functional requirements for bibliographic records the changing face of cataloging william e. moen...

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

The Changing Face of Cataloging

William E. Moen<[email protected]>

Texas Center for Digital KnowledgeSchool of Library and Information Sciences

University of North Texas

Moen Texas Regional Group of Catalogers & Classifiers Round Table -- Texas Library Association -- April 13, 2007 2

FRBR – Who, When, What

IFLA Study Group on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, 1992-1995

Final report published in 1998 “A conceptual model for the bibliographic

universe” (B. Tillett, 2003).

The aim of the study was to produce a framework that would provide a clear, precisely stated, and commonly shared understanding of what it is that the bibliographic record aims to provide information about, and what it is that we expect the record to achieve in terms of answering user needs.


Context

Historical tradition and theories, such as Cutter’s Objectives of the Catalog Paris Principles Research such as Tillett’s on bibliographic relationships

Increasing complexity of the information landscape/bibliographic universe

Born digital resources Digitized resources (a scanned image of a photo of a

painting) Networked environment and associated

technologies Revision of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules


The FRBR Model

Based on Entity-Relationship modeling Entity – something that can be described Attributes – the features of the entity that characterize it Relationships between entities

Three groups of entities in model Group 1: Products of intellectual or artistic endeavor Group 2: Entities responsible for the intellectual or artistic

content, the physical production, etc. Group 3: Entities that serve as the subjects of intellectual

or artistic endeavor

Remember: what it is that the bibliographic record aims to provide information about


FRBR – Group 1 Entities


FRBR -- Group 2 Entities


FRBR – Group Three Entities


Attributes

Work Entity Attributes title of the work form of work date of the work other distinguishing

characteristic intended termination intended audience context for the work coordinates (cartographic

work) equinox (cartographic work)

Expression Entity title of the expression form of expression date of expression language of expression other distinguishing

characteristic extensibility of expression revisability of expression extent of the expression summarization of content context for the expression


FRBR User Tasks

Remember: what it is that we expect the record to achieve in terms of answering user needs

Four user tasks: Find: Discovering if something exists by

searching one or more attributes Identify: Examine retrieved records to determine

the items that met user’s search request Select: Examine retrieved records for those that

meet other user needs/requirements Obtain: Using data in retrieved records to gain

physical access to the described object


FRBR’s impact and influence

Decision by Joint Steering Committee for revision of AACR: AACR3 Resource Description and Access

Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records (FRANAR)

To define functional requirements of authority records, continuing the work that the “Functional requirements of bibliographic records" for bibliographic systems initiated

Working Group on Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR)

Statement of International Cataloguing Principles, 2003-2006 by IFLA Meeting of Experts on an International Cataloguing Code

These new principles replace and broaden the Paris Principles from just textual works to all types of materials and from just the choice and form of entry to all aspects of the bibliographic and authority records used in library catalogues.

This is an era of conceptualizing and theorizing about cataloging


Impact on cataloging and catalogs

Introduces new terminology and conceptual model incorporated in:

RDA Statement on cataloging principles

Assisting in understanding better the range of relationships in the bibliographic universe

Collocation function of the catalog Improve linking mechanisms

May need to think of creating work and expression records

A resolution to the multiple version problem Inheriting metadata from work item

Implementation in catalogs to improve user experience


The MCDU Project

Provide empirical evidence of catalogers’ use of MARC content designation

Identify commonly used elements of bibliographic records

Contribute to community discussion about core elements in MARC bibliographic records

Explore the evolution of MARC content designation

Develop research approach to understand the factors influencing levels of MARC content designation use

MARC Content Designation Utilization


Richness of MARC

MARC 21 Field Groups

Currently Defined

(MARC 21 or OCLC MARC Bib.)

MARC 1972

00x 6 3

0xx 311 28

1xx 76 40

2xx 176 15

3xx 155 4

4xx 45 37

5xx 344 8

6xx 235 66

7xx 477 41

8xx 249 36

9xx 16

TOTAL 2074 278


Example results

7,595,887 LC-created records in dataset Type of Record: Book, Pamphlets, and Printed

Sheets Total number of unique fields use in dataset: 167 Number of fields accounting for 80% of

occurrences: 14 fields (8.3%) Number of fields accounting for 90% of

occurrences: 21 fields (12.6%) Approximately 110 fields (66%) occur in less than

1% of all records

[Note: Fields are cataloger-supplied, not system-supplied]


Making sense of the numbers

Frequency counts provide raw but informative data

Determining commonly occurring elements Comparing to recommended core records Comparing to recommendations for national

level records MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data:

National Level Record – Bibliographic Full Level & Minimal Level <http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/nlr/>

Comparing the FRBR user tasks data


Field/subfield utilization and FRBR tasks

FRBR describes four user tasks for FRBR entities

Find (e.g., find work, find expression) Identify Select Obtain

Delsey mapped these tasks to MARC fields/subfield for FRBR entities

Analysis of MCDU data for each of the tasks


FRBR user task: Find (search)

MARC 21 fields/subfields that can contain author, title, or subject data

Author-related fields/subfields : 119 AuthorTitle-related fields/subfields: 21 Title-related fields/subfields: 253 Subject-related fields/subfields: 144

In FRBR context, Delsey identified: Approximately 460 fields/subfields can support this

task for the FRBR entities

In MCDU dataset, only 59 (13%) of these occur at or above the threshold of use (i.e., commonly occurring) in OCLC book records


Questions

What is really needed in a bibliographic record?

Support for the four user tasks? Management of information resources? What about all those infrequently

fields/subfields? In context of FRBR, what does it mean

to support a user task? What is the cost/benefit of the cataloging

enterprise (current or in a FRBR world)?


References

IFLA. Division of Bibliographic Control http://www.ifla.org/VII/d4/dbc.htm

MARC Content Designation Utilization Project http://www.mcdu.unt.edu

What is FRBR? A Conceptual Model for the Bibliographic Universe. Barbara Tillett.

http://www.loc.gov/cds/downloads/FRBR.PDF

For a copy of this presentation, go to: http://www.unt.edu/wmoen

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