MARC and FRBR are among the best known acronyms in today’s cataloging world. With the implementation of RDA by the US national libraries in the late winter/spring of 2013, and with other libraries already adopting the new cataloging code, a great deal of discussion is taking place about FRBR and whether it is implementable. In addition, the viability of the MARC format has been called into question. What is wrong with MARC, and what alternatives are there? Join David Lindahl and John Myers for presentations and Q&A relating to these two cataloging fundamentals.

1. http://www.niso.org/news/events/2012/nisowebinars/marc_and_frbr/
NISO Webinar:
MARC and FRBR: Friends or Foes?
October 10, 2012
Speakers: John Myers, David Lindahl

2. W(h)ither MARC?
What’s Wrong with MARC, or, The Place of the
MARC Format in a Changing Metadata
Environment
October 10, 2012
John Myers, Catalog Librarian
Union College

3. from Library Journal, October 15, 2002

4. “There are only two kinds of people who believe
themselves able to read a MARC record
without a stack of manuals: a handful of top
catalogers and those on serious drugs.”
“The MARC syntax, the MARC data
elements, and the [AACR] … are so
intertwined that teasing out which must be
jettisoned and which can be kept will be at
least as difficult as starting from scratch.”

5. MARC control subfields

6. Cover image, Semantic Web group, of HASTAC
(site developed August 2, 2011; viewed October 9, 2012)

7. What is FRBR?
A Conceptual Model for the Bibliographic Universe.
Barbara Tillett

8. Harry Potter in MARC

9. Work Elements

10. Expression Elements

11. Manifestation Elements

12. RDA Vocabularies Registry

13. Vocabulary List of RDA Carrier Types

14. Computer Card Vocabulary Entry

15. What Might “NEW MARC”
Look Like
???

16. Our Record Types
a - Language material
c - Notated music
d - Manuscript notated music
e - Cartographic material
f - Manuscript cartographic material
g - Projected medium
i - Nonmusical sound recording
j - Musical sound recording
k - Two-dimensional nonprojectable graphic
m - Computer file
o – Kit
p - Mixed materials
r - Three-dimensional artifact or naturally occurring object
t - Manuscript language material
z - Authority

17. New Record Types
w – Group 1: Work-level Record
e – Group 1: Expression-level Record
m – Group 1: Manifestation-level Record
i – Group 1: Item-level Record
n – Group 2 Record
(or)
p – Group 2: Personal name Record
c – Group 2: Corporate name Record
f – Group 2: Family name Record
Etc., for Group 3

18. Good bye FF/008

19. Hello embedded coding
264 /1 $c 2012 $2 item $7 300 // $b
transcribed http://rdvocab.info/termLi
264 /4 $c 2012 $2 item $7 st/IllusContent/1008
high (RDF)
264 /1 $c 2012 $2 item $7
conjectured

20. Further Disaggregate fields/subfields;
Improve sequencing
NOW
245 10 $a Henry Esmond : $b a novel / $c by
Thackeray. Bleak House : a novel / by Dickens.
NEW
245 10 $8 1.1 $a Henry Esmond : $b a novel /
245 10 $8 1.2 $a Bleak House : $b a novel /
24X // $8 1.1 $c by Thackeray.
24X // $8 1.2 $c by Dickens.

21. Further Disaggregate fields/subfields;
Improve sequencing
NOW
264 /1 $a London : $b Benn ; $a Chicago ; $b Rand
McNally,
NEW
264 /1 $8 1.1 $0 [Geo-Names ID for London] $a London :
264 /1 $8 1.2 $0 [Geo-Names ID for Chicago] $a Chicago :
264 /1 $8 1.1 $0 [ID for Benn] $b Benn ;
264 /1 $8 1.2 $0 [ID for Rand McNally] $b Rand McNally,

22. Semantic Web vs NEW MARC
Semantic Web/RDF pros Semantic Web/RDF cons
• Industry standard of holistic
• “Off the shelf” software vs. and “imprimatured” records
specialized software • Migrating/mapping legacy
• Expose Library Data to the data in MARC
WWW • How develop profiles to
• Leverage non-Library “harvest” selected RDF
Semantic Web Data for triples
Library use • How ensure the stability of
“imprimatured” data

23. Transitions, transformations, and shifting sands: the landscape beyond MARC;
the ground beneath the record. Gordon Dunsire. Presented to the RDA
Programs Taskforce Annual Forum, 25 Jun 2011.

