[libdb-develop] W "Forms" and the use of matching "Roles"

[Morbus I. <mo...@di...>]

This is a two part question. In a Work, we have an attribute "form":

 "The class to which the Work belongs (e.g., novel, play, poem, biography,
 symphony, concerto, map, drawing, photograph, movie script, etc.)."

The question: has anyone standardized on a set list of "form" types?
Anyone got a list of house rules they use? How is a "short story" of 4000
words different from a kid's "book" of 2000 words (assuming both have
some, or no, illustrations)? What if you've got a "photograph" of a
"drawing", and its the ONLY Manifestation of said "drawing"?

I ask because of "roles". "Roles" makes a very small appearance in the
FRBR spec, in 4.4.2 (the Manifestation's "statement of responsibility"):

 "The statement may also indicate the role of function performed by
  each of the individuals, groups, or organizations responsible."

In my LibDB project, "roles" are implemented on a much grander scale.
A "role" can be related to a person ("Director", "Writer", "Hair Stylist")
or a "corporate body" ("Distributor", "Special FX", "Insurance").

To start off the "roles" approach, I modeled a few movies based on data
from the IMDb. Within a short period of time, I had a listing of about
90 unique "roles" that can be attached to a Work of "form" "film" (or
"video"; I'm not sure which is better just yet, but "movie" has
been ruled out already for being too specific).

Showing these 90 "roles" in a dropdown menu (for example) is nice
and simple, IF the user is constantly adding "films" to their database.
However, if the user ever adds a "comic book" (for example), they have
to search through 90 (or more) unrelated "roles" to find the one they
care about ("Inker").

The solution was to assign certain "roles" to a specific Work "form",
such that you'd only see the 90 "film" "roles" if the user has previously
indicated that a Work is a "film". On the other hand, if the Work is a
"graphic novel" (a "form" that I'm using loosely to describe comics
and their inevitable collection-into-book-form), then they'd only
see ten or so different related "roles".

In some cases, "roles" would have no forced "form" - a "Writer" can
apply to most Work "forms" ("script", "comic", "film", "book", etc.).

The big problem with all this is having (or not having, in this case)
a collection of known Work "forms" that I can assign "roles" too. 99%
of "roles" assigned to a "book" would also be assigned to a "short
story", "poetry". They wouldn't necessary apply to "haiku".

Thoughts from the insanely quiet mailing list?
[Incidentally, there's a side note for you: if FRBR is so
great and magical, how come we're not talking about it?
Are people waiting for someone else to stun them with
an implementation, or is an objectified (as opposed to
E-R) approach the saving grace?]

-- 
Morbus Iff ( now in fun bath toy! )
Technical: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/779
Culture: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.gamegrene.com/
icq: 2927491 / aim: akaMorbus / yahoo: morbus_iff / jabber.org: morbus