FRBR, FRAD and RDA:
From Conceptual Models to Cataloging
Applications
Marjorie E. Bloss
LACONI
February 25, 2011
1
In This Presentation
Why RDA?
 The Foundation for RDA (FRBR and
FRAD)
 RDA Content – rules and examples
 RDA Toolkit – what it looks like and how
it works
 What’s next?

Anglo-American Cataloging
Traditions
Began with Panizzi, Jewett, and Cutter to a
number of cataloging codes through the
1960s
 Attempts to develop one set of cataloging
rules for both the US and the UK
 Development of Lubetzky’s “Paris
Principles” led to AACR
 AACR2: one more attempt for one code,
based on ISBD

3
Who Is Responsible?
Committee
of
Principals
AACR Fund
Trustees/
Publishers
Joint Steering
Committee
ALA
CC:DA
BL
ACOC
CCC
CILIP
LC
4
AACR2 Characteristics
Created for a card catalog environment
 Provides rules for both description and
display
 Is limited when describing digital materials
 Does not demonstrate how works are
related to one another

GOALS:
RDA will be …
A new standard for resource
description and access
 Designed for the digital world

• Optimized for use as an online product
• Description and access of all resources
• All types of content and media
• Resulting records usable in the digital
environment (Internet, Web OPACs, etc.)
RDA will be …
A consistent, flexible, and extensible
framework
 Compatible with internationally
established principles, models, and
standards
 Primarily for use in libraries, but also
adaptable across many information
communities worldwide

7
Collaborations with other
Communities





International Meeting of Experts International
Cataloguing Committee (IME ICC)
IFLA Section on Cataloguing and its working
groups on FRBR and FRAD
RDA/MARC/MARBI
ONIX (Publishers)
RDA, Dublin Core, IEEE/LOM, Semantic Web
◦ “Data Modeling Meeting” - London 2007
RDA’s Foundation
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic
Records (FRBR)
 Functional Requirements for Authority
Data (FRAD)
 Functional Requirements for Subject
Authority Data (FRSAD – in progress)

FRBR Terminology
Entities (categories)
Attributes (characteristics)
Relationships (between and among entities)
FRBR Group 1 Entities
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
FRBR Group 2 Entities

Those responsible for intellectual or
artistic content, physical production and
dissemination, or custodianship of Group
1 entities
◦ Persons
◦ Families
◦ Corporate bodies
FRBR Group 3 Entities
Subjects
Can include any Group 1 or Group 2 entity
plus
Concepts
Objects
Events
Place
Group 1 Entities
Work
is realized through
Expression
is embodied in
Manifestation
is exemplified by
Item
Work



A distinct intellectual
or artistic creation
Very abstract! – does
not correspond with
any tangible thing
(At right : Shakespeare
thinks about creating
Romeo and Juliet)
Expression



The intellectual or
artistic realization of
a work
Specific sequence of
words in a textual
work, translations,
notes in a musical
work,
interpretations, etc.
Still abstract!
Manifestation


The physical
embodiment of an
expression of a work
An expression can be
embodied in multiple
manifestations (e.g.
print, microform,
digital)
Item

A single
exemplar of a
manifestation
Related or Derivative Works
User Tasks

Associated with bibliographic data (FRBR)
Find
To find entities corresponding to the
user's stated search criteria
Identify
To identify an entity
Select
To select an entity appropriate to the
user's needs
Obtain
To acquire or obtain access to the
entity described
User Tasks
◦ Associated with authority data (FRAD)
Find
Find an entity or set of entities
corresponding to stated criteria
Identify
Identify an entity
Contextualize*
Place a person, corporate body, work, etc.
in context; clarify relationships between
two or more persons, corporate bodies,
works, etc.; and between a person,
corporate body, etc. and the name by
which that person, body, etc. is known
Justify*
Document the authority data creator's
reason for choosing name or form of name
*tasks carried out by those who create authority data
A Look at RDA

Compared to AACR2:
IT SURE SOUNDS DIFFERENT!
IT SURE LOOKS DIFFERENT!
Organization of RDA

Three concepts:
◦ Resource Description
◦ Access Point Control
◦ Relationships
Outline of RDA chapters
Outline of RDA chapters
Outline of RDA chapters
Outline of RDA chapters
RDA’s Foundation
Structure of RDA itself relies heavily on
FRBR and FRAD
 Terminology used has its basis in these
two conceptual models

◦ “Entities”, “Attributes”, “Relationships”
◦ Also user tasks “Find”, “Identify”, “Select”,
“Obtain”, “Conceptualize”, “Justify”
RDA’s Structure -- Attributes
General guidelines (chapter 1)
 Attributes
◦ Of FRBR Group 1 entities (chapters 2-7)

◦ Of FRBR Group 2 entities (chapters 8-11)
which also includes access point control
◦ Of FRBR Group 3 entities (chapters 12-16) –
which are “place holder” chapters for now
RDA’s Structure -- Relationships
Relationship of FRBR Group 1entities to
Group 2 entities (who wrote it, created it,
illustrated it, edited it, acted in it, etc. –
chapters 18-22)
 Relationship of FRBR Group 1 entities to
Group 3 entities (chapter 23 – place
holder chapter for now)

RDA’s Structure -- Relationships
Recording relationships between Group
1 Entities (all those contents notes, title
changes, derivative works – chapters 2428)
 Recording relationships between Group
2 Entities (the connection between
Shakespeare and Leonard Bernstein –
chapters 29-32)

RDA Appendices
Many more than were in AACR2
 Some (Abbreviations and Capitalization)
are the same as in AACR2)
 Some notable differences

◦
◦
◦
◦
Instructions on using ISBD
Mapping from ISBD and MARC to RDA
Titles of nobility (previously in chapter 22)
Relationship designators (who did what?)
Terminology in AACR2 and RDA
AACR2
 ISBD dictates
content and display
 Chief source of
information
 Heading

Author, composer,
etc.






