[Refdb-users] frbr

[Bruce D'A. <bd...@fa...>]

Experts in bibliographic metadata often mention the FRBR as the future 
of library cataloguing. Wondering about its relevance to my needs in 
part because of a new project based on it called LibDB, I poked around 
and found this document:

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july99/caplan/07caplan.html#INDECS

Here's an excerpt for Markus to ponder as he thinks about RefDB's 
internal data model:

> In the IFLA model, a "work" is an abstract conception of some creator. 
> Works are realized through "expressions", which are fixed 
> spatial/temporal representations of works, such as a performance of a 
> play or a symphony. Expressions in turn are embodied in 
> "manifestations", physical representations such as printed books or 
> recorded CDs, which may or may not be mass-produced. A specific, 
> single manifestation is an "item", also called a "copy".
>
> The European INDECS project has done a careful analysis of these 
> distinctions and proposes a categorization that, while somewhat 
> different from the IFLA model, is mainly compatible with it [INDECS]. 
> Supplementing the IFLA and INDECS terminology, the International DOI 
> Foundation (IDF) has contributed "creation" as a useful generic term 
> encompassing the work and all of its expressions, manifestations and 
> items.
>
> The distinction between expression and manifestation is useful for 
> works that are performed but usually can be ignored for works that 
> have a single expression, like most journal articles. Journal articles 
> represent three types of creations: the work, or creative output of 
> the author(s); the manifestations, or instantiations of the work in 
> print and/or electronic form; and the items, or specific copies of a 
> manifestation. An article, for example, could have been published in a 
> print and an electronic version. These would be separate 
> manifestations, each of which might have multiple items (perhaps 
> several hundred copies for the print run, and mirrored online and 
> archival copies of the electronic version).

Bruce