A weblog following developments around the world in FRBR: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records.

Maintained by William Denton, Web Librarian at York University. Suggestions and comments welcome at wtd@pobox.com.


Confused? Try What Is FRBR? (2.8 MB PDF) by Barbara Tillett, or Jenn Riley's introduction. For more, see the basic reading list.

Books: FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed by Robert Maxwell (ISBN 9780838909508) and Understanding FRBR: What It Is and How It Will Affect Our Retrieval Tools edited by Arlene Taylor (ISBN 9781591585091) (read my chapter FRBR and the History of Cataloging).

Calendar

June 2006
M T W T F S S
« May   Jul »
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  

13 June 2006

Example 1: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Filed under: Examples — William Denton @ 7:07 am

Here’s a quick example of how J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire looks when FRBRized. None of the links go anywhere, it’s incomplete, and it has no details about manifestations and nothing about items. It’s a rough example of a FRBRized bibliographic description of this particular work. Hover your mouse pointer over any of the links to see what the relationship is: is it a related work, an expression, a manifestation, or what. I’ve grouped some expressions together to make it easier to navigate. It’s a quick hack, but leave a comment or suggestion if you have one. I’ll improve it.

We need more examples, more things to point at and say, “Here’s why FRBR will make things better.”. Do one of your own and let me know about it and I’ll link to it. What would a library catalogue interface to this book look like? An online bookstore? What if someone wants to borrow the first available copy and they don’t care what edition? Would there be a “Reserve first available copy” button? What if they want the first available large print edition but don’t care if it’s hardcover or paperback?

I was going to do a Lord of the Rings example based on the 2006 FRBR Challenge, but that got complicated right off because of the work-within-a-work nature of the three books in the trilogy.