FRBR
Thomas Krichel
http://openlib.org/home/krichel
reading
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International Federation of Library Association
“Fundamental Requirements for Bibliographic
Records”, revised 2008
The version I used is on the course resource page
http://wotan.liu.edu/home/krichel/courses/lis512 under the
external_doc folder.
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It’s 142 pages, you don’t need to read the whole thing. Just
refer to it to potentially clarify what I discuss here.
not looked at here
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Some of the content relates to tasks that a user will
perform on a retrieval system.
Thus there is some “modelling” of what a user does.
This part is off-topic for us since it deals with
information retrieval.
step 1
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Step 1: What do we describe in the bibliographic
universe? What are the things that are of interest to
bibliographic data?
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What we describe is called an entity.
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Example entities are “work” and “event”.
step 2
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Once we know what entities we describe we can do
two things. The order of the two does not matter.
The two are
1: For each entity, what data element do I collect
about this entity? Example: title of a work, start
time and end time of an event.
2: What are relationships between entities?
Example: a work “is about” an event.
--see next two slides--
attributes to entities
• Once we know what entity we are describing,
we can define what we want to describe
about it.
• The data elements we enter information
about are called attributes.
• For example if the entity is a course, it could
be the title of the course, the course number,
etc…
relationship between entities
• If I have two entities, I can define relationship
between entities.
• Say if I have a course entity, and a person
entity, I can define a relationship that a person
is a student in a course, or a person is an
instructor for a course.
• Entities and relationships form and entityrelationship model.
entity groups
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FRBR groups entities into groups. The groups
are numbered
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Group 1: work, expression, manifestation, item
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Group 2: person, corporate body
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Group 3: concept, object, event, place
group 1: work
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The work is a distinct artistic and intellectual
creation. It is a abstract entity.
It is difficult to precisely define what a work is.
Borders of works may be culturally diverse.
Examples:
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Picasso’s Guernica
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Bruckner’s fifth symphony
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Homer’s Iliad.
group 1: expression
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An expression is an intellectual or artistic realization
of the work in the form of alpha-numeric, musical or
chorographical notation, regardless of physical form
that would not alter the contents.
Examples:

a poster of a photo of Guernica
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a version of Bruckner’s fifth
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a particular text of the Iliad
group 1: manifestation
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The manifestation is the particular physical form of
the expression
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the picture of Guernica hanging in Madrid
a published score of a version of the fifth symphony of
Bruckner
a translation of Iliad published in Russian
Difference between manifestations depend on
physical form and intellectual contents.
group 1: item
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This is a singe copy of the
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the picture of Guernica hanging in Madrid
a physical copy of a score of a version of Bruckner's
fifth symphony
a copy of the Russian translation of Iliad
group 2: person
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A person is an individual person.
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It does not matter whether they are alive or not.
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The main interest in persons is with their
relationship with the work.
group 2: corporate body
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A corporate “Corporate Body” is a group of persons,
an organization, or a group of organizations acting
as a unit.
Usually the group has to have a name, even though
they may have gathered only once for, say, a
meeting.
Whether a corporate body is defunct or not does
not matter.
group 3: concept
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A concept is an abstract notion or idea.
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The concept does not need to be precise.
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Bibliographic records are interested in concepts
because they may be the subject of a work.
group 3: object
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An object is a material thing.
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Whether the object actually exists is not of concern.
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We are interested in objects because they can be
the subjects of works.
Example in the FRBR document: Apollo 11
group 3: place
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A place is a geographical location.
The place includes geographical location, be they
terrestrial or not, and geo-political jurisdictions e.g.
the Holy See.
group 3: event
• An event is an action or occurrence.
• The entity defined as event encompasses a
comprehensive range of actions and
occurrences that may be the subject of a
work: historical events, epochs, periods of
time, etc.
aggregate entities
• Many entities can be aggregates of other
entities.
• The USA (place) has 50 states, each of them
entities of type place.
• The Torah (work) has five books, each of type
work.
