tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6884044530903590185.post2141750806481870481..comments2023-03-08T11:53:21.021+01:00Comments on Übertext: Blog: My Problems with FRBR I: NamingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6884044530903590185.post-30782839709843724942012-11-21T20:34:52.471+01:002012-11-21T20:34:52.471+01:00Thanks for the pointer, Ron. I didn't know of ...Thanks for the pointer, Ron. I didn't know of this paper before. I will definitely take a deeper look at it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6884044530903590185.post-17379238821873205362012-11-21T16:27:20.675+01:002012-11-21T16:27:20.675+01:00Adrian,
Hopefully by now you will have read our p...Adrian,<br /><br />Hopefully by now you will have read our paper on FRBR – placed within a larger theoretical framework – in the December 2011 (ALA) LITA: <br /><br />http://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/article/view/1868<br /><br />Many problems people have with FRBR have to do with its "logical" data modeling origins. Much of what one encounters takes the FRBR Report and jumps straight into database, etc., design. Or objects to the data modeling technique and jumps into another one (FRBRoo).<br /><br />We thought there was more work to be done than that. In our paper, we took the IFLA data modeling results (expressed as E-R modeling concepts) and formed them into a "resource description theory" that can coexist with other theories in the Cultural Heritage realm.<br /><br />Along the way, we made a connection to an observational and theoretical science (Physics) – libraries make observations on the resources in their custody – and followed up on the implications.<br /><br />Have a look and respond if you would like to my Library of Congress address.<br /><br />Ron MurrayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6884044530903590185.post-78852191870507075962011-11-04T13:51:14.940+01:002011-11-04T13:51:14.940+01:00Adrian,
Some good points, but you also miss the p...Adrian,<br /><br />Some good points, but you also miss the point now and then I think. FRBR wasn't written by system designers I guess. The term ‘Functional Requirements’ has puzzled me from the beginning too. Having said that, FRBR is defined in relation to ‘generic tasks that are performed by users when searching and making use of national bibliographies and library catalogues’ (find, identify, select, obtain, and also navigate). I think that’s what the ‘functional requirements’ refer too. It’s just mixing up data model and services built on that model.<br />But at the same time the user tasks have been grossly neglected in the FRBR modelling world. Cataloguers are dealing with creating metadata, not with creating user services. That’s where Public Services and System Librarians/developers come in.<br />It’s true that customers/users/patrons do not think in Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item concepts. But some of them actually are interested in specific editions, adaptations, and even comparisons between them. Not the ordinary public library customer who is looking for “The Da Vinci Code” in a language that suits her or him best. They might want to know about the movie though, or about Da Vinci, secret societies in general etc.<br />Anyway, the terminology of the infrastructural FRBR model are not aimed at being used by end users of systems based on the model. Nothing different from system development in all other areas. But the same applies to current cataloguing OPACs that present the user with incomprehensible and useless information based on AACR2/MARC (dimensions, ‘[s.l]’, subject headings that only lead to other publications with tha heading, etc).<br /><br />In my view FRBR is a valuable model for building traditional library cataloguing systems, but has serious flaws: it’s still focuased on traditional publications/physical entities (even ebooks and ejournals), not on content. <br />Same goes to some extent for RDA, which uses text instead of actual links for implementing FRBR.<br />FRBR is necessary for connecting old style cataloguing entities with the new LOD world, but it is not enough to provide people with all information they should have access to in the networked online world.<br /><br />See my recent presentation for the Dutch RDA seminar (audience of cataloguers!) http://www.slideshare.net/lukask/linking-books-rdafrbrlodLukas Kosterhttp://commonplace.netnoreply@blogger.com