RDA in the Ghanaian Academic Library Cataloging Community: Awareness, Competencies, and Implications

Abstract

This study investigated the awareness and competencies of Ghanaian cataloging practitioners and stakeholders regarding Resource Description and Access (RDA), a little over a decade after the standard was rolled out. Survey and interviews were combined to examine the entrenchment of the RDA standard in Ghana from the viewpoint of sixty-two cataloging managers and staff in selected academic libraries. The data analyzed though descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis revealed that while 82 percent of cataloging practitioners were aware of the RDA standard, knowledge and mastery of the RDA guidelines and application of the standard was established to be low and quite basic. Fellow catalogers within libraries, attendance at local conferences, and personal research emerged as major sources of RDA awareness. It was concluded that awareness of the RDA standard will not lead to widespread adoption and implementation of the standard.