1. Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
FRBR
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
Welcome to an interactive session on FRBR, Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, the conceptual model of the bibliographic universe that underlies RDA, Resource Description and Access. We will not talk at all about RDA today, or MARC, or ISBD—just FRBR. There are three main reasons that it is important for us to be versed in FRBR. (1) FRBR-ized catalogs offer a better user experience. The next two reasons are selfish reasons. (2) If we don’t understand FRBR, we won’t understand RDA. (3) Adhering to the FRBR model in our cataloging would save us lots of time and energy keying in information that is already in the database (for works that are published over and over in multiple versions).
Tracey Snyder
Assistant Music Librarian
Cornell University
April 26, 2011

2. Dracula in FRBR terms
Don’t have to read this too closely. Start paying attention at the first Dracula slide. Main idea is that a work like Dracula comes in many versions. Most works in our bibliographic universe only exist in one form—they were written, never translated, published once and only once. Many literary works, musical works, and films exist in multiple versions, and that’s where FRBR helps us.

3. Dracula in an OPAC
What happens when you look up a title like Dracula in a traditional OPAC?

4. Results in OPAC
Lots of results to scan through, not grouped together in any meaningful way. Mix of visual materials (including DVD and VHS), musical recordings, books, e-books. Not user-friendly. User has to scan a large and unwieldy set of results and open individual bib records for more information to distinguish between editions, versions. Keep in mind that the year is just the year of publication by a certain publisher. The 1992 Coppola movie may have been rereleased on DVD in If you are looking for the 1992 film, the publication date 2001 doesn’t help you determine if this is what you are looking for.

5. Dracula in a FRBR-inspired catalog
Here is an example of a FRBR-inspired catalog interface for videos. Let’s look up Dracula here, and see if the FRBR structure helps us to Find, Identify, Select, Obtain (FISO). Caveat: this database uses a small pool of videos, so the results set won’t be huge.

6. Results in FRBR-inspired catalog
This interface clusters information together in a meaningful way. It collates all the versions of the 1958 film (in this first cluster of results) and allows the user to browse the multiple versions of that film.

7. Results in FRBR-inspired catalog (cont’d)
This second cluster of results brings together all versions of the 1992 film.

8. Results in FRBR-inspired catalog (cont’d)
And so on.

9. Can you relate to this? México, D.F. 2008 Stoppard Shakespeare
Derivative
works
Hamlet
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead
Romeo and
Juliet
English
French
Text
Movies …
German
Spanish
Subject
Take a minute to try to understand what this is depicting and relate it to your everyday cataloging work. [After a few moments, explain what is depicted here]. I’m going to take away titles of the plays, movies, etc.
México, D.F. 2008
Library of Congress
Copy 1
Green leather binding
From B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 9

10. WORK In FRBR/WEMI terms WORK WORK about a WORK México, D.F. 2008
Stoppard
Shakespeare
Derivative
works
WORK
WORK
WORK
English
French
Text
WORKS (Movies)
German
Spanish
Subject
WORK
about a
FRBR calls these works. Now, I’ll take away the names of the languages into which Hamlet has been translated, and replace them with…
México, D.F. 2008
Library of Congress
Copy 1
Green leather binding
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 10

11. WORK In FRBR/WEMI terms WORK WORK about a WORK Expression Expression
Stoppard
Shakespeare
Derivative
works
WORK
WORK
WORK
Expression
Expression
Text
WORKS (Movies)
Expression
Expression
Subject
WORK
about a
…Expression. Translations of a work are called expressions of that work. Now, I’m going to take away publication information about this publication of the Spanish translation and replace it with…
México, D.F. 2008
Library of Congress
Copy 1
Green leather binding
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 11

12. WORK In FRBR/WEMI terms WORK WORK about a MANIFESTATION WORK
Stoppard
Shakespeare
Derivative
works
WORK
WORK
WORK
Expression
Expression
Text
WORKS (Movies)
Expression
Expression
Subject
WORK
about a
Manifestation. A publication of any one of those expressions is called a manifestation. Now, for the library’s copy-specific information…
MANIFESTATION
Library of Congress
Copy 1
Green leather binding
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 12

