CFLA-FCAB coordinates activities related to bibliographic and metadata standards in Canada by providing expert representation on national and international committees and bringing professionals together to create guidance and provide professional development activities.
CFLA-FCAB provides representation for Canadian libraries on four national and international committees [bookmark down page] that develop and maintain bibliographic metadata standards:
- Canadian Committee on Cataloguing (CCC)
- North American RDA Committee (NARDAC)
- Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange (CCM)
- RDA Board
CFLA is one of three copyright holders of RDA, along with the American Library Association (ALA) and CILIP (UK).
The CFLA Board approved the Cataloguing: Cataloguing Code of Ethics in 2024, and CFLA is responsible for maintaining the French translation.
CFLA maintains a history of activity and documents related to our work on bibliographic metadata standards.
Member Groups
RDA Training Task Force
A coordinated national effort to organize and deliver practical, hands-on RDA training that can be replicated across Canada in English or French, to expand the existing network of RDA experts and trainers in Canada, and to establish and maintain an online, open access clearinghouse of training materials that is easily discoverable.
Members of the Task Force are listed on the RDA Training in Canada site.
Bibliographic Metadata Community of Interest
The Bibliographic Metadata Community of Interest shares with the CFLA community news relating to the work of the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing (CCC) and the Canadian Committee for Metadata Exchange (CCM), the two Canadian standards bodies to which CFLA sends representation, as well as from the CFLA RDA Board representative. The community of interest also shares information relating to the Official RDA Toolkit, of which CFLA is one of three copyright holders.
Coordinator: Christopher Carr, Concordia University
National and International Committees
The Canadian Committee on Cataloguing (CCC) is a national advisory committee on cataloguing and bibliographic control.
CFLA’s current representatives are Thomas Brenndorfer, Guelph Public Library and Stacey Penney, Memorial University. Thomas is currently serving as Chair of the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing.
A key role of the CCC is to represent Canada at the North American RDA Committee (NARDAC), one of the authoring bodies of Resource Description and Access (RDA), as well as participating in the process of proposing and reviewing changes to the RDA standard. The Canadian Committee on Cataloguing also advises Library and Archives Canada on cataloguing policy, formulates policy, and evaluates bibliographic models and relevant standards, and represents Canadian positions at international meetings.
The North American RDA Committee (NARDAC) is the regional representative body for the North American region (Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States of America).
NARDAC is entitled to have one of its members sit on the RDA Steering Committee, the international body that makes final decisions about the content of RDA. Regional representative bodies like NARDAC also play a key role in the continuing development of the standard through the authoring of discussion papers and proposals that are sent to the RDA Steering Committee for consideration and debate. They also formulate the North American position in response to discussion papers and proposals originating from other authoring bodies.
The two current Canadian Committee on Cataloguing representatives on NARDAC are Hong Cui, Library and Archives Canada, and CFLA representative Thomas Brenndorfer, Guelph Public Library, who is also currently serving as Co-Chair of NARDAC. The membership list is available on the NARDAC website.
The Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange (CCM) is the national advisory committee on MARC 21 formats and related national and international standards for the representation in machine-readable form of bibliographic information. CCM acts as an advisory committee to Library and Archives Canada, one of the four members of the MARC Steering Committee, which has the final authority on any changes made to the MARC21 format. CCM celebrated its 50th year in 2026.
Current CFLA representatives are Pat Riva, Concordia University (Montreal), and Trina Grover, Toronto Metropolitan University. Pat Riva is currently serving as Chair of CCM.
CFLA is a member of the RDA Board as one of the three associations that hold the copyright for RDA, with the American Library Association (ALA), and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the United Kingdom (CILIP). The CFLA representative is called a Copyright Holder representative.
The RDA Board is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the development of RDA, including planning, risk monitoring and awareness, and for promoting the continuing internationalization of the standard. The RDA Board also ensures good governance of the official RDA committees and related bodies.
CFLA’s current representative on the RDA Board is Christine Oliver, University of Ottawa, who is also currently serving as the Chair. The RDA Board includes six National Institution Representatives, one for each of six regions around the globe.