Maja Žumer (University of Ljubljana) & Patrick Le Bœuf (National Library of France)

1. Conceptual models: museums & librariestowards an object-oriented formulation of FRBR aligned on the CIDOC CRM ontology Maja Žumer (University of Ljubljana) & Patrick Le Bœuf (National Library of France) ELAG 2006 “New tools and new library practices” Bucharest, 26 April 2006

2. FRBR: the conceptual model for libraries • (Quite familiar to ELAGers! Regular workshops 1998-2003) • “FRBR” is for “Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records” • Developed 1991-1997 & published 1998 by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) • Maintained by the IFLA FRBR Review Group • Covers “bibliographic records” and “headings” for library materials: “textual, music, cartographic, audio-visual, graphic, three-dimensional materials”

3. Key concepts of FRBR Concept Work Object Expression Event Place Manifestation Person Item Corporate Body

4. CIDOC CRM: the conceptual model for museums • (introduced to ELAGers by Nick Crofts at ELAG 2000) • “CRM” is for “Conceptual Reference Model” • Developed from 1996 on by ICOM CIDOC (International Council of Museums – International Committee for Documentation) • Maintained by CRM-SIG (Special Interest Group) • About to be validated as ISO 21127 • Covers any kind of data (“descriptive” or “authorities”) created by museums in the fields of fine arts, archaeology, natural history…

5. Of what ? Type Key concepts of CIDOC CRM Involving whom? Involving what? ActorAppellation Appellation Actor PhysicalThing What happened? ConceptualObject Event Time-Span Place TimeAppellation PlaceAppellation When? Where?

6. FRBR/CRM Harmonisation Group • formed 2003 • gathers representatives for & corresponding members of: • the IFLA FRBR Review Group • the CRM Special Interest Group • chaired by Martin Doerr, Institute of Computer Science of the FOundation for Research & Technology Hellas – ICS-FORTH (assisted by Patrick Le Bœuf)

7. To what purpose harmonise FRBR & CIDOC CRM? • To reach a common view of cultural heritage information (because we share users and types of materials) • To check FRBR’s internal consistency • To enable interoperability and integration (mediation tools, Semantic Web applications…) • For FRBR’s and CIDOC CRM’s mutual benefit (to extend the scope of both) • Also, differing (but compatible) views: • Maja: to help design better rules to create new records and make better catalogues in the future • Patrick: to extract the semantic meaning of existing records in ontology-driven applications

8. Methodology • 6 meetings so far • Detailed reports not yet publicly available • What we do at those meetings: • ‘translate’ FRBR entities and attributes into an OO model • which borrows as much as possible from CIDOC CRM • and sometimes also gives back to CIDOC CRM • Some principles: • Take a user (or use)-centered approach! • Too many attributes? Then the entity is not a primitive concept but a complex elaboration  Split the entity! • A given attribute actually refers to an event? (e.g., “date”)  Make the event explicit!

9. Consequences of FRBR/CRM harmonisation • Re-examination of entities (work, expression, manifestation) • Review of attributes

10. Work FRBR: • intellectual or artistic creation • common content of expressions FRBRoo: • Individual work, Complex work, Publisher work, Container work • Modeling of creation process

11. Expression Clear in FRBR after the new definition FRBRoo: • Expression • Fragment

12. “Dual nature” of manifestation in FRBR • A single physical exemplar: physical object “In some cases there may be only a single physical exemplar produced of that manifestation of the work (an author’s manuscript, a tape recorded for an oral history archive, an original oil painting, etc.)” • Multiple copies for public dissemination or distribution: an abstract notion • Formal production process • Limited number of copies for private study or preservation “Whether the scope of production is broad or limited, the SET of copies produced in each case constitutes a manifestation.”

13. Proposal Those two ‘types’ of manifestation are not equal, so we propose two distinct entities: • Manifestation singleton • Manifestation product type They are different by nature and have different attributes, different relationships

14. Attributes in FRBR Derived from analysis of data typically reflected in bibliographic records The principal sources: • ISBDs • Guidelines for Authority and Reference Entries (GARE) • Guidelines for Subject Authority and Reference Entries (GSARE) • UNIMARC Manual “Comprehensive but not exhaustive” “Attributes defined at logical level (as viewed by a user, rather than specific data elements defined by catalogers): • Individual data elements • Aggregate of discrete data elements (e.g. title of manifestation)”

15. Questions Attributes were defined from existing cataloguing practice and mapped to user functions later. • Are some attributes missing? • Shouldn’t attributes be defined from the analysis of functions and entities? • Are electronic resources appropriately dealt with?

16. Proposal A review of attributes • Based on user functions and specific needs within functions • Include electronic resources In principle agreed within FRBR Review Group

17. What next? • Group 2, Group 3, FRAR and FRSAR attributes • FRBR, FRAR & FRSAR relationships • Review the overall picture (some attributes were postponed, some new concepts need clarification) • Check the robustness • Draft deliverables: scope notes and examples for each class & property, tutorials, explanatory documents… • Prepare a prototype application • = 2 years of work??

18. A quote from my favourite book Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t... (A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner)

19. So: Let us think... ...and find another way: FRBR