Event‐aware FRBR and FRAD models: are they useful?
| Pages | 452-472 |
| Date | 10 May 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2012-0004 |
| Published date | 10 May 2013 |
| Author | Shoichi Taniguchi |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Event-aware FRBR and FRAD
models: are they useful?
Shoichi Taniguchi
Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies,
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present functional requirements for bibliographic
records (FRBR)-based model and functional requirements for authority data (FRAD)-based model;
both of which incorporate an event concept that transforms FRBR and FRAD with minimal
modification.
Design/methodology/approach – Relationships between the entities defined in FRBR/FRAD are
transformed into event entities and relationships with other kinds of entities. The cardinality of those
relationships is also examined. In addition, a comparison of the proposed FRBR-based model with the
object-oriented FRBR (FRBR
OO
) is conducted.
Findings – In the proposed event-aware FRBR model, an event and its output resource are dependent
on each other and necessary information about an event can be expressed with information about its
output resource, and vice versa. Therefore, the usefulness and expressiveness of the proposed model is
limited. In the FRBR
OO
model, dependency between an event and its output resource is not observed,
except in a few cases, since a different resource and event modeling was adopted there. The
event-aware FRAD model proposed is useful – but also the scope of its usefulness limited since
dependency between an event and its input/output resource is not observed on some event entities.
Originality/value – The proposed models are meaningful in terms of understanding the basic
structure and features of a model that incorporates an event concept. The usefulness and limitation of
event modeling have been clarified through such model building. The proposed models provide a
stable basis for examining FRBR/FRAD further.
Keywords Conceptual models,Event awareness, Bibliographicrecords, Authority data,
Functional requirements for bibliographicrecords model, Information management,
Functional requirements for authority data model,Records management
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Several researchers have asserted that events are insufficiently addressed in
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) (IFLA Study Group on the
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, 1998). An “event” is a concept
used to associate resource(s), agent(s), time, place, and others factor with one an other.
For example, Heaney (1997), Lagoze et al. (2000), and Lagoze (2001) each insist that
such an event concept should be introduced to FRBR. Lagoze et al. (2000) and Lagoze
(2001) also partially examine the possibility of incorporating the event concept into the
FRBR model, which would lead to an “event-aware model”; in addition, they propose
the ABC model (Lagoze and Hunter, 2002), a different kind of “event-aware model”
They have consistently emphasized that the concept event has a central role in
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The author expresses thanks to the referees for the careful reading of this work and the
thoughtful comments that have improved its quality.
JDOC
69,3
452
Received 12 January 2012
Accepted 12 January 2012
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 69 No. 3, 2013
pp. 452-472
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-01-2012-0004
metadata modeling and its framework; that concept has, in fact, been adopted by
several models, such as Indecs (Rust and Bide, 2000), a metadata framework in the
e-commerce sector; PREMIS (PREMIS Editorial Committee, 2011), a representative of
preservation metadata; and CIDOC CRM (Conceptual Reference Model) (ICOM/CIDOC
Documentation Standards Group, 2010), a major conceptual model in the museums
field.
On the other hand, FRBR
OO
(FRBR Object-oriented Definition and Mapping to
FRBR
ER
) (International Working Group on FRBR and CIDOC CRM Harmonization,
2006, 2009) has been proposed as a model where an event concept is fully applied to
FRBR; this is a result of harmonizing FRBR and CIDOC CRM. FRBR
OO
, however, is a
complex model and it incorporates several features other than the event concept, while
also being based on the modeling approach in CRM. It refines FRBR Group 1 entities,
i.e. work, expression, manifestation, and item, and thus defines new entities under each
of the Group 1 entities. According to the same principle as that used in CRM, it also
transforms the attributes of each entity defined in FRBR into relationships and their
corresponding new entities; in FRBR
OO
, these are called “classes” and “properties,”
respectively. Therefore, there is currently no simple, straightforward, and event-aware
FRBR model resulting directly from the incorporation of the event concept.
The purpose of this paper is to present an FRBR-based model that incorporates an
event concept in a straightforward way, thus implying a derivative of the FRBR model
with minimal modification. A simple, event-aware FRBR model contributes to a greater
understanding of the implications and results of incorporating an event concept:that is:
.how we can transform the FRBR model into an event-aware FRBR model in
minimal steps;
.how much expressiveness such a model gains by incorporating an event concept;
and
.to what extent such an event concept is necessary for FRBR.
It would also contribute to a greater understanding of the current FRBR model itself
and the bibliographic universe that FRBR represents.
This paper also presents a Functional Requirements for Authority Data
(FRAD)-based event-aware model. FRAD (IFLA Working Group on Functional
Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records, 2009) is a model that covers
authority data created by and stored in libraries and other institutions and is, in this
sense, a companion to FRBR. The policy surrounding and manner of incorporating an
event concept into FRAD is the same as in FRBR. Furthermore, this study investigates
the usefulness of the event-aware FRBR and FRAD models, by a comparison with the
FRBR
OO
model.
In this paper, I look to demonstrate the incorporation of an event concept into FRBR
and FRAD, by referring to the study of Lagoze et al. (2000). Actually, I will focus on the
relationships among entities defined by FRBR/FRAD and try to transform some of
them into event entities. Relationships are also defined among such newly defined
event entities and other kinds of bibliographic entities, and the cardinality of those
relationships will also be examined.
The concept of an “event” as the subject of a work is not my present concern. FRBR
contains an entitycalled an “event”; this serves as the subject of a work,but it is different
from the “event” addressed in this study. The FRBR Group three entities “concept,”
Event-aware
FRBR and FRAD
models
453
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