Gerhard J'A' Riesthuis

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FRBR and FRANAR subject access

• Gerhard J.A. Riesthuis
• (University of Amsterdam )
• Maja umer
• (University of Ljubljana))

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Introduction

• Two questions
• What is the position of subject indexing in the
  library world after the publication of the
  Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
  (1998)
• Is this position in accordance with the
  requirements of users searching for documents
  about a given subject?

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FRBR

• Functions of the catalogue
• find materials
• identify an entity
• Select an entity
• Obtain the selected item(s)
• First IFLA document abolishing distinction
  between formal descriptive and subject
  cataloguing since the Paris Principles (1961)

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Formal versus Subject Cataloguing

• Separate card catalogues
• author/title catalogue
• subject catalogue
• Dictionary catalogues were never popular in
  Europe
• Predominance of classified subject catalogues

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What is a subject in FRBR ?

• works, expressions, manifestations, items
• persons, families, corporate bodies
• concepts, objects, events, places
• The first seven are defined and accompanied by a
  list of characteristics
• The last four are poorly defined and have only
  one characteristic term for the entity (concept,
  etc.)

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What is not a subject in FRBR ?

• Bibliographic form
• of work or expression (i.e. content)
• of manifestation or item (i.e. carrier)
• Characteristics of the expression, e.g. language,
  date, etc.

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Which entity has a subject in FRBR ?

• The work and only the work!?
• This makes it important to know what a work is.
• The work is an abstract entity? the subject of a
  work is only known through an expression embodied
  in a manifestation
• The subject is implicitly inherited by
  expressions contained in manifestations

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Work and Manifestation

• The workgroup FRBR/CRM proposes to define a
  Manifestation that is deemed representative of
  the Expression representative of the Work
• Representative manifestation

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Representative Manifestation

• This proposal does solve some of the problems but
  not all
• What is meant with expression, manifestation
  and/or item as subject ?
• More expressions in one manifestation
• Sometimes which expression embodied in which
  manifestation ?

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has subject relation in FRBR

• Logical connection between a work and a related
  subject entity
• Goal
• to identify the subject of the work
• to link all works i.e. all manifestations with
  that work relevant to a given subject to that
  subject

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FRANAR

• Functional Requirements and Numbering of
  Authority Records (draft Dec. 2003)
• Authority record the aggregate of data
  pertaining to an access point in a library
  catalogue or bibliographic file

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Access point

• a name, term, code, etc. under which a
  bibliographic or authority record or reference
  to such a record GR/MZ will be found
• Based on
• Personal, family and corporate names
• Titles for works, expressions, manifestations,
  and items
• Terms for events, objects, concepts and places
• Identifiers such as standards, classification
  indicia, etc.
• Uncontrolled and controlled access points

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Types of controlled access points

• Authorized or preferred forms
• Variant forms
• Question Do we really need this distinction ?

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User tasks in FRANAR

• Identify an entity
• Contextualize place a person, corporate body,
  etc. in context clarify the relationship between
  two or more persons, corporate bodies, works,
  etc. or clarify the relationship between a
  person, corporate body, etc. and a name by which
  that persons, corporate body, etc. is known
• Justify documents the cataloguers reasons for
  choosing the name or form of name on which an
  access point is based
• Not much attention for subject cataloguing

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Question

• Is the idea that descriptive or formal
  cataloguing and subject cataloguing are two very
  different processes with different goals still
  valid ?

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Answer

• No
• Why no ?
• Many access points can be used and are used for
  both formal searches and subject searches

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Examples of double used access points

• Title words
• Series titles
• Names of persons and corporate bodies
• As creators and as subjects
• Specialized publishers
• As keywords

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Another question

• What is a subject ?
• There is no easy answer
• What is the subject of a novel or film ?
• What is the subject of a newspaper or universal
  encyclopedia ?
• What is the subject of a map ?
• Topographic map
• Road map

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Statement of principles (Dec. 2003)

• Functions of the catalogue
• To find bibliographic records ...
• To identify a bibliographic resource or agent
• To select a bibliographic resource appropriate to
  the users needs
• To acquire or obtain access to a resource
  described
• To navigate a catalogue

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The find function

• To find bibliographic records in a collection
  (real or virtual) as the result of a search using
  attributes or relationships of the resources
• To locate a single resource
• To locate sets of resources representing

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Locate sets of resources representing

• all resources belonging to the same work
• all resources belonging to the same expressions
• all resources belonging to the same manifestation
• all works and expressions of a given person,
  family of corporate body
• all resources on a given subject
• all resources defined by other criteria (such as
  language, country of publication, publication
  date, physical format, etc.) usually as a
  secondary limiting a search result

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Access points and the Statement

• Indispensable access points for bibliographic
  records
• name of creator or first named creator if more
  than one is named
• title proper or supplied title for manifestation
• the year(s) of publication or issuance
• uniform title for work/expression
• subject headings, subject term
• classification numbers
• standard numbers, identifiers, and key titles
  for the described entity
• Indispensable access points for authority records
• authorized name or title of the entity
• variants forms of name or title for the entity

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Access points and the Statement

• Additional access points for bibliographic
  records
• names additional creators beyond the first
• names of performers or persons, families, or
  corporate bodies in other roles than creator
• parallel titles, caption titles, etc.
• uniform title of the series
• bibliographic records identifiers
• language
• country of publication
• physical medium
• Additional access points for authority records
• names or titles of related entities
• authority records identifiers

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Desirable access points for subject searching

• Names of all creators to be able to find all
  works of persons etc. known to be working in a
  given domain
• Names of editors (and contributors with other
  functions) same argument
• Titles of works/expressions if they are not the
  same as title of manifestion in which they are
  contained usable to search on subject with
  words from title
• Titles of series many series are specialized in
  a given domain
• Bibliography form of the content not the same
  as physical medium to be distinguished from the
  same concepts as subject

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Conclusions

• Interest in subject access has grown in the
  library world
• Attention given to subject access in FRBR, FRANAR
  and the Statement (Dec. 2003) is still limited
  proposal to deal with subjects in the near future
• Research how subject searching is done in
  practice is urgently needed

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Thank you !

• Questions ?