An overview of the FRBR model, and how it can improve access to information through the helpful organization of metadata records.|What is FRBR, and why is everyone talking about it? Is it really going to revolutionize cataloguing? And if so, what form will it take? This book is written for librarians, bibliographic systems designers, library and information science faculty and students, and anyone else who is interested in learning about the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and how following the FRBR model can improve access to information through helpful organization of the metadata records that are surrogates for information resources. Serials, art, music, moving images, maps, and archival materials are just a few of the formats covered. Not for catalogers only!

Understanding FRBR: What It is and How It will Affect Our Retrieval Tools

The catalogue of the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes contains about 200,000 records which were originally created in compliance with the MARC21 standard. The entries in the catalogue have been recently migrated to a new relational database whose data model adheres to the conceptual models promoted by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), in particular, to the FRBR and FRAD specifications. The database content has been later mapped, by means of an automated procedure, to RDF triples which employ basically the RDA vocabulary (Resource Description and Access) to describe the entities, as well as their properties and relationships. This RDF-based semantic description of the catalogue is now accessible online through an interface which supports browsing and searching the information. Due to their open nature, these public data can be easily linked and used for new applications created by external developers and institutions. The methods applied for the automation of the conversion, which build upon open-source software components, are described here.

Migration of a library catalogue into RDA linked open data

This article examines BIBFRAME 2.0 from the viewpoint of RDA metadata schema, that is, whether the present BIBFRAME is suitable for exchange and sharing of metadata created with RDA. First, an overview of RDA and BIBFRAME models is provided. Second, mapping examples of metadata records and part of the mapping tables from RDA to BIBFRAME are demonstrated. Third, some issues involved in the mapping are investigated: treatment of RDA Expression in BIBFRAME, mapping of RDA elements to BIBFRAME properties, and conversion of extant MARC21 bibliographic records to BIBFRAME metadata.

Examining BIBFRAME 2.0 from the viewpoint of RDA metadata schema

Purpose




Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata. However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user testing. The purpose of this paper is to present a study on how non-experts in bibliographic systems map the bibliographic universe and, in particular, how they conceptualize relationships between independent but strongly related entities.




Design/methodology/approach




The study is based on an open concept-mapping task performed to externalize the conceptualizations of 98 novice students. The conceptualizations of the resulting concept maps are identified and analyzed statistically.




Findings




The study shows that the participants’ conceptualizations have great variety, differing in detail and granularity. These conceptualizations can be categorized into two main groups according to derivative relationships: those that apply a single-entity model directly relating document entities and those (the majority) that apply a multi-entity model relating documents through a high-level collocating node. These high-level nodes seem to be most adequately interpreted either as superwork devices collocating documents belonging to the same bibliographic family or as devices collocating documents belonging to a shared fictional world.




Originality/value




The findings can guide the work to develop bibliographic standards. Based on the diversity of the conceptualizations, the findings also emphasize the need for more user testing of both conceptual models and the bibliographic end-user systems implementing those models.

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User conceptualizations of derivative relationships in the bibliographic universe

This article examines BIBFRAME 2.0 from the viewpoint of a metadata schema for diverse descriptive metadata about bibliographic resources, that is, whether the present BIBFRAME is suitable for the exchange and sharing of such metadata. First, an overview of the BIBFRAME model built with core classes and properties is provided. Secondly, under the multi-class structure of BIBFRAME, a way of defining the domain of the properties in BIBFRAME is examined. Thirdly, possible other ways of defining the properties' domain are discussed and compared with that of BIBFRAME. Finally, a more suitable way of defining the domain is explored.

Is BIBFRAME 2.0 a Suitable Schema for Exchanging and Sharing Diverse Descriptive Metadata about Bibliographic Resources

Purpose – The 1998 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) document “Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records” (FRBR) has inspired a family of models that view bibliographic resources in terms of multiple entities differentiated with regard to meaning, expression, and physicality. The purpose of this paper is to compare how three FRBR and FRBR-like models have been expressed as Semantic Web vocabularies based on Resource Description Framework (RDF). The paper focusses on IFLA’s own vocabulary for FRBR; RDF vocabularies for Resource Description and Access (RDA), an emergent FRBR-based standard for library cataloging; and BIBFRAME, an emergent FRBR-like, native-RDF standard for bibliographic data. Design/methodology/approach – Simple test records using the RDF vocabularies were analyzed using software that supports inferencing. Findings – In some cases, what the data actually means appears to differ from what the vocabulary developers presumably intended to mean. Data based on the F...

Multi-entity models of resource description in the Semantic Web: A comparison of FRBR, RDA and BIBFRAME

Building a Semantic Web of Comics: Publishing Linked Data in HTML/RDFa Using a Comic Book Ontology and Metadata Application Profiles

The Comic Book Ontology (CBO) is a metadata vocabulary designed for the description of comic books and comic book collections. The vocabulary is part of a larger, ongoing research project exploring the design and exchange of data about comic books and graphic novels. The goal of the project is to produce a series of usable schemata and tools for the many participants in the often complex universe of comic books, which includes publishers, collectors, and libraries, among many others. The long-term objectives of the project include addressing the needs and overlapping roles of each user group through designated application profiles. Recognizing that all groups involved will have different needs, goals, and concerns, the base for each of these user application profiles is a much simpler set of elements required to first uniquely identify a resource. The intention of this core set of elements is to lower the difficulty in implementing the vocabulary and enhance the overall understandability of the ontology. The core application profile has been modeled from common elements found in the data of comic book collectors, a community of users largely responsible for the preservation of the medium, which has traditionally been underrepresented in knowledge institutions.

Converting personal comic book collection records to linked data

Applying a Linked Open Data (LOD) approach to modeling the visual structure and content of comic books and graphic novels enables the description of these works to be enhanced through the process of semantic enrichment. This strategy may be particularly impactful for graphic medicine, a non-exclusive genre of comics that communicate medical and healthcare information, including personal stories of illness. However, the metadata for these works may lack references to healthcare-related vocabulary, thesauri or ontology that would more precisely describe their contents. This material may include pages and panels that illustrate specific medical topics, such as symptoms, side-effects or treatments — subjects that often overlap with other healthcare challenges, including mental health and illness. Exploring an LOD approach for describing comics content may potentially enhance the discoverability of this material and its ability to be remixed and reused, and better connected to other information resources.

Sean Petiya

Papers

Multi-entity models of resource description in the Semantic Web: A comparison of FRBR, RDA and BIBFRAME

Building a Semantic Web of Comics: Publishing Linked Data in HTML/RDFa Using a Comic Book Ontology and Metadata Application Profiles

Converting personal comic book collection records to linked data

A Linked Open Data model for describing comic book sequences: Exploring semantic enrichment opportunities with graphic medicine