The FRBR Blog

There was a session at the North American Serials Interest Group conference on 5 and 6 May (see the program guide). Paul Weiss (University of California at San Diego) and Steve Shadle (University of Washington) did “FRBR in the Real World:”

Come see FRBR in action! We will present several real-life serial case studies and lead discussions with the audience about the ways FRBR’s conceptual model might be applied to each. Which cases are straightforward? Which are complex and merit further work by the developers of FRBR? We will also present mockups of ILS screens to show how these decisions might affect staff and public use of our data and systems. Come fine-tune your FRBR abilities, and contribute to the ongoing community discussions toward the refinement of the FRBR model.

Dalene Hawthorne left an enthusiastic comment about it on a blog:

The second session I attended yesterday was about FRBR in the Real World, and was presented by Paul J. Wiess & Steve Shadle. Here’s the gold of NASIG for me: Everything I know about FRBR I learned at NASIG. This session helped remind me of what FRBR is all about (which I learned at a previous NASIG conference, of course), and I was even able to explain it to a few colleagues after the session. I’m always less fearful of what is coming my way after attending a NASIG conference, and this is a classic example. I’ve been thinking “Oh, I’ve got to get my library ready for FRBR,” when all I really need to be thinking is “I just need to start explaining this model to my cataloging staff so they understand what’s going on out there and don’t get all worried.” Cool.

It’s been big news in the library world recently that OCLC and RLG are planning to merge. Now, if you’re outside the library world, perhaps you haven’t heard of either. Maybe you do work in the library biz but don’t have anything to do with them. What’s of interest here is that they’re both doing FRBR research and experimentation: what will happen after they merge? RLG has the FRBRish RedLightGreen (search for The Three Musketeers; notice how all the manifestations are pulled together into works) and OCLC has all its FRBR research. Dorothea Salo pointed out this may mean a loss of diversity in FRBR work. We’ll wait and see and wish them the best.

Jenn Riley wrote a short overview of FRBR for the TechEssence blog. It’s a good short introduction.

It’s one year since the OCLC FRBR Workshop. I had a very good time there. I don’t have any grand thoughts about what’s happened to FRBR in the year since then, but I think everyone left feeling inspired and eager. The people I met, such as Patrick Le Boeuf, Pat Riva, Barbara Tillett, Jennifer Bowen, Jenn Riley, Thom Hickey, Lorcan Dempsey, Glenn Patton, and others, will all be familiar to readers of this blog: they speak at conferences, they run organizations and committees, they have blogs, and they all talk about, work with, and promote FRBR. FRBR hasn’t made it into catalogues and online book and music stores around the world yet, but things are moving along, even if slowly. Implementations at places like LibraryThing are exciting, and people outside the library and book business are taking an interest.

I’m having some computer problems, so I don’t expect to post anything more this week.