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Library of Congress Documentation for the RDA (Resource Description and Access) Test: RDA Test Record Downloads
02/15/11
The links below provide access to files of records created by formal and informal participants in the US National Library RDA Test.
While any institution is welcome to download and analyze the records, we ask that you send a short email indicating you have done so to lchelp4rda@loc.gov to help the US RDA Test Coordinating Committee gauge the level of interest in the test records.
Caveats:
- The records are posted as supplied by the test agency and reflect that agency’s interpretation and application of RDA—no attempt has been made to confirm that the records actually conform to RDA or that the MARC structure is valid (where appropriate). The best source for information about RDA instructions is RDA itself, be cautious about forming conclusions about RDA provisions based solely on test records.
- Because the files of records come from different sources, they may not all exhibit the same characteristics. For example, some MARC 21 records may use UTF-8 character encodings while others may be in MARC-8. Records often contain locally-defined elements not appropriate outside of the source system.
- Some records may be represented more than once if they were updated subsequent to creation; also, the iteration represented in the file may not be the most current version of the record as found in the source system.
- Non-MARC records are posted as provided, and may represent various schemas.
Note: The files below will be updated periodically during the test to add additional test records. To download these files, right click and select the “save link” or “save target” option.
Records from Formal Test Participants
Common Original Set (set of 25 resources cataloged in common by the US RDA Test participants)
(select this link to see surrogates for Common Original and Common Copy sets [PDF - 62 KB])
- RDA bibliographic records [MARC 21 version; 791 records; 246 KB]
- RDA bibliographic records [Text version; 791 records; 173 KB]
- RDA authority records [MARC 21 version; 626 records; 77 KB]
- RDA authority records [Text version; 626 records; 61 KB]
- AACR2 bibliographic records [MARC 21 version; 718 records; 178 KB]
- AACR2 bibliographic records [Text version; 718 records; 127 KB]
- AACR2 authority records [MARC 21 version; 600 records; 51 KB]
- AACR2 authority records [Text version; 600 records; 40 KB]
Common Copy Set (set of 5 resources cataloged using the copy provided)
- RDA bibliographic records [MARC 21 version; 119 records; 19 KB]
- RDA bibliographic records [Text version; 119 records; 12 KB]
Extra Set (additional records contributed by the US RDA Test participants)
- RDA bibliographic records (MARC 21) [MARC 21 version; 7731 records; 3 MB; updated 02/15/11]
- RDA bibliographic records (MARC 21) [Text version; 7731 records; 3 MB; updated 02/15/11]
- RDA bibliographic records (non-MARC) [Zipped XML version; 50 records; 124 KB--Unzip to access records; updated 02/15/11]
- Authority records [MARC 21 version; 10184 records; 2 MB; updated 02/15/11]
- Authority records [Text version; 10184 records; 2 MB; updated 02/15/11]
(Note: some authority records are RDA, but many authority records are AACR2, with the RDA form recorded in 7XX fields with second indicator = 4)
Records from Informal Test Participants
- RDA bibliographic records [MARC 21 version; 1148 records; 504 KB; updated 02/15/11]
- RDA bibliographic records [Text version; 1148 records; 401 KB; updated 02/15/11]
- RDA authority records [MARC 21 version; 1390 records; 325 KB; updated 02/15/11]
- RDA authority records [Text version; 1390 records; 272 KB; updated 02/15/11]
