Since Oliver’s guide was first published in 2010, thousands of LIS students, records managers, and catalogers and other library professionals have relied on its clear, plainspoken explanation of RDA: Resource Description and Access as their first step towards becoming acquainted with the cataloging standard. Now, reflecting the changes to RDA after the completion of the 3R Project, Oliver brings her Special Report up to date. This essential primer

• concisely explains what RDA is, its basic features, and the main factors in its development;
• describes RDA’s relationship to the international standards and models that continue to influence its evolution;
• provides an overview of the latest developments, focusing on the impact of the 3R Project, the results of aligning RDA with IFLA’s Library Reference Model (LRM), and the outcomes of internationalization;
• illustrates how information is organized in the post 3R Toolkit and explains how to navigate through this new structure; and
• discusses how RDA continues to enable improved resource discovery both in traditional and new applications, including the linked data environment.

From the moment the pandemic took hold in Spring 2020, libraries and library workers have demonstrated their fortitude and flexibility by adapting to physical closures, social distancing guidelines, and a host of other challenges. Despite the obstacles, they’ve been able to stay connected to their communities—and helped connect the people in their communities to each other, as well as to the information and services they need and enjoy. Ostman and ALA’s Public Programs Office (PPO) here present a handpicked cross-section of successful programs, most of them virtual, from a range of different libraries. Featuring events designed to support learning, spark conversation, create connection, or simply entertain, the ideas here will inspire programming staff to try similar offerings at their own libraries. Showcasing innovation in action as well as lessons learned, programs include

• COVID-19 Misinformation Challenge, featuring an email quiz, to encourage participants to separate fact from fiction; 
• weekly virtual storytimes;
• community cooking demonstrations via Zoom;
• an online grocery store tour, complete with tips about shopping healthy on a budget;
• a virtual beer tasting that boasted 80 attendees;
• socially distanced "creativity crates" for summer reading;
• an online Minecraft club for kids ages 6 and up;
• a Zoom presentation about grieving and funerals during COVID, featuring the director of a local funeral home;
• Art Talk Tuesday, a one-hour, docent-led program; 
• a virtual lecture on the history of witchcraft, presented by a public library in partnership with a university rare book room, that drew thousands of viewers;
• "knitting for knewbies" kits for curbside pickup;
• Songs from the Stacks, an ongoing virtual concert series in the style of NPR’s “Tiny Desk”;
• a pink supermoon viewing party that included people howling at the moon together from their homes on Facebook Live;
• and many others

This first Special Report in a two-volume set on Black and African Americans’ experiences in libraries provides an overview of their historical exclusion from libraries and educational institutions in the United States, also exploring the ways in which this legacy is manifest in our contemporary context. A compelling call to action, it will serve as the beginning of many conversations in which librarianship reckons with its racist past to move towards a more equitable future.

Still a predominantly white profession, librarianship has a legacy of racial discrimination, and it is essential that we face the ways that race impacts how we meet the needs of diverse user communities. Identifying and acknowledging implicit and learned bias is a necessary step toward transforming not only our professional practice but also our scholarship, assessment, and evaluation practices. From this Special Report, readers will

• learn the hidden history of Africa’s contributions to libraries and educational institutions, which are often omitted from K-12, higher education, and library school curricula;
• engage with the racist legacies of libraries as well as contemporary scholarship related to Black and African American users’ experiences with libraries;
• be introduced to frameworks and theories that can help to identify and unpack the role of race in librarianship and in library users’ experiences; and
• garner practical takeaways to bring to their own views and practice of librarianship.