, so for up-to-date information, refer to the file named rda-label-changes.txt in your MarcReport\lists folder.

There are four labels in the list marked with an asterisk. These are a bit of a special case as they actually represent deprecated RDA elements which have been superseded by new elements. But, for our purposes (cataloging in MARC), the end result is simply that the label has changed.