Department of Information Science
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Bibliographic Records for Monographs:
RDA and MARC21
Assignment 03 — 2026
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Module Code: AIS3711
Module Name: Applied Information Science: Cataloguing
and Classification
Assignment No.: Assignment 03
Due Date: 16 July 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Unique Number: 183077
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for AIS3711
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | AIS3711 Assignment 03: RDA & MARC21 Bibliographic Records
1 Introduction
Bibliographic control rests on two distinct but interdependent standards: a content standard,
which determines what data is recorded and how it is worded, and an encoding standard,
which determines how that data is structured for machine storage and exchange. Resource
Description and Access (RDA) is the content standard applied throughout this assignment,
and MARC21 (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) is the encoding standard used to communi-
cate the resulting description in a library system (Library of Congress, 2026; ALA, CFLA and
CILIP, 2024). Three monographs are catalogued below. Each record is presented first as a
MARC21 bibliographic record, structured by field tag, indicator, and subfield, and is then fol-
lowed by a discussion of the specific RDA instructions and MARC21 conventions that were
applied to construct it. Where source data required a cataloguer’s judgement, for example an
ISBN that was not supplied in the assignment brief, that judgement is stated explicitly and
justified.
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,UNISA | AIS3711 Assignment 03: RDA & MARC21 Bibliographic Records
2 Record 01: Community Engagement Project Impact
This is a monograph with two personal co-authors of shared responsibility, issued in a num-
bered edition, with front matter paginated in lowercase roman numerals and body text pag-
inated in arabic numerals, illustrated with both general illustrations and photographs, and
carrying both an index and a bibliography.
2.1 1.1 MARC21 Bibliographic Record
2.1.1 Leader (fixed field)
Position Code Meaning
06 a Type of record: language material
07 m Bibliographic level: monograph/item
17 3 Encoding level: abbreviated (student-level) cataloguing
18 i Descriptive cataloguing form: RDA, ISBD punctuation
2.1.2 Field 008 (fixed-length data elements)
Position Code Meaning
00--05 260702 Date record entered on file
06 s Type of date: single known date
07--10 2022 Date 1: year of publication
15--17 sa# Place of publication: South Africa
18--21 ao## Illustrations: illustrations (a); photographs (o)
31 1 Index present
33 0 Literary form: non-fiction
35--37 eng Language: English
2.1.3 Variable fields
2.2 1.2 Rules Applied
2.2.1 1.2.1 Choice and form of creator access points
The statement of responsibility names two authors of shared, undifferentiated responsibility,
Sizwile Ndaba and Sethu Fourie. Under RDA 19.2.1.1, when a work results from the collabo-
ration of two or more persons performing the same kind of activity and no principal author
is designated, the first-named creator on the preferred source becomes the primary access
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, UNISA | AIS3711 Assignment 03: RDA & MARC21 Bibliographic Records
Tag Ind Content
020 ## $a [ISBN not supplied by source; field left open pending verification]
040 ## $a SUnisa $b eng $e rda $c SUnisa
082 04 $a 307.14 $2 23
090 ## $a 307.14 $b NDA
100 1# $a Ndaba, Sizwile.
245 10 $a Community engagement project impact / $c Sizwile Ndaba and Sethu
Fourie.
250 ## $a 3rd edition.
264 #1 $a Newcastle : $b Juta, $c 2022.
264 #4 $c ©2022.
300 ## $a x, 70 pages : $b illustrations, photographs ; $c 21.7 cm
336 ## $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent
337 ## $a unmediated $b n $2 rdamedia
338 ## $a volume $b nc $2 rdacarrier
504 ## $a Includes bibliographical references and index.
505 0# $a Introduction to computers – Why people should be computer literate – Digi-
tal age.
650 #0 $a Community engagement.
700 1# $a Fourie, Sethu.
point. This governs the placement of Ndaba, Sizwile in field 100 (first indicator 1, denot-
ing a personal name entered under surname per RDA 9.2.2.9), while Fourie, Sethu is carried
as an added entry in field 700, following the same structural convention (RDA 20.2). The
names were reversed into surname-forename order for indexing and collocation, consistent
with RDA’s general guideline of recording the preferred name of a person in the form most
commonly found in resources associated with them (RDA 9.2.2).
2.2.2 1.2.2 Title and statement of responsibility
The title proper, Community engagement project impact, is transcribed exactly as it appears
on the title page, without added capitalisation or punctuation beyond what RDA 1.7.1 (tran-
scription) and ISBD punctuation practice require. RDA 2.3.2 instructs that the title proper
be taken from the preferred source of information and recorded exactly as to wording, though
not necessarily as to punctuation and capitalisation. The statement of responsibility, recorded
in subfield $c of field 245 following RDA 2.4.1.4, names both authors in the order and form in
which they appear on the source, joined by ”and” as found, since RDA favours transcription
over abbreviation or omission for statements naming three or fewer contributors.
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