Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

The Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records ( FRBR, German, Functional requirements for bibliographic records ') are the most important today theoretical basis for the creation of library rules. The FRBR go back to a 1998 published and updated in 2008 with the same study by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA ) and form the basis for the currently already in use Resource Description and Access ( RDA).

FRBR is a data model for bibliographic metadata. The FRBR ontology is based on the Entity -Relationship Model, and defines a number of basic concepts for cataloging.

While conventional rules mainly focus on details and are assumed to be given essential concepts like " work", "Output " and " copy " FRBR tries to define exactly these terms and to relate to each other.

Entities, their characteristics and their relationships to each other

Core of seven chapters long study are the so-called entities, which are discussed in Chapter three. The four most important of the ten entities are the works (such as the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther ), the expressions (such as the translation of the work The Sorrows of Young Werther by Pierre Leroux ) manifestations (such as the 1841 edition of this translation appeared in Paris Leroux ) and copies (such as the copy of this issue with the signature Yv 7991/1 in the Berlin State Library ). In chapter four it comes to the features that can accommodate the entities and in chapter five to the relationships that may exist between entities. In the first two chapters of the history, objectives and content of the study will be presented, chapter six is about the respective importance of the entities, their attributes and relationships, and chapter seven of the minimum requirements for bibliographic records. The most important terms of FRBR are:

• Entities ( entities ) group 1 Work (work )
• Expression (expression)
• Manifestation ( manifestation )
• Copy (item)

• Person (person)
• Corporation (corporate body)

• Term ( concept)
• Object (object)
• Event (event)
• Place ( place)

The ten entities

The four Group 1 Entities are a result of human activity. The Sorrows of Young Werther, for example, are a creation of Goethe.

The two entities of the Group 2 are the persons and entities, who produced and distributed the group 1 entities (such as publishers ) or are responsible for their copyright protection.

The four of Group 3 entities are those entities that can be the subject of a work. So it can in a work about the place Vienna go, but also to the concept of differential equations, the event World War II or the subject light bulb.

Characteristics of entities

Each entity must fulfill several characteristics. So The Sorrows of Young Werther were written at a particular time and comes every manifestation a certain place of publication and a publication year.

Relationships between entities

There are various relationships between entities. Thus, the entity Goehte has the entity written The Sorrows of Young Werther and is the entity carrying the signature Yv 7991/1 in the Berlin State Library a copy of the entity The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Entity-Relationship and Object-oriented

FRBR is an object - relational model and is also sometimes referred to accordingly as " FRBRER ". It will be further developed in connection to another model, the Conceptual Reference Model ( ISO 21127:2006 ). This model was developed by CIDOC, one of the 30 International Committee of the International Council of Museums ( ICOM). The mutual adaptation of FRBR and the CIDOC - CRM FRBRoo, a model with greater codification of temporal entities and relations arise.

Objective / Practical significance

Goal in the development of the FRBR concept was to order the display of catalog data to better meet the needs of the user: "The aim of the study to produce a framework which did would Provide a [ ... ] understanding of what it is [ ... ] did we expect the record to achieve achievement in terms of answering user needs. "

One form of implementation of this requirement could be, for instance, to group in the hit list of a library catalog the results in relation to the above four Group 1 Entities: An entry in the hit list, which is equivalent to a work, under which it is the find collected individual manifestations, rather than being included as main entries distributed to appear on the hit list. A user could thus see at a glance that / whether a library has various editions of the print edition, a film, an audiobook version, etc. to a work.

History

Precursor of FRBR were 1961 Paris Principles and 1971, the International Standard Bibliographic Description. With the advent of computerized library system into the old catalog species have been replaced by electronic since the 1980s and it seemed also necessary to create new standards for the development of cataloging codes. In 1990, therefore, the Conference " Seminar on Bibliographic Records " was held in Stockholm, which was organized by the " IFLA UBCIM " and the " IFLA Division of Bibliographic Control." It was decided to create an international study on the functional requirements for bibliographic records. Only a year later was called the " IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records " to life and -fed them with members of the "Standing Committee of the IFLA Section on Cataloguing " and the " Section on Classification and Indesxing ". In addition, thirteen consultants were used from nine countries.

The present model is based FRBR originally published in 1998 on the same study this " IFLA Study Group on FRBR ." Following this first edition were made by the " IFLA FRBR Review Group ' suggestions and opinions to the world in 2006 called, as it had come in the practical implementation of the entity expression problems. 2008/2009 was published a revised version, which was translated into German, and since then in many other languages ​​, 2009.

FRBR will continue to be supported by a working group of IFLA. Since 2005, an independently developed by IFLA RDF ontology of the FRBR model exists.