The Joint Steering Committee intends to take a more strategic approach
to rule revision. They find it increasingly necessary to take a holistic
view, to avoid in effect, missing the forest for the trees. They will
decide what AACR2 should be like in five years’ time and which strategies
they should employ to get there. The Joint Steering Committee intends
to encourage research into new developments, involving testing
and review. They recognize that AACR2 is one metadata standard among
many. Therefore, it is important to keep the channels of communication
open with other metadata communities, including communities responsible
for International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions. Finally, the
Joint Steering Committee intends to promote and market AACR2, conveying
the message that it still has relevance. The current situation is not
one of AACR2 and metadata, but rather of metadata including AACR2.
AACR2 is not a standard to be contrasted with other metadata standards,
but is itself a rich and viable metadata standard among the many available
today for resource description.