Information as Recorded Intellectual Creation a brief history of the bibliographic universe Week 3 Lecture notes INF 380E: Perspectives on Information Karen Wickett – Spring 2016 School of Information University of Texas at Austin

Metadata in Everyday Online Life proposals due February 17

Discuss in groups of 2 or 3 Svenonius states "The content contained in ephemeral messages—such as the casual "Have a nice day!"—lies outside the domain of information systems. Do you agree? Can you think of counterexamples? What are some advantages and disadvantages on either side of this question?

Metadata “information created to arrange, describe, track, and otherwise enhance access to information objects and the physical collections related to those objects” – Gilliland

Functional Categories of Metadata Administrative Descriptive Preservation Technical Use

Administrative metadata “Metadata used in managing and administering collections and information resources.” Examples –Acquisition information –Rights information –Location information

Descriptive metadata “Metadata used to identify and describe collections and related information resources.” Examples – Cataloging records – Finding aids

Preservation Metadata “Metadata related to the preservation management of collections and information resources” Examples – documentation of physical condition – documentation of preservation actions

Technical metadata “Metadata related to how a system functions or metadata behaves.” Examples – Hardware and software documentation – Technical details of digitization process – Authentication and encryption information

Use metadata “Metadata related to the level and type of use of collections and information resources.” Examples – Circulation records – Download counts – Search logs – User tracking

Recording Intellectual creations: Writing it down Language lets us express ideas Written language lets us share them across time and space. Not only can we express things, we can reproduce and distribute those expressions. But this introduces distance

The problems of distance In order for me to experience an idea or information expressed via written language, I need to encounter some physical object. But is what I get from that physical object the same idea it was meant to express?

Bibliography For literary scholars, the differences between versions of the texts they study are often significant. In order to get it right, you have to understand the history of creation and production that resulted in the text in front of you. In order to get that right, we have to distinguish between the entities involved.

Types of bibliographic study (W&A) Reference Bibliography – compiling a list of works according to a principle of discovery and selection, a method of citation, and a system of organization. Historical Bibliography – studies the history of printing and the book trade, typically scoped to a publisher, a method, a place, a time period, etc. – sometimes closer to social science, examining the societal impact

Types of bibliographic study (W&A) Analytical Bibliography – examines books as physical objects – concerned with how physical features reveal the history of production Descriptive Bibliography – seeks accurately describe the object produced by publishing processes and all variations caused by alterations in the process – provide a history of the forms in which a particular book or group of books was issued

Textual Criticism Seeks to trace the history of texts and to establish texts according to certain principles and using certain methods. Focus on the text – using the results of the analytical and descriptive bibliography – which assist in determining what changes appeared in a text and when.

Textual studies and bibliography Textual scholars attempt to map, describe, and compare all the versions (texts) of a work. Think of Shakespeare’s plays: – many different versions, even from Shakespeare’s lifetime (quartos, folio, etc). – Printing always introduces “variations” – How can we interpret Shakespeare’s plays with confidence if we do not have the correct “text of the work”?

Texts and documents Textual critics “establish texts” what does this imply? there is a separation between a document that carries a text and the text of a work. “the text of a work” also implies something…

What have we here? Compare these statements: At Half-Priced books, I found a used paperback copy of Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is about a man who loses his cat. The Wind was originally published in Japanese and released in Japan in three parts. Two chapters were originally published in English in The New Yorker. Today, there is a Kindle version for $ WorldCat has versions in English, Japanese, Chaines, Vietnamese, Polish, Hebrew, Russian, Thai, Spanish, Bosnian, Swedish, Sinhalese, and Ukranian

What have we here? When I talk of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I may mean – a specific, unique item the copy I own, – or a specific kind of version but not necessarily a unique physical item the Kindle version the French version, – or I might mean The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in all its potential variations.

Documents, texts, and works The terms work, text, and document help us to distinguish between these different uses of The Wind-UP Bird Chronicle. The copy from the garage sale is a document, an individual item. The sequence of words and symbols that is contained within the copy from the garage sale is a text. Other copies have the same text. Other formats, such as a Kindle version, may also have the same text. The French version is a different text (a different sequence of words and symbols) All the different potential sequences of words and symbols—all the versions, or texts—constitute the work.

