is paper aims to discuss and study the functionality of the Resource Description andAccess (RDA) standard for describing and organizing archival material with an analyticalapproach, taking into account the current developments in the eld of modern information technologies. "e rst part of the paper deals with the approaches in describing and organizing knowledge and information resources including: object-oriented approach, knowledge oriented approach, description by object versus aliation, and changes in the levels of description (the parts of each document as a content object) according to information contexts. "e second part brie"y introduces the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard, the features of archival materials related to the process of description and organization, the position of archival material in the studied standard, the archival standards used as the base for developing RDA, the proper core elements for describing archival material and RDA's capabilities and weak points in meeting the requirements of archival context. Finally, the future of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard in describing archival materials and converging standards is studied.

This study investigated the applicability of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard in the Library, Museum and Document Center of Iran Parliament.Methodology/Approach: This study was a descriptive survey which employed an evaluation checklist to collect the data. The sample for the study included 156 elements of the listing worksheet of historical documents of the Document Center of Iran Parliament. It was established that only 56 of the descriptive elements included in the worksheet were based on the expert's views. The data of the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics. There was 22.1 % correspondence between the listing worksheet and the elements of Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard. In other words, only 27 elements of the worksheet correspond to the 122 elements of the RDA standard. The findings of the study showed that the listing worksheet of the Document Center of Iran Parliament attends to analytic and systemic elements, but descriptive elements are less attended to. Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard is more applicable for the descriptive listing of archival sources. It is suggested that the document center of Iran parliament include the proposed 49 elements which are based on the core elements of RDA standard in their worksheet to improve the description and organization of their databases.

The purpose of the research is to analyze the usability of Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard for describing and organizing the content objects of the new information environment. The present research is a conceptual research having been done based on an analytical-critical approach. Meanwhile, introducing the characteristics of new media and environment and its influence on the knowledge organization process, and analyzing internal and external relationships among the quadruple levels of content objects presented in RDA, RDA's capabilities has been evaluated to respond to the new environment's features. The findings show "Resource Description and Access (RDA)" is undesirable for describing the digital content objects, because of its deficiencies including the use of traditional tools and approaches as a basis for standard extension, lack of suitable coordination with metadata standards, and lack of enough attention to the content object's characteristics available on the new environment, The defect of RDA have necessitated a revision of bibliographic relationships and functions included by the standard. finally, the researcher has suggested two new bibliographic relationships "part/part" and "shared characteristics", and three new functions "housekeeping", "organizing", and "expansion" as the appropriate solutions for more adaptability of RDA to the new information environment.

This study aims to identify the descriptive data and bibliographic relationships applied in the bibliographic records of digital libraries of Iran. The accordance rate of these descriptive data, which have been created according to Anglo American Cataloging Rules, is measured by Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard. Design/Methodology/Approach: The present study enjoys practical descriptive-survey method. The method of data collection is observation and analysis. The data gathering tools consist of 3 checklists. This study identifies that the elements associated with the areas like "the artist title and description", "the type of resource ", "the publication areas" and "the Physical description area" are mostly applied among the 8 bibliographic description areas. The survey on bibliographic relationships applied in the bibliographic records of digital libraries show that the Equivalence Relationship and Derivative Relationship are widely used and the application of Accompanying Relationship and Sequential Relationship are at a minimum. Comparing the characteristics of the entities of “work, expression, manifestation and item” based on Resource Description and Access (RDA) Standard with the descriptive data present in bibliographic records in digital libraries prove that most of the characteristics defined in the entities of “work, expression and item” are not available in the mentioned records, but about the characteristics of the entity of “manifestation” a little accordance with the mentioned records is available. Considering the fact that each of the characteristics of the entities of Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard is defined based on the requirements defined in its 2 basic conceptual models i.e. Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) and each of them can cover some of these requirements, the concept and function of each required data element needs to be specificallydefined and classified, therefore they can be properly applied in bibliographical records.

Generating bibliographic records to describe and analyze information resources has been an important library activity from past to present. Despite the changes in information carriers as well as storage and retrieval processes and users information seeking behaviors, resource description is still very important. The changes resulting from new technologies in information organization stems from users’ need to rapid and accurate access to information resources. In other word, users are interested in remote and full text resources and to meet this library catalogs should be responsible as an interface between users and library resources. Accordingly, it`s very necessary to change information organization methods and use from new methods to describing and analyzing documents. For this reason, simultaneously with expand using of web-based and internet technologies, information organization area experts tried to change information organization methods and started this work with cataloging rules. Today, the Resource Description and Access (RDA) Standard is developed for this new environment and different libraries in the world replace previous cataloging rules (Anglo-American) with this new one. In this article and through a review of the related literature, the developments process of cataloging rules and the story of developing new bibliographic methods and standards with emphasis on the Library of Congress activities are described. RDA is a better and more responding standard for the description and access to library resources. Knowing this help Iranian specialists to decide how using RDA rules in Iran.

