Purpose – Despite the importance of bibliographic information systems for discovering and exploring library resources, some of the core functionality that should be provided to support users in their information seeking process is still missing. Investigating these issues, the purpose of this paper is to design a solution that would fulfil the missing objectives. Design/methodology/approach – Building on the concepts of a work family, functional requirements for bibliographic records (FRBR) and information visualization, the paper proposes a model and user interface design that could support a more efficient and user-friendly presentation and navigation in bibliographic information systems. Findings – The proposed design brings together all versions of a work, related works, and other works by and about the author and shows how the model was implemented into a FrbrVis prototype system using hierarchical visualization layout. Research limitations/implications – Although issues related to discovery and expl...

Presenting bibliographic families: Designing an FRBR-based prototype using information visualization

Following from approaches that view information as documentary forms of specific communicative practices, this paper uses theoretical concepts derived from cultural theory to examine the concept of work in Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) in relation to authorship, the ur-text, and intertextuality. Historically, the practice of librarianship has existed on a foundation of standards, and among the earliest of the standards is the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR). The basis of this set of standards is materialist: the object of scrutiny is the document, and the document, whatever its specific form, is considered to possess materiality. This paper argues that unlike the AACR, FRBR lays bare its own ideological underpinnings, and in so doing, it dematerializes the text and mystifies the creative process. At the same time, it has really been with the development of FRBR and linked-data models that library and information science has considered intertextual analysis at the level of the document rather than at a more abstract level. The idealism that underpins FRBR’s notion of work points to intertextuality, with all its potential for rich analysis, but at the same time embeds deep in its system the logocentrism of the ideal signified—another example of disciplining epistemology. The paper will examine these two interlinked themes through discussion of FRBR and the strange case of the vanishing text, the ur-text, and intertextuality.

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FRBR, Information and Intertextuality

This paper seeks to unpick the changing perceptions of the concepts contained in its title and investigate some of the relationships between them. It does this by exploring the history of modern cataloguing from the mid 1800s to the present day. It is argued that over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries cataloguing developments took place predominantly in the library world and, understood through the principles of European Enlightenment thought, catalogues were perceived to provide the public with access to external knowledge and thus empower them. It then identifies technological, cultural and ideological developments in the twentieth century, notably the rise of ‘postmodernism’, as challenges to both the primacy of library catalogues and the tradition of Enlightenment thought within which they were conceived. Finally, it argues that corporate digital companies are now at the forefront of cataloguing and explores the way in which the public have become the subject of these catalogues. Drawing upon Foucauldian theory, it is suggested that rather than allowing knowledge and power to flow to the public these catalogues enable corporate and government bodies to hold it over the public and use it to influence their lives in unprecedented ways.

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Cataloguing, knowledge and power

The purpose of this paper is to make a systematic review of the library metadata development history listing out the most significant landmarks and influencing events from Thomas Bodley's rules to the latest BIBFRAME architecture, compare their significance and suitability in the modern-day Web environment.,Four time divisions were identified, namely pre-1900 era, 1900–1950, post-1950 to pre-Web era and post-Web era based on pre-set information available to the authors regarding catalogue rules. Under these four divisions, relevant information sources regarding the purpose of the study were identified; various metadata standards released at different times were consulted.,Library catalogue standards have undergone transitive changes from one form to another primarily influenced by the changing work environment and different forms of resource availability in libraries. Modern-day metadata standards are influenced by the opportunities provided by the World Wide Web towards libraries and work as a suitable base for data organisation at par with Semantic Web standards.,Information organisation processes have gone towards a more data-centric approach than earlier document-centric nature in current Semantic Web environment. Libraries had to make a move in this process, and modern-day guidelines in this regard bring the possibility of large-scale discovery services through curated information resources.,The study discovers relationships between key events in the course of development of metadata standards and provides suggestions and predictions regarding it's future developments.

Searching the great metadata timeline: A review of library metadata standards from linear cataloguing rules to ontology inspired metadata standards

Traces briefly the historical development of IT applications in libraries since 1980s along with the challenges of digital era. Emphasizes the need to restructure, improve and innovate library services in the context of changing library scenario. Suggests that libraries should be ever ready to change from one landscape to another as warranted and dictated by new technology. Concludes that libraries should give more importance to basics functions of libraries and evaluate them from time to time to find better methods and tools required for improved management of resources.

http://ir.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/ir/bitstream/1944/1888/1/49.pdf

Experimenting and Innovating with New Technology in Changing Environment

This paper discusses that cataloguing continues to be basic tool of knowledge organisation whichhas taken over even the function of classification bringing together similar ideas accessible on multiplepoints. It traces the history of cataloguing and individual contributions made by Panizzi, Lubetzky, Cutter,and Ranganathan who laid the foundation for modern cataloguing. It discusses the background ofResource Description and Access (RDA) code as development over AACR-2. The conceptual model of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) along with its new terminology and basicprinciple of entity-relationship have been explained. While discussing new features of RDA, it has alsobeen compared with AACR-2 to show the main difference between the two. It concludes that RDA is adescriptive catalogue code with metadata structure with added scope and advantages over AACR-2R but with mixed professional reaction on its adoption. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.33.5007

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A.S. Chandel

Papers

Journey of Catalogue from Panizzi’s Principles toResource Description and Access