FRBRization: A Method for Turning Online Public Findings Lists into Online Public Catalogs

Abstract

In this article, problems users are having searching for known works in current online public access catalogs (OPACs) are summarized. A better understanding of AACR2R/MARC 21 authority, bibliographic, and holdings records would allow us to implement the approaches outlined in the IFLA Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records to enhance, or “FRBRize,” our current OPACs using existing records. The presence of work and expression identifiers in bibliographic and authority records is analyzed. Recommendations are made concerning better indexing and display of works and expressions/manifestations. Questions are raised about the appropriateness for the creation of true catalogs of client-server technology that deliver records over the Internet.

Interactive Displays for the Next Generation of Entity-Centric Bibliographic Models

“…Our test collections have been created by enhancing and transforming existing MARC 21 records into rich and well-structured FRBR data coded in RDF using the RDA vocabularies 4 . Records have been retrieved from different library catalogs using Z39.50, and have been manually enhanced to make the inherent structure more explicit, based on the techniques identified in [10]; e.g.…”

“…Additional interesting new developments include BIBFRAME [16], a project exploring new formats for bibliographic data, and FRBRoo [18], which is the result of the harmonisation of FRBR with CIDOC CRM [17]. However, the modernization of library catalogs worldwide has been surprisingly slow and the question of how to best display FRBR or other entitycentric data in search results remains a challenge [4,14].…”

The Author and the Person: A Foucauldian Reflection on the Author in Knowledge Organization Systems

“…Yee (2005) warns of the issues that arise in doing a keyword search for Samuel Clemens and Tom Sawyer in the online library catalog if the authority record for Mark Twain is not also searched as part of the query. In the library context, the contents of the records serves to help in the creation of the bibliographic record and for searching the name in the system, based on the authorship principle.…”

Serials and Multiple Versions, or the Inexorable Trend toward Work-Level Displays

“…Yee has recently argued that many of the problems multiple versions present for users could be resolved if catalogers "were allowed [by the cataloging code] to use the MARC 21 holdings format to attach more than one manifestation to a single bibliographic record." 40 Such an OPAC could then be optimized by providing a "welldesigned holdings display [allowing users to sort] holdings by format, by location, by reproduction date, and so on." 41 Efforts to revise AACR2 are currently underway with a new cataloging code for the Anglo-American community expected in 2009.…”