Implementing Official RDA

The experience of the National Library of New Zealand

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the steps taken by the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) to implement the Official Resource Description and Access (Official RDA) descriptive standard. Implementation occurred in August 2024 following a five- year programme of preparation, development and training. User testing was combined with implementation. Although this resulted in some months of confusion as earlier decisions were modified or reversed, we realised that it is only when working with real resources that we fully understood how the Official RDA Toolkit works in practice.