FRBR

The latest issue of D-Lib Magazine has the paper Hierarchical Catalog Records: Implementing a FRBR Catalog by David Mimno, Gregory Crane and Alison Jones

Much work has gone into finding ways to infer FRBR relationships between existing catalog records and modifying catalog interfaces to display those relationships. Relatively little work, however, has gone into exploring the creation of catalog records that are inherently based on the FRBR hierarchy of works, expressions, manifestations, and items. The Perseus Digital Library has created a new catalog that implements such a system for a small collection that includes many works with multiple versions. We have used this catalog to explore some of the implications of hierarchical catalog records for searching and browsing.

Other papers that look interesting:

• Development and Assessment of a Public Discovery and Delivery Interface for a Fedora Repository by Leslie Johnston
• Exploiting "Light-weight" Protocols and Open Source Tools to Implement Digital Library Collections and Services by Xiaorong Xiang and Eric Lease Morgan

I've just checked out the appendix to the FRBR paper, it shows the XML markup of a record with the work, manifestations and expressions. I question the placement of some of the items. For instance, the classification number should be associated with the work, the whole number in DDC, the class portion in LCC. In LCC only the cutter and year are connected to the manifestation. Also most of the subject headings would apply to all expressions and should be at the work level. Some, those having the subdivision "Translations into English" do belong at a lower level. How to deal with the same element being available in different levels of the record is a real problem. Maybe just the subdivision should be recorded at the expression level. Interesting work.

FRBR
Cataloging