INTRUDUCTION: The aim of this study is to find out the relationship designators in the metadata records of the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI), based on the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard.
In this study, the content analysis method was used. The study population included metadata records for books in NLAI for four bibliographic families including Quran, Nahj al-Balagha, Shahnameh, and Masnavi (with a total of 28213 records) that were accessible through the NLAI OPAC, named RASA. In this study, the data gathering methods were structured systematic observation and documentary approach. A checklist is used for data gathering, and a matrix is used to display the analyzed data.
FINDINGS:The results of the study showed that among the 544 relationship designators in appendices I, J, & M in RDA Toolkit (that includes 150 designators in appendix I, 346 designators in appendix J, and 48 designators in appendix M), 62 designators for appendix I, 175 designators for appendix J, and 48 designators for appendix M (In total, 285 designators) were detected in the selected NLAI metadata records. No relationship designators were detected in the selected NLAI metadata records in appendix I, for relationship designators related to "Publishers" and "Distributors" (in the Manifestation level), and in appendix J, for "Accompanying Manifestation Relationships". But other types of relationships were found to be existed.
In appendix I, the section of designators for "Publishers" and "Distributors" includes designators for non-book content objects (e.g. movies, radio & television programs, and so on) and don’t fit in the study population of this research, which are records of books. Therefore, it can be concluded that the study population has covered the variety of relationships provided for books in appendix I. The results also indicate the complete coverage of the relationship designators presented in Appendix M (subject relationships). In contrast, the study population does not provide a complete coverage of the relationships presented in appendix J (for "Accompanying Manifestation Relationships"). Finally, some of the limitations and drawbacks in the metadata records of the NLAI OPAC are mentioned.

RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the new standard for resource description and access designed for the digital world. This new standard is superseding the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules 2 (AACR2) and attempts to address the challenges of the new age of information and to develop new rules for description of and access to modern media and the resources available in databases. The increasing tendency in libraries and information centers to include digital resources makes familiarity with the new rules like RDA necessary. In the present paper a brief introduction of this standard and its requirements and goals are presented, followed by a comprehensive evaluation of the structure of this model and its foundations: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD). In addition, the main differences between RDA and AACR2 have been surveyed.

The emergence and development of kinds of digital formats in the 21st century made cataloguing rules for printed formats less usable. In addition, traditional information sources have been emerged in numerous formats, transferring those to web-based and digital formats has reduced the prominence of library cataloguers in the organization of information. The second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules doesnt have that much efficiency in resource description and organization of new sources so more review on this inadequate standard seems needed. The standard of Resource Description and Access (RDA) has been designed to meet current problems related to the organization of digital resources. This research provides a survey on the weak points and capabilities of the 2nd edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and gives an introduction to the standard of Resource Description and Access (RDA) and discusses its goals and basic features. Some of the features of this standard are its adaptability with MARC21, Dublin core, FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRDA (Functional Requirements for Authority Data).

Exploring differences bwteen description of Internet resources using RDA with AACR for description of biliogrphic elements in such resources. Design/Methododology/Approach: comparison has been made between areas 1، 9 and 12 of the latest edition of AACR2 (2002 ed.، revision of 2004) and areas 1 to 7 of RDA. Little deference observed between AACR and RDA with regard to the proper title. GMD in AACR been replaced by 3 items (media type، carrier type and content type) in RDA. Few deferences noticed between AACR and RDA in Statement of responsibility، edition، size، publication place، publisher name، publication date، serial and notes. Following items are some of new items in RDA: mode of access، access restriction on access، restrictions on use، system requirements، summarization of the content، content language، contact information and Internet URL. AACR compatibilty with regard to descriptive areas of Internet resources between RDA and AACR was 71. 87%. Cataloging Internet resources in RDA is simple and complete compared to AACR.

Modern library catalogs are not just a simple listing of information sources to show the location of library resources, rather, catalogs are expected to facilitate research for library users. Accordingly, current library catalogs formed based on AACR2 are unable to respond to the user's needs for accessing digital full text resources in the new environments. In order to overcome mismatch problems of AACR with digital and networked environments, the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) decided to develop and publish a new standard named "Resource Description and Access (RDA). This standard is in coordination with AACR and formed two IFLA conceptual models named "Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)" and "Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD)". According to decisions of the international community of information organizations for changing cataloging rules, it is necessary to prepare the essential basis for replacing AACR with RDA.