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BOOK REVIEWS
Vicki Toy-Smith, Column Editor


Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR): Hype or Cure-All?
Edited by Patrick Le Boeuf

While Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) has not exactly taken the library world by storm, catalogers and library administrators are beginning to take notice of its oddly pronounced acronym, and are considering how its concept may improve their institutions’ catalogs. FRBR is an attempt to improve access to bibliographic items in an online catalog. This is done by re-designing the catalog’s display structure and establishing new relationships among bibliographic entries, using the following four intellectual concepts: item, manifestation, expression, and work. Advocates claim that applying these conceptual changes save libraries time and money. "FRBRizing" local, union, and cooperative catalogs is becoming increasingly popular (albeit slowly and tentatively), so it is important that librarians and information specialists become aware of what FRBR is, why it was developed, and how it may possibly help users access materials. Heavy on theory and light on practicality, this collection of articles introduces readers to the topic and provides thorough descriptions and analyses of current FRBR projects.

Editor Patrick Le Boeuf opens the volume with an engrossing and highly readable introduction to FRBR. Le Boeuf’s perspective is valuable here, since at the time of compiling this book, he was chair of the FRBR Review Group. He does an excellent job of providing an overview of the current trends in library cataloging and explaining how FRBR can fit into the current cataloging landscape. He stresses that FRBR is a conceptual model that, if adopted, may improve access by making online searching of catalogs easier and more efficacious. He suggests that FRBR can have a profound influence on cataloging, but he explains that not everyone is happy about the prospect of "FRBRization". Le Boeuf effectively provides arguments for both sides of the debate, and is careful to point out that the FRBR model is far from complete. Also, somewhat surprisingly, Le Boeuf argues that FRBR takes a conservative approach to organizing and displaying bibliographic data in online catalogs, making OPACs constructed similarly to old card catalogs. This article is sure to pique catalogers’ interest in the topic and spark debate. It is an excellent way to begin this book.

The seventeen articles that follow range from objective historical accounts of FRBR to explanations and analyses of current FRBR projects to discussions on applying FRBR to bibliographic records for non-book formats such as digital documents, sound recordings, and even hand press materials. Related topics such as authority records are also covered. The book’s coverage is impressively comprehensive. While a vast majority of the articles are dense, difficult to read, and too theoretical for most readers, three articles stand out as being especially important and applicable to practitioners, not to mention highly readable and entertaining. The first such article is Olivia M.A. Madison’s "The Origins of the IFLA Study on Functional Requirements for Bibliographical Records", which provides the necessary historical background on FRBR. She delineates when and why the concept was developed, and who the major contributors were in its development. As Madison explains, FRBR is basically recommendations made by an IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) study group. The increasingly complex nature of OPAC displays and rising costs of cataloging motivated the group to study alternative means of organizing and displaying pertinent bibliographic data, and the resulting recommendations came to be known as FRBR. Madison’s account is impressively detailed yet easy to read and comprehend.

Also of particular interest is "FRBRizing OCLC’s WorldCat", by Thomas B. Hickey and Edward T. O’Neill. This well-written and interesting article should appeal to practitioners as well as to library theorists, because the authors explain in simple terms how OCLC tested FRBR concepts on its cooperative catalog. Hickey and O’Neill explain how bibliographic records and their relationships differed when "FRBRized", and they discuss the challenges presented by this project. The authors explain that "FRBRizing" a catalog means collocating related records by grouping manifestations into works, and then grouping them into expressions. Obviously, an understanding of the four basic FRBR terms is essential to grasping what that means. The authors do a splendid job of explaining this in terms that non-experts can grasp.

The final article of note is Barbara Tillett’s sublime discussion on what this all means, and why practicing catalogers and catalogers-to-be should care about it. Entitled "FRBR and Cataloging for the Future", this article explains the somewhat confusing concepts behind FRBR in terms that we can all understand, discusses how it relates to current practices, and puts it all into perspective. She opens her article by assuaging fears and putting out potential fires:
"FRBR is not a data model. FRBR is not a metadata scheme. FRBR is not a system design structure. It is a conceptual model of the bibliographic universe. That bibliographic universe includes anything a library might wish to collect or make accessible to its users. Even more, FRBR reminds us of the importance of bibliographic relationships, and reminds us to describe things in the bibliographic universe in order to meet specific user tasks: ‘find’, ‘identify’, ‘select’, ‘obtain’, and I add ‘relate’. The user comes first."
Tillett reminds catalogers that FRBR is a conceptual model that, if applied, could help library users find desired items in online catalogs; it is not intended to replace AACR2, MARC, Dublin Core, etc. Rather, FRBR concepts can be applied to all existing bibliographic structures and standards to the potential benefit of the user.

The other articles in this volume focus on current projects that involve applying FRBR to a wide variety of non-book and non-traditional formats. Libraries and other information centers throughout the world are applying the FRBR framework model to varying degrees and utilizing technology in different ways, all to the intended benefit of users. These articles are uniformly dense, delving deeply into the theoretical and intellectual aspects of "FRBRization". However, little regard is given to explaining the practical aspects of their projects, such as how catalogs and databases were actually changed, what new workflows emerged, and what users thought of the changes. The examples and illustrations provide little additional information and do little to clarify confusing and heady concepts.

Much of this book is highly theoretical in nature, making it attractive to educators, students, and managers. The purpose of this book appears to be to spark intellectual discussion on what the FRBR model entails, how it is possibly an improvement over current cataloging methods, and how it has been applied to libraries and other information centers throughout the world. On the other hand, this is not a handbook. Practicing librarians, even catalogers, will find little of real interest that is on a practical level, aside from Tillett’s excellent overview of the topic.

Incidentally, the editor does indeed answer the question posed by the book’s subtitle. However, I will not spoil the surprise.

Published in 2006 by: Haworth Information Press, Binghamton, New York. (316 p.) ISBN 0-7890-2798-4; 0-7890-2799-2 (pbk.). Co-published simultaneously as Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, Vol. 39, nos. 3/4, 2005.

Reviewed by: Douglas King
Special Materials Cataloger
Thomas Cooper Library
University of South Carolina

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Last updated: October 20, 2006
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