The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) continues to monitor the discussion of the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA: Resource Description and Access. RDA is based on FRBR, or Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, and was released in 2010. It has undergone testing at the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, and at RDA National Test Partner Libraries.

In June of 2011 several updates were released, which add further to this discussion. The links to the full text of the documentation are included here:

• Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee (192 pages)
• Executive Summary of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee (8 pages)
• Response of the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, and the National Library of Medicine to the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee (3 pages)

The transition to RDA is complex, but several changes are notable in how they differ from current AACR2 standards:

• RDA will impose new rules for the creation of added entries (elimination of the "rule of 3").
• Most abbreviations are to be eliminated, particularly Latin abbreviations.
• The general material designation (GMD) will be replaced by three new MARC fields: content type (336), media type (337), and carrier type (338).
• RDA will use mode of issuance instead of continuing resources.
• The impact of RDA on authorities. Much is still unknown about the impact of RDA and the hybrid environment in the national authority file, although a policy has been developed for PCC members on using RDA and AACR2 authority records.

The general recommendation of U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee regarding the timeline for completion has been revised, with a projected implementation date no earlier than January, 2013.