RDA
Instructions only for
content
Preferred source of
information
Authorized access
point
Creator
Terminology in AACR2 and RDA
AACR2
 See reference
 See also reference


Physical description
RDA
 Variant access point
 Authorized access
point for related
entity
 Carrier description

Terminology in AACR2 and RDA
AACR2
 Main entry


Uniform Title
RDA
 Preferred title +
authorized access
point for creator if
appropriate
 (1) Preferred title (+
other information to
differentiate);
 (2) Conventional
collective title

Terminology in AACR2 and RDA

AACR2

GMD
RDA
 Media type +
 Carrier type +
 Content type +

Some Specific Rules – WEMI
Attributes
Notice that RDA begins its instructions
with the Group 1 entities of
manifestations and items
 Core elements have been identified for
recording bibliographic attributes
 Need to identify what you’re cataloging
and the source of information
 “Take what you see…”

Spell it Out!

Terms we previously abbreviated are now
spelled out
◦
◦
◦
◦

Pages
Volumes
Geographic abbreviations
“Third revised edition” (if that’s how it
appears on the preferred source of
information (previously the chief source)
All in the name of internationalization
Compare and Contrast –
Description/Attributes

AACR2
◦ Rule of 3
◦ Omit titles of nobility,
address, honor, etc.
◦ Use formatted field
for serials
enumeration and
chronology

RDA
◦ No longer limited to 3
◦ Include titles of
nobility, address, honor,
etc.
◦ Option of using
unformatted note for
serials enumeration
and chronology
Compare and Contrast –
Description/Attributes

AACR2
◦ GMD found in two
lists
 One for the UK
 One for Australia,
Canada, and the U.S.
◦ Broadly describes
various formats
◦ Found in MARC 245
$h
RDA
 GDM now a single
list for all
 Has been split into
three discrete
elements

◦ Content (MARC 336)
◦ Media (MARC 337)
◦ Carrier (MARC 338)
Compare and Contrast –
Description/Attributes

AACR2

Include “home country”
if not first place of
publication named

Use “s.l.”, “s.n.”

Include multiple
publishers
RDA
Record only the first place
of publication – no
“home country”
provision
 Now “Place of
publication not
identified”, “Publisher
not identified”
 Only first publisher’s
name is required
Compare and Contrast –
Description/Attributes
AACR2
 Permitted to shorten
publisher’s name
 International
identifiers focus on
ISBN and ISSN

RDA
 Spell out publisher’s
name in full
 Includes numbers
assigned by
publishers,
distributors, music
publisher numbers in
addition to ISBN and
ISSN

Personal Names
Chapter 9 includes establishing
“authorized form of the name”
 Many rules identical to AACR2
 Spell out abbreviations like “fl.”
(flourished), approximately, born, died
 Include individual’s role and/or
relationship to the work

Family Names – New to RDA
Alignment with archival community
 Found in chapter 10 – again includes
instructions for authorized forms of
names

◦
◦
◦
◦
Type of family
Dates associated with the family
Places associated with the family
Prominent members of the family
Corporate Bodies
Chapter 11 of RDA
 Very similar to AACR2, including
restricting instances for corporate body
as a main entry
 Will see more corporate bodies included
in statements of responsibility, however –
but this is not the same as the definition
of a creator

Works Accepted as Sacred Scripture
AACR2 25.17A
Use as the uniform title for a
sacred scripture (see 21.37)
the title by which it is most
commonly identified in
English-language reference
sources dealing with the
religious group(s) to which the
scripture belongs. If no such
source is available, use
general reference sources.
Avesta
Bible
Koran
Talmud
Tripiṭaka
RDA 6.23.2.5
Choose as the preferred title for a
sacred scripture the title by
which it is most commonly
identified in reference sources in
the language preferred by the
agency creating the data that
deal with the religious group or
groups to which the scripture
belongs. If no such source is
available, use general reference
sources.
Avesta
Bible
Holy Piby
Kitāb al-aqdas
Qur’an
Talmud
Tripiṭaka
RDA Relationships

Works to works:
◦ Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story
◦ Serial title changes
Expressions to expressions: one
translation to another; one interpretation
to another
 Manifestation: content remains the same,
the carrier or media changes

Examples – Handout
100 field: inclusion of $e to indicate
creator’s role
 300: no abbreviations for pages,
illustrations, etc.
 300: “cm” is abbreviated because it is
considered as a scientific term
 336, 337, 338 fields: take the place of
GMD (245 $h)

Examples – Handout
Example 3: Since RDA does not concern
itself with display, a library could decide to
capitalize all letters of the title proper
 Also note the inclusion of the creators’
titles – something that isn’t done in
AACR2
 However the cataloger has the option of
omitting information in the statement of
responsibility

Examples – Handout
Example 5: Relationship of one
expression to another -- a translation to
its original
 Cataloger’s option to use a relationship
designator from RDA Appendix I in the
100 and 700 fields
 RDA allows you to create a 7xx field
without mention as an attribute

Examples – Handout
Example 7: No more “rule of three” in
RDA
 Up to the cataloger to decide how many
creators are appropriate

Looking at the RDA Toolkit

Now that we’ve looked at some of RDA’s
instructions, let’s see what the RDA Toolkit
looks like