The ABCs of TS

All professions have their acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations and libraries are no different.

Here are some that you are likely to see as you read through library literature with a focus on Technical Services.

AACR2 – Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules – 2nd edition. Published in 1978 by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (in the UK), AACR2 contains the guidelines for cataloging (or cataloguing) library materials.
RDA – Resource Description and Access. Built on foundations established by the AACR, RDA is being developed as a new standard for resource description and access designed for the digital world.
FRBR – Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. A conceptual entity-relationship model developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) that relates user tasks of retrieval and access in online library catalogues and bibliographic databases from a user’s perspective.

Okay, I’ll bet those were easy. You probably see them a lot. Now, how about these?
OLAC – Online Audiovisual Catalogers. An organization for media catalogers.
CAPC – OLAC’s Cataloging Policy Committee. CAPC represents the concerns of AV catalogers in matters relating to the formation, interpretation and implementation of national and international cataloging standards and related matters.
ALCTS – Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. Pronounced (uh-lex), ALCTS is a division of ALA (American Library Association) that specifically addresses Technical Services issues.
CC:DA – Committee on Cataloging: Description & Access. The body within the American Library Association responsible for developing official ALA positions on additions to and revisions of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules.
MARBI - Machine Readable Bibliographic Information. A committee within the American Library Association responsible for developing official ALA positions on standards for the representation in machine-readable form of bibliographic information. MARBI focuses its attention on the development of the MARC format.

If you encounter an acronym (in any field) and want to find out what it stands for, a handy source is a specialized online dictionary called Acronym finder.

The Library of Congress has a long list of acronyms. I'll save them for a separate post.