Maja Žumer

Mental models of the bibliographic universe. Part 1: mental models of descriptions

Purpose – The paper aims to present the results of the first two tasks of a user study looking into mental models of the bibliographic universe and especially their comparison to the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) conceptual model, which has not yet been user tested.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employes a combination of techniques for eliciting mental models and consisted of three tasks, two of which, card sorting and concept mapping, are presented herein. Its participants were 30 individuals residing in the general area of Ljubljana, Slovenia.Findings – Cumulative results of concept mapping show a strong resemblance to FRBR. Card sorts did not produce conclusive results. In both tasks, participants paid special attention to the original expression, indicating that a special place for it should be considered.Research limitations/implications – The study was performed using a relatively small sample of participants living in a geographically limited space using relative...

The value of MARC data, or, challenges of frbrisation

Purpose – Bibliographic records should now be used in innovative end-user applications that enable users to learn about, discover and exploit available content, and this information should be interpreted and reused also beyond the library domain. New conceptual models such as FRBR offer the foundation for such developments. The main motivation for this research is to contribute to the adoption of the FRBR model in future bibliographic standards and systems, by analysing limitations in existing bibliographic information and looking for short- and long-term solutions that can improve the data quality in terms of expressing the FRBR model. Design/methodology/approach – MARC records in three collections (BIBSYS catalogue, Slovenian National Bibliography and BTJ catalogue) were first analysed by looking at statistics of field and subfield usage to determine common patterns that express FRBR. Based on this, different rules for interpreting the information were developed. Finally typical problems/errors found in...

Coding FRBR-structured bibliographic information in MARC

The lack of support for the FRBR model in current bibliographic standards has been a major bottleneck for the implementation and use of this model in library databases. In this paper we present solutions for coding FRBR structures using MARC and show that it is possible to code even more complex FRBR structures within the current format. This solution promises a migration path for library systems without losing the compatibility with existing standards.

FrbrVis: an information visualization approach to presenting FRBR work families

Although FRBR is becoming an important player in the bibliographic world, we have not seen many discussions or examples of how FRBR-based entities or relationships could best be displayed, explored or interacted with within a user interface. The paper presents a FrbrVis prototype as one possible approach to presenting FRBR-based bibliographic data using hierarchical information visualization structures and looks into how FRBR concepts have been implemented into an interactive user interface display.

FRBR-ML: a FRBR-based framework for semantic interoperability

Metadata related to cultural items such as literature, music and movies is a valuable resource that is currently exploited in many applications and services based on semantic web technologies. A vast amount of such information has been created by memory institutions in the last decades using different standard or ad hoc schemas, and a main challenge is to make this legacy data accessible as reusable semantic data. On one hand, this is a syntactic problem that can be solved by translbrming to formats that are compatible with the tools and services used for semantic aware services. On the other hand, this is a semantic problem. Simply transforming from one format to another does not automatically enable semantic interoperability and legacy data often needs to be reinterpreted as well as transformed. The conceptual model in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, initially developed as a conceptual framework for library standards and systems, is a major step towards a shared semantic model of the products of artistic and intellectual endeavor of mankind. The model is generally accepted as sufficiently generic to serve as a conceptual framework for a broad range of cultural heritage metadata. Unfortunately, the existing large body of legacy data makes a transition to this model difficult. For instance, most bibliographic data is still only available in various MARC-based formats which is hard to render into reusable and meaningful semantic data. Making legacy bibliographic data accessible as semantic data is a complex problem that includes interpreting and transforming the information. In this article, we present our work on transforming and enhancing legacy bibliographic information into a representation where the structure and semantics of the FRBR model is explicit.

FRBR Entities: Identity and Identification

The models in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) family all include ways to document names or terms for the entities defined in the models. The interrelationships between the models with regards to their treatment of names, identifiers and other appellation entities will be described. Current developments for integrating Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) and Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD) concepts into FRBRoo are also putting a focus on naming and appellations. Identification is the ultimate aim, meaning to distinguish entities by unique appellations and to use the most reliable appellations for entities in a given context. This is an important step towards the consolidation of the models.

Presenting bibliographic families: Designing an FRBR-based prototype using information visualization

Purpose – Despite the importance of bibliographic information systems for discovering and exploring library resources, some of the core functionality that should be provided to support users in their information seeking process is still missing. Investigating these issues, the purpose of this paper is to design a solution that would fulfil the missing objectives. Design/methodology/approach – Building on the concepts of a work family, functional requirements for bibliographic records (FRBR) and information visualization, the paper proposes a model and user interface design that could support a more efficient and user-friendly presentation and navigation in bibliographic information systems. Findings – The proposed design brings together all versions of a work, related works, and other works by and about the author and shows how the model was implemented into a FrbrVis prototype system using hierarchical visualization layout. Research limitations/implications – Although issues related to discovery and expl...

Functional requirements for subject authority records (FRSAR): a conceptual model of aboutness

Provides a brief overview of the activities of the IFLA Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR) working group. Introduces the groups terms of reference and the work completed so far, including definitions of user tasks and subject entities. Discusses the development of the entity-relationship conceptual model of subject entities in the bibliographic universe.

The Value of a Library Catalog for Selecting Children's Picture Books

The aim of this study was to determine how parents select picture books for their children and which bibliographic data are important as they choose between different versions of the same title. Thirty-six parents of preschool children aged one to six years were interviewed and observed as they chose one version of the picture book Cinderella from among six bibliographic records and then selected from among six physical versions. Parents described the criteria and the reasons for their selections. The results indicate that the parents experienced difficulties using the library catalog and that the current bibliographic elements are inadequate.

Terminology registries for knowledge organization systems: Functionality, use, and attributes

Terminology registries (TRs) are a crucial element of the infrastructure required for resource discovery services, digital libraries, Linked Data, and semantic interoperability generally. They can make the content of knowledge organization systems (KOS) available both for human and machine access. The paper describes the attributes and functionality for a TR, based on a review of published literature, existing TRs, and a survey of experts. A domain model based on user tasks is constructed and a set of core metadata elements for use in TRs is proposed. Ideally, the TR should allow searching as well as browsing for a KOS, matching a users search while also providing information about existing terminology services, accessible to both humans and machines. The issues surrounding metadata for KOS are also discussed, together with the rationale for different aspects and the importance of a core set of KOS metadata for future machine‐based access; a possible core set of metadata elements is proposed. This is dealt with in terms of practical experience and in relation to the Dublin Core Application Profile.