24. Future Possibilities
LC’s Bibliographic Framework Marc of Quality’s RIMMF
Transition Initiative

25. IGeLU "Bibliographic Framework Initiative Approach
for MARC Data as Linked Data,"
Sally McCallum (September 13, 2012)

26. RIMMF template for Manifestation

28. FRBR at Fourteen:
Will Its Time Ever Come?
David Lindahl, University of Rochester
NISO Webinar: MARC and FRBR: Friends or Foes?
October 10, 2012

29. Agenda
Implementing FRBR in eXtensible Catalog
What we’ve learned about:
– FRBR and library users
– “FRBRizing” MARC data in a production
system
– FRBR and Linked Data
29

30. What is XC software?
eXtensible Catalog (XC) is open
source software for libraries and library
consortia.
XC provides a discovery system and
a set of tools for libraries to
manage/transform metadata and build
applications.
Four software toolkits available at: 30

31. eXtensible Catalog Funders and
Sponsors
Major Funding
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Sponsors
Consortium of Academic and Research
Libraries in Illinois (CARLI)
Kyushu University
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
University of Rochester
31

32. First XC Discovery Sites
XC Discovery Kyushu University Perseus Digital Library
Demo Site Cute. Catalog
Fukuoka University Kanazawa University Thailand Cyber University
Library OPAC Integrated Search 32

33. FRBR and Library Users

34. User Research Findings
Users care about…
• Material and format types
• Versions and relationships
• Why these search results?
• Scholarly networks
34

35. Bottom line…
Users care about relationships…
Among resources
Between people and resources
Between people and other people
Between a search term and the resources
that they retrieve with it
FRBR, FRAD, etc. are all about
relationships!
35

36. Studying Students: The Scholarly Practice, Participatory
Undergraduate Research Project at Design and the eXtensible
the University of Catalog, published by the American
Rochester, published by Library Association, 2011
ACRL, 2008
Available as FREE PDF download:
Available as FREE PDF download: http://hdl.handle.net/1802/12375
http://hdl.handle.net/1802/7520
User Research at the UR… 36

37. XC Demo Interface

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. “View XC Schema”
41

42. 42

43. 43

44. “Uplinks” between FRBR levels
44

45. 45

46. XC Schema record originated
as this MARC record in our ILS
46

47. Pipeline from ILS to Discovery
Discovery Layer
ILS
(on Drupal)
Set of MARC records Set of XC (FRBR) records
Bib Records
Work Records
Holding Records
Expression Records
Manifestation Records
Holding Records
47

48. Pipeline from ILS to Discovery
Discovery Layer
ILS
(on Drupal)
Set of MARC records Set of XC (FRBR) records
Bib Records Set of Work Records
Holding Records Library Expression Records
Resources Manifestation Records
Holding Records
48

49. Pipeline from ILS to Discovery
Discovery Layer
ILS
XC transformation and (on Drupal)
synchronization
services
XC Metadata Services Toolkit
Set of MARC records Set of XC (FRBR) records
Bib Records Set of Work Records
Holding Records Library Expression Records
Resources Manifestation Records
Holding Records
49

50. “FRBRized” MARC records
Parse MARCXML records: XC
• Create new XC Schema records
Work
XC
Expression
MARCXML
Bibliographic
XC
Manifestation
50

51. “FRBRized” MARC records
Parse MARCXML records: XC
• Create new XC Schema records
Work
• Insert uplinks Work Expressed
• Maintain them over time XC
Expression
MARCXML
Bibliographic Expression Manifested
XC
Manifestation
51

52. “FRBRized” MARC records
Parse MARCXML Holdings records XC
Work
Work Expressed
XC
Expression
MARCXML
Bibliographic Expression Manifested
XC
Manifestation
OO4 “Uplink”
MARCXML
Holdings
52

53. “FRBRized” MARC records
Parse MARC Holdings records: XC
• Create new XC Holdings records
Work
• Insert uplinks Work Expressed
XC
Expression
MARCXML
Bibliographic Expression Manifested
XC
Manifestation
OO4 “Uplink”
Manifestation Held
MARCXML
XC Holdings
Holdings
53

54. What we’ve learned from
“FRBRizing” MARC in a live system

55. MARC to XC Schema Transformation
Parses MARCXML
records into linked
FRBR-based Maps MARCXML data
records elements to elements in the
XC Schema.