13. WORK ITEM In FRBR/WEMI terms WORK WORK about a MANIFESTATION WORK
Stoppard
Shakespeare
Derivative
works
WORK
WORK
WORK
Expression
Expression
Text
WORKS (Movies)
Expression
Expression
Subject
WORK
about a
Your library’s singular copy of a publication is called an item. WEMI (hierarchy)—component of FRBR.
MANIFESTATION
ITEM
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 13

14. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Hamlet. French.
FRBR - Tillett presentation, July 10, 2009
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. French.
LC Control No. :
LCCN Permalink :
Type of Material : Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name : Shakespeare, William,
Main Title : ... Hamlet, traduit par André Gide.
Published/Created : [Paris] Gallimard [1946]
Description : 2 p. l., 7-237, [2] p. 17 cm.
CALL NUMBER : PR2779.H3 G5Copy 1
-- Request in : Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or
Area Studies Reading Rms
Here we have an OPAC record from our Library of Congress Voyager integrated library system.
If we take a look at the display for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, you will see that our OPAC display also includes all of the FRBR Group 1 entities – in a sense it is already “FRBR-ized.”
When we browse under Shakespeare in the online catalog, we should group the various expressions we have of that work. Some systems do this collocation or gathering together of the works and expressions better than others now.
With the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, we provided a uniform title that included the…
From B. Tillett, FRBR, 2009 14 14

15. Work Person Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Hamlet. French.
FRBR - Tillett presentation, July 10, 2009
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. French.
LC Control No. :
LCCN Permalink :
Type of Material : Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name : Shakespeare, William,
Main Title : ... Hamlet, traduit par André Gide.
Published/Created : [Paris] Gallimard [1946]
Description : 2 p. l., 7-237, [2] p. 17 cm.
CALL NUMBER : PR2779.H3 G5Copy 1
-- Request in : Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or
Area Studies Reading Rms
Work
name of the “person” in the role as the creator of the work, plus a preferred title for the work, plus
From B. Tillett, FRBR, 2009
Person 15 15

16. Expression Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Hamlet. French.
FRBR - Tillett presentation, July 10, 2009
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. French.
Expression
LC Control No. :
LCCN Permalink :
Type of Material : Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name : Shakespeare, William,
Main Title : ... Hamlet, traduit par André Gide.
Published/Created : [Paris] Gallimard [1946]
Description : 2 p. l., 7-237, [2] p. 17 cm.
CALL NUMBER : PR2779.H3 G5Copy 1
-- Request in : Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or
Area Studies Reading Rms
expression-level information to indicate that this particular description is for a French translation of Hamlet. The OPAC display also shows us the specific
From B. Tillett, FRBR, 2009 16 16

17. Manifestation Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Hamlet. French.
FRBR - Tillett presentation, July 10, 2009
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. French.
Manifestation
LC Control No. :
LCCN Permalink :
Type of Material : Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name : Shakespeare, William,
Main Title : ... Hamlet, traduit par André Gide.
Published/Created : [Paris] Gallimard [1946]
Description : 2 p. l., 7-237, [2] p. 17 cm.
CALL NUMBER : PR2779.H3 G5Copy 1
-- Request in : Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or
Area Studies Reading Rms
manifestation in terms of the body of the bibliographic description – things like the place of publication, the publisher, the date of publication, the extent- how many pages, its size, and so on
and also the individual
From B. Tillett, FRBR, 2009 17 17

18. Item Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Hamlet. French.
FRBR - Tillett presentation, July 10, 2009
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. French.
LC Control No. :
LCCN Permalink :
Type of Material : Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name : Shakespeare, William,
Main Title : ... Hamlet, traduit par André Gide.
Published/Created : [Paris] Gallimard [1946]
Description : 2 p. l., 7-237, [2] p. 17 cm.
CALL NUMBER : PR2779.H3 G5Copy 1
-- Request in : Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or
Area Studies Reading Rms
Item
Items that we hold in our collections – with location information and a call number.
One advantage of using the FRBR model is to help clarify concepts that have been rather muddy in our rules in the past. Using the FRBR language in cataloging rules and identifying the specific elements or attributes of each entity should make concepts clearer especially for the next generation of catalogers and system designers.
Once we clearly label all the elements and relationships, our future systems can re-use that information to provide displays and pathways that are the most relevant to our users.
FRBR lets us describe the things in this universe with a new vocabulary that also helps us talk to designers of systems, so we can work together to build better resource discovery systems for the future - especially to build systems that take full advantage of the technology we now have with Internet linking capabilities. The technologies of the past that produced our book catalogs, card catalogs, and then the early online catalogs each had an impact on how we were able to convey information to our users.
From B. Tillett, FRBR, 2009 18 18

