| Chapter 1: FRBR's Impact on Current Standards | |
| Brad Eden | |
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| Abstract |
Library Technology Reports 42:6 (Nov/Dec 2006)—A comprehensive resource that provides a “vehicle for providing concise, readable, and…understandable abstracts on the variety of resources available related to FRBR.” From the Preface “FRBR, FRAR, FROR, FRVRR, FRANAR, FRSAR … What are these abbreviations? In a profession that lives and breathes abbreviations and acronyms, do we really need more? Apparently we do, because these are the new boys (or girls) on the block. There is an information revolution on the horizon. Actually, it is going on right now. Libraries no longer have a monopoly on information. As library professionals, we are challenged by publicly traded companies—such as Google and Amazon—with billions of dollars in resources. They provide the consumer with easy-to-use Web interfaces, a single-search box that belies the complexity of indexes and programming beneath, and add-on features that have become extremely popular with users who now expect them to be available on the library's online public access catalog (OPAC) and databases. “It has become apparent to library administrators the current organizational arrangement and division of operations of technical services and public services is not sustainable either financially or organizationally. The clear imperative is: libraries need to be able to morph, change, reengineer, and strategically invest and train personnel and resources toward a future in which information is no longer controlled or held by the library, but by a large number of publishing and service conglomerates for whom there is little incentive to think about issues, such as persistent access, preservation, or standardization of digital objects…. “We have neither the money nor the market dominance that companies like Google, Amazon, and eBay have in the new information environment; we must change, and we must change NOW! FRBR and its subsequent follower abbreviations and/or acronyms may be able to provide the marketability and viability towards this new direction. Only time will tell.” About the Author Brad Eden is Associate University Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previous positions include Head, Web and Digitization Services for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries; Head, Bibliographic and Metadata Services for the UNLV Libraries; and Coordinator of Technical Services for the North Harris Montgomery Community College District. He is editor of OCLC Systems & Services: Digital Library Perspectives International and is associate editor of Library Hi Tech and The Journal of Film Music. He has a master's and Ph.D. degrees in musicology as well as an MS in library science. He publishes in the areas of metadata, librarianship, medieval music and liturgy, and J. R. R. Tolkien. He recently edited Innovative Redesign and Reorganization of Library Technical Services: Paths for the Future and Case Studies (Libraries Unlimited, 2004), and is the author of four other issues of Library Technology Reports including, “Metadata and Its Applications: New Directions and Updates” (41:6); “Innovative Digital Projects in the Humanities” (41:4); “3D Visualization Techniques: 2D and 3D Information Visualization Resources, Application, and Future” (41:1); and “Metadata and Its Applications” (38:5).” |
“Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.”1
This chapter will point to resources that include information about, and may be related to, FRBR's impact on current standards in the library and information-science field. Unless otherwise noted, all URLs in the upcoming chapter were accessed September 29, 2006.
www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/papers/095-152ae.pdf
This paper by Patrick Le Bœuf (presented at Sixty-Seventh IFLA Council and General Conference: Libraries and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age, August 16–25, 2001) examines professional reaction to the FRBR model up until that point in time and discusses how revisions of the ISBDs could be done in relation to interoperability of data between and among numerous information organizations.
www.kobv.de/deutsch/content/wir_ueber_uns/events/2000-06-26/bossmeyer/tsld001.htm
This online presentation by Christine Bossmeyer was presented at “From Search Engines to Virtual Libraries,” Meeting of the Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin, Germany, June 26–27, 2000. Unfortunately, it is difficult to access the content of this slide show, as only the text slides seem to be available.
www.ddb.de/standardisierung/pdf/papers_brave2.pdf
This paper by Maria De Panicis, Isa de Pinedo, Cristina, Magliano, and Alberto Petrucciani discusses Le Bœuf's first version of his “Brave New FRBR” presentation (www.ddb.de/standardisierung/pdf/papers_leboeuf.pdf). It enumerates challenges and problems that need to be addressed, especially the “worxpression” idea, “editorial content” or “package content,” figurative arts reproductions, and various appellation issues. It was presented at the first IFLA Meeting of Experts on an International Cataloguing Code, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, July 28–30, 2003.
http://puboff.lis.uiuc.edu/catalog/windsor/windsor_tillett.pdf
Delivered by Dr. Barbara Tillett as the Phineas L. Windsor lecture at the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science (October 13, 2004), this resource provides an excellent history of cataloging and discusses moving toward FRBR as an important model for cataloging in the future. She indicates that cataloging as it is currently done must change, and her last two paragraphs provide her vision for the future in this area:
I am confident that we will build future systems for machine-generating or capturing bibliographic information and there will be better systems for manipulating that information to meet user needs. But I also believe all of the machine-generated information will be greatly improved by human intervention—by trained librarians, who select materials for their users from among the world's creations—by trained librarians who add appropriate terms from controlled vocabularies and who build and maintain those controlled vocabularies and international authority files. Those tools will be part of future global networked systems helping to improve the precision of searching and meeting the users' needs in whatever language or script they prefer. The expertise of librarians is of enormous value, and we have a lot to contribute to the design of better ways to organize information and help users find information they need.