56. Converting MARC 21
Problematic areas:
– Some MARC fields/subfields are difficult
to map to appropriate FRBR entities
– Tracking relationships between FRBR
entity records: How many relationships
can we support with XC software?
56

57. Managing Relationships
57

58. Managing Relationships
58

59. Issue 1: Managing Multiple Relationships
MARC bibliographic records can refer
to multiple FRBR entities of the same
type (analytics that represent multiple
works/expressions, e.g. tracks on a
CD)
59

60. Issue 2: Beyond FRBR Group 1 Entities
MARC “Alternate Graphic Representation” (880
fields) can contain data that belong in records
for Group 2 and Group 3 entities
Contributor:
700 1 ‡6 880-08 ‡a Vasil’ev, Maksim.
880 1 ‡6 700-08 ‡a Васильев, Максим.
Subject:
600 10 ‡6 880-06 ‡a Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, ‡d 1952-
880 10 ‡6 600-06 ‡a Путин, Владимир Владимирович, ‡d
1952-
60

61. If we were to parse this 880 data
correctly:
Alternative Alternative
script of script of
name from subject
880 from 880
61

62. Issue 3: Related Group 1
Entities
Language attribute for a related expression
041 1 ‡a eng ‡h ita
100 0 ‡a Dante Alighieri, ‡d 1265-1321.
240 10 ‡a Divina commedia. ‡l English
245 14 ‡a The divine comedy / ‡c Dante ; a
new verse translation by C.H. Sisson.
500 ‡a Translation of: Divina commedia.
62

63. If we were to parse 041 ‡h data…
Original
language
from 041 ‡h
Alternative Alternative
script of script of
name from subject
880 from 880
63

64. Managing Relationships Between Entities
64

65. What we are learning from XC
Maintaining links among FRBR entity
records may not be scalable…
•new records
•changed
records
•deleted
records
•changed 65

66. What we are learning from XC
Maintaining links among FRBR entity
records may not be scalable… if we
continue to manipulate records.
•new records
•changed
records
•deleted
records
•changed 66

67. What XC has taught us about
FRBR…
The GOOD news: MARC data is very
rich, and contains data about MANY
relationships described in FRBR and
related data models
There are hundreds of
RDA Relationships
between FRBR
entitles!
67

68. What XC has taught us about
FRBR…
• MARC data contains many
relationships…
• A record-based system is probably not
feasible
• Linked Data may make a fuller
implementation of FRBR much more
attainable!
68

69. What We’ve Learned about
FRBR and Linked Data

70. XC software is “Linked Data Ready”
The underlying schema for XC uses
elements from registered element sets to
facilitate conversion to RDF triples (i.e.
they already have URIs)
70

71. XC Schema Properties
DC
• Dublin Core terms – all
• RDA – subset of elements
and role designators
• XC elements – newly RDA
defined (when necessary)
All properties are from XC
registered element sets and
thus already have URIs
71

72. RDF Triple - Registered Data Elements
Subjec Predicat Object
t e
oai:mst.rochester.edu:
http://id.loc.gov/authoritie
MST/
s/sh85103735#concept
MARCToXCTransformatio http://www.
n/ extensiblecatalog.in
10081 fo/Elements/subject
This resource has subject Poets, America
n
72

73. How XC is Linked Data Ready
XC converts MARC data to FRBR
entities as an interim step. This may
enable us to produce more meaningful
Linked Data.
73

74. “FRBRized” MARC records
Parsing MARCXML records into linked
XC
FRBR-based XC Schema records Work
Work Expressed
XC
Expression
MARCXML
Bibliographic Expression Manifested
XC
Manifestation
74

75. RDF triple
Subjec Predicat Object
t e
oai:mst.rochester.edu:
http://id.loc.gov/authoritie
MST/
s/sh85103735#concept
MARCToXCTransformatio http://www.
n/ extensiblecatalog.in
10081 fo/Elements/subject
This resource has subject Poets, America
n
75

76. With and without FRBR
Without FRBR:
<MARCBibRecord-number> has_author “J K Rowling”
76

77. With and without FRBR
Without FRBR:
<MARCBibRecord-number> has_author “J K Rowling”
With FRBR:
<Work-id> has_creator “J K Rowling”
<Expression-id> has_language “English”
<Expression-id> has_parent_work <Work-id>
<Manifestation-id> has_isbn <ISBN-number>
<Manifestation-id> has_parent_expression <Expression-id>
77

78. Why use FRBR for Linked Data?
• User want to see the relationships
• FRBR is the underlying model for RDA
• With XC, we can explore when/how
FRBR might be useful for Linked Data
• Other data models may be more
appropriate in some contexts and those
can be explored as well.
78

79. Recap of what we’ve learned from
XC
• User research shows that the FRBR
model does align closely to user needs
• Not all relationship data in MARC data
can be easily reused
• Managing all FRBR relationships in a
record-based system probably isn’t
feasible
79

80. Recap of what we’ve learned from
XC
• Linked Data may make a fuller
implementation of FRBR more feasible
• FRBR may help us create more usable
Linked Data in some situations
80

81. Thank you!
dlindahl@library.rochester.edu
www.eXtensiblecatalog.org