19. It’s all connected México, D.F. 2008 Derivative work Macbeth
Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth
Scotland, PA (movie)
Stoppard
Shakespeare
Derivative
works
Hamlet
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead
Romeo and
Juliet
English
French
Text
Movie versions
of Hamlet
German
Spanish
Subject
Back to original web of information. We can really keep expanding this web and making connections. Linked data.
México, D.F. 2008
Library of Congress
Copy 1
Green leather binding
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 19

20. Entities and relationships
PERSON
PERSON
Derivative
works
WORK
WORK
WORK
Expression
Expression
Text
WORKS (Movies)
Expression
Expression
Subject
WORK
about a
Works, expressions, manifestations, and items are entities; persons such as Shakespeare and Stoppard are also entities; relationships exists between entities.
MANIFESTATION
ITEM
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 20

21. Attributes of entities
Died in 1616
Stoppard
Shakespeare
Derivative
works
Hamlet
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead
Romeo and
Juliet
English
French
Text
Movies …
German
Spanish
Subject
Attributes of entities (works, expressions, manifestations, items), such as title, place and date of publication; can also name attributes of the entity Shakespeare who created the entities Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, etc. When he died, for example.
México, D.F. 2008
Library of Congress
Copy 1
Green leather binding
Based on B. Tillett, Building Blocks for the Future, 2010 21

22. Entities, Attributes, and Relationships
Entities have attributes.
(Things and people have characteristics.)
Entities have relationships to other entities.
(People create things. Some things are related to other things.)
Look at the B&W FRBR handout with the diagrams.

23. Entities—three groups
Group 1: Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item (WEMI)
The products of intellectual and artistic endeavor
Group 2: Person, Corporate body, Family
Those responsible for intellectual and artistic content
Group 3: Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item, Person, Corporate body, Family, Concept, Object, Event, Place
The subjects of works; a work can be about anything, even another work!
This last part means a work can be a group 1 entity or a group 3 entity, depending on the context. A person can be a group 2 entity or a group 3 entity, depending on the context. Today, we are mostly talking about group 1 entities—WEMI.

24. Attributes of Group 1 Entities (WEMI)
Work (abstract; content)
The work Hamlet is a play; it was written between and 1601.
Expression (abstract; content)
One of the expressions of the work Hamlet is in Spanish.
Manifestation (concrete; carrier)
One of the manifestations of a Spanish expression of the work Hamlet was published in Mexico in 2008.
Item (concrete; carrier)
One of the items that exemplifies the manifestation of a Spanish expression of the work Hamlet is called “copy 1” at the Library of Congress.
See list of attributes after diagram 1. Here, attributes are underlined.

25. Attributes of Group 2 and 3 Entities
Person (Group 2)
Shakespeare was a poet and playwright; he died in 1616.
This is in the realm of name authority work; more about that at a later session.
Work as subject of another work (Group 3)
The Wikipedia article called “Hamlet” has as its subject the work Hamlet, a play written between 1599 and 1601.
This is in the realm of subject authority work, which falls outside of the scope of RDA. Sorry!
See lists of attributes after diagrams 2 and 3.

26. Relationships between entities
Among Group 1 Entities
A work is expressed; an expression of the work is manifested; a manifestation of an expression of the work is exemplified by an item
Between Group 1 Entities and Group 2 Entities
The work Hamlet was created by the person Shakespeare
Between Group 1 Entities (Work) and Group 3 Entities
The Wikipedia article “Hamlet” has as its subject the play Hamlet
See diagrams 1, 2, 3.