attributes of a work
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title
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form
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date (of creation)
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other distinguishing characteristics (enabling
distinction from other works with same title)
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intended termination
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intended audience
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context
attributes of a work
• context (at creation time)
• [for musical works]
– medium of performance
– numeric designation
– key
• [for cartographical works]
– coordinates
– equinox
attributes of an expression
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
title
form
date
language
other distinguishing characteristic
extensibility
revisability
attributes of an expression
•
•
•
•
•
extent of the
summarization of content of the expression
context
critical response
use restrictions
attributes of expressions
• [for a serial expression]
– sequencing pattern
– expected regularity of issue
– expected frequency of issue
• [for musical expressions]
– type of score
– medium of performance
attributes of expression
• [for cartographic images or objects]
– scale
– projection
– presentation technique
– representation of relief
– geodetic, grid, and vertical measurement
attributes of expressions
• for images
– recording technique
– special characteristics
– technique
attributes of a manifestation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
title
statement of responsibility
edition/issue designation
place of publication/distribution
publisher/distributor
date of publication/distribution
fabricator/manufacturer
series statement
attributes of a manifestation
•
•
•
•
•
•
form of carrier
extent of the carrier
physical medium
capture mode
dimensions of the carrier
manifestation identifier
attributes of a manifestation
•
•
•
•
source for acquisition/access authorization
terms of availability
access restrictions
[for printed books]
– typeface
– type size
• [for hand-printed books]
– foliation
– collation
attributes of a manifestation
• [for sound recordings]
– playing speed
– groove width
– kind of cutting
– tape configuration
– kind of sound
– special reproduction characteristic
attributes of a manifestation
• [for serials]
– publication status
– numbering
• [for microfilm and images]
– color
– reduction ratio
– polarity
– generation
– presentation format
attributes of a manifestation
• [for electronic resources]
– system requirements
– file characteristics
• [for remote electronic resources]
– mode of access
– access address
manifestation to manifestation
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has an abridgement | is abridgment of
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has a revision | is a revision of
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has a translation | is a translation of
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has an arrangement | is an arrangement of (music)
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has a successor | is a successor to
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has a supplement | is a supplement to
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has a complement | complements
attributes of an item
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
item identifier
fingerprint
provenance
marks/inscriptions
exhibition history
condition
treatment history
scheduled treatment
access restrictions
attributes of a person
•
•
•
•
name of the person e.g. “P.D.Q Bach”
dates of the person e.g. “1742 to 1817”
title of the person e.g. “very reverend”
other designation associated with the person
e.g. “junior”
attributes of a corporate body
•
•
•
•
•
name of the corporate body
number associated with the corporate body
place associated with the corporate body
date associated with the corporate body
other designation associated with the
corporate body
attributes of object / place / event
• These three entities each just have one single,
the “term”.
• The term for the object / place / event is the
word, phrase, or group of characters used to
name or designate the object / place / event.
primary relationships in group 1
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A work “is realized through” an expression.
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An expression “is a realization” of a work.
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An expression “embodied in” a manifestation.
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A manifestation “is an embodiment” of an
expression.
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A manifestation “is exemplified by” an item.
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An item “exemplifies” a manifestation.
group 1 to group 2 relationships
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A work “is created by” a person or corporate body
(P/CB).
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An expression “is realized by” a P/CB.
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A manifestation “is produced by” a P/CB
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An item “is owned by” a P/CB
subject relationships
• any entity in group one can have a subject
relationship with any entity, be it in group 1, 2
or 3.
• A work can be about
– another work
– a person
– a place / event etc…
relationships within group 1
• Relationships within group one are a bit more
difficult.
• Whole to part relationships hold for all
entities in group one and they are easy to
understand.
• But the expression to work relationships in
table 5.6 are confusing to me.
work to work relationships

succeeds | has a successor
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supplements | has a supplement
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complements | has a complement
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has a summary | is summary of
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has adaption | is adaptation of
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has a transformation | is transformation of
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imitation | is imitation of
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has part | is part of
expression to expression relationships,
same work
•
•
•
•
has an abridgement | is an abridgement of
has a revision | is a revision of
has a translation | is a translation of
[for musical works]
– has a transcription | is a transcription of
– has an arrangement | is an arrangement of
expression to expression, different
work
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
has a successor | is a successor to
has a supplement | supplements
has a complement | complements
has a summary | is a summary of
has an adaptation | is an adaptation of
has a transformation | is a transformation of
has an imitation | is an imitation of
expression (of different work) to work
• Such relationships are used when we have a
relationship between expressions, but we are
not sure what expression of the work we are
looking at.
• an expression “has a successor” in a work
• an expression “is a successor to” a work
• an expression “has a supplement” in a work
• an expression “supplements” a work
expression (of different work) to work
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
an expression has a complement in a work
an expression complements a work
an expression has a summary in a work
an expression “is a summary “ of a work
an expression “has adaptation” in a work
an expression “is an adaptation” of a work
an expression “has a transformation” of a work
an expression “is a transformation of” a work
an expression “has an imitation” in a work
an expression “is an imitation of” a work
manifestation to mani. relationships
• These hold for manifestations of the same
expression
• has a reproduction | is a reproduction of
• has an alternate | is an alternate to
• is part of | has part
manifestation to item
• a manifestation “has a reproduction” in an
item
• an item “is a reproduction” of a manifestation
item to item (same work)
• has reconfiguration | is a reconfiguration of
• has reproduction | is a reproduction of
• is part of | has part
http://openlib.org/home/krichel
Thank you for your attention!