We must do cataloging differently in the future yet retain the best of basic cataloging principles and concepts and the benefits of authority control. Our tools not only will improve future catalogs but also help improve the information seeking systems of tomorrow's world.2
This 2002 article by Maja Zumer and Gerhard Riesthuis (published in Knowledge Organization, the “official” quarterly journal of the International Society for Knowledge Organization) examines many of the challenges in implementing FRBR broadly in cataloging and information organization/retrieval.3
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/retrieve/4096/frbr_final.pdf (e-print version)
This LRTS article was written by Jennifer Bowen, one of the major players in the writing of Resource Description and Access (RDA).4 (RDA is the next iteration of AACR.) Bowen has been instrumental in spreading the word among the American library community of how the FRBR model is being written into the new cataloging rules and how this may affect cataloging and information retrieval in the local OPAC and user environment.
www.columbia.edu/∼harcourt/FRBRarlis.ppt
This PowerPoint presentation by Kate Harcourt was presented at the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS) 2004 conference in New York and provides a good resource for FRBR basics.
www.ifnet.it/elag2002/ws_paper/ws6.ppt
This PowerPoint file by Isa de Pinedo and Alberto Petrucciani was part of the authors' presentation at the meeting of ELAG 2002 (Semantic Web and Libraries) in Rome. The presentation provides a look at the FRBR model in relation to revision of the Regole italiane di catalogazione per autori (RICA) cataloguing rules. It recommends adoption of a reduced FRBR model application and provides some details of how the authors see this reduced model being applied.
This article, by the RICA Standing Committee, appeared in International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control (2002) and provides further elucidation of the preceding presentation (“FRBR and Revision of Cataloguing Rules”), related to FRBR implementations on the Italian RICA cataloging code.5
A chapter, by Zlata Dimec, Maja Zumer, and Gerhard Riesthuis, in the book Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR): Hype, or Cure-All?, comprises a discussion of the application of the FRBR model on Slovenian cataloging rules and codes.
http://loc.gov/marc/marc-functional-analysis/functional-analysis.html
This extensive report by Tom Delsey (revised in April 2006) examines the mapping of the MARC21 format to the FRBR model. The report looks at MARC21 as related to the FRBR model, MARC21 from the AACR cataloging code model, and a set of user tasks that MARC21 might logically support. The report includes links to “Displays for Multiple Versions from MARC21 and FRBR” at www.loc.gov/marc/marc-functional-analysis/multiple-versions.html; to “JSC Format Variation Working Group Update to MARBI” at www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2003/2003-report01.html; and to FRBR Display Tool, version 2.0 at www.loc.gov/marc/marc-functional-analysis/tool.html.7
www.cdlib.org/inside/news/presentations/rtennant/2004tla/marc.htm
This repository copy of Roy Tennant's presentation for the Texas Library Association (San Antonio 2004) did not port well into the California Digital Library eScholarship repository. In any event, Roy discusses how METS, MARC, XML, and FRBR will work (sort of) in the future.
www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2006/documents/83KartusRevisedfromEK.doc
Presented at the VALA2006 13th Biennial Conference and Exhibition (www.vala.org.au) by Deirdre Kiorgaard (Director, Bibliographic Standards, National Library of Australia) and Ebe Kartus (Coordinator, Metadata, the University of Melbourne), this document presents a discussion the current development of RDA and its relationships to FRBR and FRAR.
Notes
| 1. | Kathleen Norris, O Magazine (January 2004), “Quota- tion #32527 from Laura Moncur's Motivational Quo- tations,” The Quotations Page, www.quotationspage.com/quote/32527.html (accessed September 13, 2006). |
| 2. | Barbara Tillett, “Cataloging for the Future (delivered as the Phineas L. Windsor Lecture, University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, October 13, 2004), http://puboff.lis.uiuc.edu/catalog/windsor/windsor_tillett.pdf (accessed September 13, 2006). |
| 3. | Zumer, Maja; Riesthuis, Gerhard. “Consequences of Implementing FRBR: Are We Ready to Open Pandora's Box?”Knowledge Organization 2002;29(no. 2) |
| 4. | Jennifer Bowen, “FRBR: Coming Soon to Your Library?” Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS) 49, no. 3 (2005), https://urresearch.rochester.edu/retrieve/4096/frbr_final.pdf (accessed September 13, 2006). |
| 5. | RICA Standing Committee. “The FRBR Model Application to Italian Cataloguing Practices: Problems and Use,”International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control 2002 April–June;31(no. 2) |
| 6. | Le Bœuf, Patrick, editor. Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR): Hype, or Cure-All?. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press; 2005. |
| 7. | Tom Delsey, Functional Analysis of the MARC21 Bibliographic and Holdings Formats (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2006), http://loc.gov/marc/marc-functional-analysis/functional-analysis.html (accessed September 13, 2006). |
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