The indeterminacy of the work It is often difficult to say where one work ends and another begins. People have come up with different rules of thumb for distinguishing between works. In the FRBR model, a strict translation is not a new work, but a loose translation might be. But there is little agreement about these rules. Some say any translation should be a new work. Or translations of poetry are new works, but translations of instruction manuals aren’t. Or...

Are these the same work? Video footage of a warehouse on fire, – shot by a bystander with a cell phone, – by a news crew with a camera, – by the security camera of a neighboring establishment. A tweet and the tweet retweeted by another tweeter. The song La Bamba – performed by Ritchie Valens (studio version) – by Los Lobos (studio version) – by Los Lobos (live, bootleg tape).

Are these the same work? A blog post that comments on a linked Web page the same blog post when the linked page changes its text the same blog post when the link becomes dead.

Are these the same work? The Huffington Post – today, – the Huffington Post one week ago – the Huffington Post one hour ago.

Are these the same work??

FRBR An entity-relationship model to describe the bibliographic universe, – developed by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) – it is a conceptual model for library catalogs. One goal is to show relationships between entities. – i.e., how all the things that might be considered Hamlet are related.

User tasks for FRBR entities The FRBR report identifies four tasks that users should be able to accomplish with all the entities: – Find. – Identify. – Select. – Obtain.

FRBR entity-relationship model FRBR entities include works, expressions, manifestations, and items. Chart from Tillet, 2004

FRBR works A work in the FRBR model is “a distinct intellectual or artistic creation.” examples: – All editions of an anatomy textbook are one work. – A Bach organ fugue and an arrangement for chamber orchestra are the same work. – A French movie in its original form and a version with English subtitles (and one dubbed into Japanese) are the same work.

FRBR expressions An expression is analogous to a text: “the intellectual or artistic realization of a work” in a form, be it textual, sound, image, musical notation, whatever. The expression encompasses the intellectual but not the physical form (e.g., typeface and layout are not part of the expression). Examples: – The score and performances of a quintet are different expressions of the same work. – A German text and its English translation are ….

FRBR manifestations A manifestation in FRBR is the realization of an expression in a physical medium. The same expression can be embodied in different manifestations. All copies that are produced as part of the same set are the same manifestation. Examples: – The same performance of a musical work on CD and on LP (two manifestations, one expression). – The same edition of a newspaper in print and in microform (two manifestations, one expression).

FRBR items An item in FRBR refers to the actual physical copy of a manifestation. Examples: – A particular autographed copy of a book. – A particular copy of a musical score in which one page is missing.

Attributes in FRBR Each entity set is described by a different set of attributes. Some attributes are similar across entity sets: – works and expressions both have titles. – The title of a work might be Hamlet, but the title of a particular expression might be William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Some attributes are completely different. – Manifestations have publishers. Works don’t.

Applying FRBR to a twisty case McDonough and colleagues try to map versions of the computer game Adventure to the entities in the FRBR model. – Goodness, they try. The difficulties are generally relevant to the application of FRBR to the organization of digital artifacts: – Many versions with different underlying code may exist for a single version of the user experience. – The experience of a digital artifact depends to a variable extent on the software and hardware infrastructure in which it is embedded. What constitutes the game?

Activity: At Last versions

Activity (part 2) Analyze the objects according to the FRBR Group One Model. Some FRBR definitions: – A work is “a distinct intellectual or artistic creation.” – An expression is analagous to a text: “the intellectual or artistic realization of a work” in a form, be it textual, sound, image, musical notation, whatever. The expression encompasses the intellectual but not the physical form. – A manifestation in FRBR is the realization of an expression in a physical medium. All copies that are produced as part of the same set are the same manifestation. additional FRBR relationships: – has a successor – has a supplement – has a complement – has a summary – has adaptation – has a transformation – has an imitation Each of the relationships can stand between two works, between two expressions, or between an expression and a work.