Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records -- or FRBR, sometimes pronounced (IPA pronunciation: IPA| [fɝbɚ] ) -- is a conceptual entity-relationship model developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) that relates user tasks of retrieval and access in online library catalogues and bibliographic databases from a user’s perspective. It represents a more holistic approach to retrieval and access as the relationships between the entities provide links to navigate through the hierarchy of relationships. The model is significant because it is separate from specific cataloguing standards such as AACR2 or International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD).

FRBR Entities

FRBR comprises groups of entities:
*Group 1 entities are Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item, and represent the products of intellectual or artistic endeavour.
*Group 2 entities are person and corporate body, responsible for the custodianship of Group 1’s intellectual or artistic endeavour.
*Group 3 entities are subjects of Group 1 or Group 2’s intellectual endeavour, and include concepts, objects, events, places.

Group 1 entities are the foundation of the FRBR model:
*"Work" is a “distinct intellectual or artistic creation.” [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr1.htm#3.2 (IFLA 1998)]

*"Expression" is “the specific intellectual or artistic form that a work takes each time it is ‘realized.’” [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr1.htm#3.2 (IFLA 1998)]

*"Manifestation" is “the physical embodiment of an expression of a work. As an entity, manifestation represents all the physical objects that bear the same characteristics, in respect to both intellectual content and physical form.” [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr1.htm#3.2 (IFLA 1998)]

*"Item" is “a single exemplar of a manifestation. The entity defined as item is a concrete entity.” [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr1.htm#3.2 (IFLA 1998)]

Relationships

FRBR is built upon relationships between and among entities. “Relationships serve as the vehicle for depicting the link between one entity and another, and thus as the means of assisting the user to ‘navigate’ the universe that is represented in a bibliography, catalogue, or bibliographic database.” [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr2.htm#5 (IFLA 1998)]

User tasks

Aside from the three groups of entities and their various relationships, FRBR defines four user tasks: find, identify, select, and obtain. Users should be able to perform any of these tasks on any of the entities or relationships. A fifth, unofficial, task is to navigate or relate.

See also

* FRAR
* FRSAR
* FRBRoo

References

IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm Functional requirements for bibliographic records : final report] . — München: K.G. Saur, 1998. — (UBCIM publications ; new series, vol. 19). — ISBN 3-598-11382-X. (Accessed Nov. 6, 2005)

Tillett, Barbara. [http://www.loc.gov/cds/downloads/FRBR.PDF FRBR: A Conceptual Model for the Bibliographic Universe.] Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service, 2004. (Accessed Nov. 6, 2005)

External links

* [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/wgfrbr/index.htm IFLA FRBR Review Group]
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rdaprospectus.html RDA: Resource Description and Access]
* [http://www.frbr.org/ The FRBR Blog] : A weblog following developments around the world in FRBR
* Expression of FRBR Concepts in RDF ( [http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core core] , [http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/extended extended] ).