A study of compatibility of RDA rules with Persian related works (Case study: Shahnameh)

One of the major goals of organizing and cataloging of works deals with retrieving other works related to them. This fulfills the collocation function of the library catalog. Since Persian literary works cover many related ones in the National Bibliography of Iran, therefore, cataloging of these works has great importance for catalo users. On the other hand, RDA is the new cataloging standard and is replacing the Anglo-American cataloging rules. The purpose of this research is to determine the degree of compatibility of RDA rules with the cataloging of Persian related works.
The research method is based on survey method using the evaluative techniques and on a comparative basis. The present research population is composed of 1125 bibliographical records of related works of Shahnameh in the National Bibliography of Iran of which, 4 groups of related works that were large in terms of application and had the most complete elements, were selected and analyzed. To answer the research question, four types of bibliographic records were selected from the related works of Shahnameh (Excerpt, Excerpt-Commentary, Commentary, and Excerpt-translation) which had been catalogued based on the Anglo-American Cataloging rules, 2ed edition. We studied the compatibility and non-compatibility of RDA rules applied to such works.
FINDINGS:RDA rules are compatible with related works of Shahnameh, Excerpt and Excerpt-Commentary at the rate of 91/66 percent and 90/90 percent with related works of Shahnameh, Commentary and Excerpt-translation. Thus, more than 90 percent of RDA rules were compatibile with the investigated records.
Based on the research findings, appropriate method for implementation of RDA rules is the comparative method; That is, the records that currently exist based Anglo-American rules in the National Bibliography of Iran should be saved and compared with RDA rules and this standard should be implemented on them. The implementation of RDA requires relevant fields in the previous created records. The records that are currently available in the National Bibliography of Iran are incomplete and have shortcomings that should be reviewed and completed for implementation of RDA. It is also suggested that during research, the degree of adaptation of related works in other disciplines with the rules of RDA, such as history and laws, which have many related works, should be studies.