Monthly Archives: February 2014

FRBR Model

Initially the choice of work was a little stumbling, as I looked to my bookshelf- J.G. Ballard- only one of expression of my title, Winnie the Pooh- too many I suddenly felt I was drowning with him singing in the background. So I settled on my 1935, 3^rd edition of Grey Owl.  I knew there was a movie so that gave me two expressions.

As I looked back and forth at FRBR examples I found myself left with more questions than answers. Am I required to enter every edition of the book for this assignment and attempt to locate them via the Internet? If I follow the figures from lesson 3 with four boxes, then I felt constrained as I discovered DVD versions in 1999 original and collector’s editions, 2000, 2011, not to mention an import with Italian subtitles and Spanish subtitles from Latin America and another with Chinese subtitles on Amazon. So do all of these manifestations get entered into this assignment- do I do this in excel? I entered two books- my own and from the local library. I decided to enter three manifestations of the screenplay as I found one available at a nearby library and two on Amazon. I tried to get my head around Rob Styles Blog but I came away feeling a little overwhelmed. I agreed with him as this was not an intuitive process or language for me. As Rob Styles questioned whether a manifestation could be a work in it’s own right, I began to question whether my choice was two separate works of two different expressions of the work. Then I started to think about other languages and translations- would it be translated to the language in which the search is being undertaken? Or will the language of the manifestation be used? What happens in a bilingual school? Will two FRBR models need to be created?

When I consider the FRBR model for our school library I cannot see where there would be more than one expression of the work, only multiply copies. If those copies were different editions then possibly it could be an option. If the school library was linked through the district with other expressions, who would be responsible to compile the FRBR model diagram? How large can it become? How would it be complied into a useable format? Also I cannot see how useful it would be at an elementary level, as I had to work at remembering the language used how would the students manage? I began to appreciate some of the MARC tags and DDC that gave more information about the book to users searching for items. If the role of FRBR is to simplify the linking of different expressions of the work then in an elementary school library I think it would be easy to do within the layout and OPAC record. When I tried to locate a of the book at my local, Vancouver, Victoria, Port Hardy and Ontario public libraries all manifestations appeared some with photographs and it clearly stated the format. I do not know what cataloguing systems these libraries were using. The librarian at my local library could not help and had not heard of FRBR. I do know that I found it easy to navigate through their online search.

Ultimately I believe a library exists to serve all users and with this in mind it must be user friendly. I initially thought a table format might be workable but I feel that users would struggle with the vocabulary and the lack of information provided in the FRBR record.  If the role of FRBR is to link different expressions of the work, then in an elementary school library I wonder how it can be done more easily.

Work Cited

Styles, R. (2009, November 11). [Web log message]. Bringing FRBR down to Earth… Retrieved from http://dynamicorange.com/2009/11/11/bringing-frbr-down-to-earth/