After reading all of our professor’s suggested articles on building an FRBR model, I decided to choose a picture book that I had at home in my collection. I began with The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg and browsed the online catalogue of the Vancouver Public Library (VPL). Next, I looked on amazon.ca. I soon realized that the number of expressions of The Polar Express was so large, I knew I would not be able to fit all of its manifestations on my flowchart.
I went back to my shelves at home and found another favourite picture book entitled My Mother is Weird by Rachna Gilmore. Again, I checked the VPL online catalogue and on amazon.ca. This time, I had the opposite experience and found only one manifestation of thework, a paperback.
Back to the drawing board. I decided to choose my all-time favourite picture book, The Paperboy by popular American author Dav Pilkey. After looking on the VPL online catalogue and on amazon.ca, I went onto Microsoft Word and chose a flowchart design that I liked and began by inserting a picture of the book’s cover at the top of the chart. After fiddling, adjusting and finally getting the picture inserted, I was feeling a bit frustrated with how slow it was taking me. I would soon discover that that would actually be the easiest part of the whole assignment!
After completing the flowchart to the best of my ability, I have concluded that I have far more questions than answers when it comes to this assignment. But since I have only 500 words or less to write this synopsis, and my computer count already says 279, I will answer the assignment questions as succinctly as possible.
1. What went through my mind as I was building it? The question should be what DIDN’T go through my mind! My biggest challenge (after reviewing how to insert/edit data on a Microsoft Word flowchart) was trying to decide what constituted an expression and what constituted a manifestation. It was very helpful to look at all the posted assignments on our student blogs. I compared and contrasted the eight flowcharts posted so far and this helped me gradually understand the difference between the two.
I thought that The Paperboy would have more expressions than it did. I searched the VPL, the FVRL, amazon.ca, ebay.com and googled for no less than two hours. If you look at my flowchart, you can see that I have only one expression but four manifestations of it. I stumbled onto a fifth manifestation on YouTube, which was an audiobook that was also animated. However, because I couldn’t find it for sale or for loan on any site, I didn’t include it. I’m still not sure if it counts if only found it on YouTube!
2. Challenges for teacher-librarians using it? Teaching students how to understand a flowchart and the amount of time it would take to create a flowchart for each resource are the two biggest challenges in my opinion.
In conclusion, I found this assignment to be very challenging, as I am not a particularly savvy computer person. I learned quite a bit and with each assignment, I feel just that much more knowledgeable about the intrticate world of cataloguing.
I agree with you that this assignment was challenging but I did learn a lot. I wonder if librarians would only add to their FRBR model if they had something to add to their catalog rather than searching high and low to create a model (which is what you and I did). Would there be a point to adding manifestations or items that weren’t available through their library?
Good questions. I have no idea….I’m fairly clueless when it comes to cataloguing….lol.
Carolyn, I can relate to what you experienced. It was a little confusing and frustrating distinguishing what should go under the manifestation and what should be included in the expression. Like you said, when there are countless items for a work, how much needs to be included? Does one chart every possible item that has ever been created for a work, or does the TL pick and choose? I’m not even sure how beneficial it would be to teach students FRBR flowcharts, but perhaps the framework could be useful for TLs to help identify and find materials for users.
Yes, I too was wondering if the TL picks and chooses. I am so foggy on cataloguing issues and concepts! Hopefully this course will help.
I agree that it was very tricky to really grasp what the difference was between a manifestation and an expression. I found that reading through the module as well as classmates’ ideas really helped me get a sense of the 2 concepts. I feel like it should be simpler, as it is not intuitive and the names of the concepts can create unnecessary confusion.
Yes, I was lost for several hours and was so glad that some keener classmates had already posted their assignments!
Hi Carrie
Great job with your flowchart. I agree with your comments on the amount of time to create a flowchart and finding time to teach teachers and students how to understand the chart being challenges.
As you said at the beginning the number of expressions and manifestations of a work would definitely make a chart more complicated to construct and understand. How would it be appear on a computer screen in a useable format?
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Petra!