27. Other relationships between works
The work Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (a play) is based on the work Hamlet (a play).
The work Scotland, PA (a movie) is based on the work Macbeth (a play).
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Scotland PA are derivative works, but they are new works nonetheless.
Other types of relationships between works are possible (sequential, whole-part, etc.)
We saw “related work” relationships in the colorful slides.

28. More color-coded entities
See your handout. A manifestation (publication) that brings together expressions (specific performances) of two unrelated works by two different composers. WEMI is a hierarchy, so all information that applies to a work also applies to any expressions, manifestations of that work. This is where FRBR can save us from rekeying information. Enter all the work-level information once—when it was written, the name of the form/genre, etc. Then, attach any expressions to the work, and so forth. The work exists in the composer’s head. It is brought to life through an expression (performance, for example). That performance is captured on a CD and produced by a publisher at the manifestation level (the carrier of the content). Persons and body—attributes, relationships to work, expression.
From J. Riley et al., Definition of a FRBR-based Metadata Model for the Indiana University
Variations3 Project, 2007

29. More color-coded entities (cont’d)
Local data about the item (the library’s copy of this publication).
From J. Riley et al., Definition of a FRBR-based Metadata Model for the Indiana University
Variations3 Project, 2007

30. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The attribute “Library’s copy signed by Yo- Yo Ma” is at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Item. Don’t look at your FRBR handout, but do refer to it later. The answers to most quiz questions are there.

31. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The attributes “Performed by Yo-Yo Ma; recorded in 1983” (referring to any given piece of music) are at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Expression. Remember to think highest possible level that this information can apply to, because it will trickle down to the lower levels of the hierarchy. Think back to the diagram with the violin concertos being performed/recorded. Someone is making an artistic or intellectual effort to give life to an abstract work.

32. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The attributes “Published in 1964; published by Van Nostrand” are at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Manifestation. This information will also apply to all items—all copies of this particular publication.

33. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The content of Harry Lindgren’s Geometric dissections is at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Work. There might very well be only one expression of this work, and the content is in English, and the title is Geometric dissections. It might only ever get published in one manifestation, with the title Geometric dissections.

34. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The attribute “French translation of Harry Lindgren’s Geometric dissections” is at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Expression. Think of the 240 as being the authoritative title for the work. If you have a translation (expression), you append $l French to the 240. The French expression of the work.

35. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The content known as Recreational problems in geometric dissections by Harry Lindgren, having the attribute “revision of Geometric dissections,” is at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Expression. Mention continuum. Think back to Dracula video that mentioned illustrated editions, etc. as expressions.

36. Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item?
The content of Seth Grahame-Smith’s graphic novel Pride and prejudice and zombies, having the attribute “parody of Jane Austen’s Pride and prejudice” is at which entity level in WEMI?
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
This is a trick question
This is only sort of a trick question. This information applies to the level of “work,” but not the work “Pride and prejudice.” It is an entirely new work, specifically a “related work,” in relation to “Pride and prejudice.” Look at book—misleading statement of responsibility.

37. From Dracula to Hamlet to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

38. … and, Blade Runner

39. Activity Time
Small groups write down attributes at various WEMI levels pertaining to item in hand (copies of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner, as well as a few books about Blade Runner).

40. Blade Runner (work)

41. Blade Runner (manifestations)

42. Lessons learned
FRBR is a useful framework for describing the entities and articulating the relationships that we work with
FRBR offers catalog users a more efficient search experience than our current environment
FRBR saves catalogers the time and effort currently required in re-keying information about works that is re-used for expressions and manifestations
FRBR is at the heart of RDA, so let’s embrace it!

43. For more information …
Talk to us, your friendly RDA training committee
Jean Pajerek, co-chair
Cynthia Rich
Sarah Ross
Cecilia Sercan
Tracey Snyder, co-chair
Ardeen White
Consult our wiki: +Documentation

44. Dr. Barbara Tillett, Library of Congress
Dr. Barbara Tillett, champion of FRBR, sees the world through FRBR-colored glasses.
Dr. Barbara Tillett,
Library of Congress