James Weinheimer wrote:
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:53 AM
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I still believe that FRBR is primarily a look backward instead of a look forward. I see it much more of an explanation of how traditional library bibliographic records are structured instead of looking beyond.
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I tried to reconcile this with Karen Coyle's blog post from last week [http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2007/11/future-of-bibliographic-controllc-1113.html]:
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4.2 Realize FRBR. The framework known as FRBR has great potential but so far is untested. ...
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So, FRBR is a look backward, but isn't tested. I needed help understanding both how FRBR is already with us and where/how we can be testing it.
Who helped? Martha Yee!
Her catalog at the UCLA Film & Television Archive (FTA) [http://cinema.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First]
has made clearest to me how current systems can/do realize FRBR. Basically, in the catalog, records correspond like this:
1. Work = Authority Record (and yes, the FTA is investing in making all of those authority records!)
2. Expression = Bibliographic Record
3. Manifestation = Holdings Record (you'll notice that FTA "breaks the rules" for holdings records, moving the physical description (300 field in MARC terms) to the holdings record)
4. Item = Item Record
Sadly, even here, the display doesn't make clear the structure. This is where I think the push to formats other than MARC is going to win out. MARC may have the potential to store and support the theory, but our display paradigms will scream out the need for more the more interoperable MARCXML.
So, what is the next step? If we can find examples, like Yee's FTA catalog, what should we be doing to test them? How do we test FRBR and keep it "unmarried" to the format?
Okay... back to trying to catch up on all of these great blogs and podcasts, oh, and cataloging work too!
~Alex
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Alex Reczkowski
Acquisitions & Cataloguing,
Hampden-Sydney College Library
Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943
areczkowski_at_hsc.edu
Received on Fri Nov 30 2007 - 09:58:23 EST