frbr.bnportugal.pt/documentos/the_vision_of_softwa
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The Two Worlds of FRBR And the Best of Both Worlds
October 9, 2008
Dr. Vinod Chachra, President & Dr. Vinod Chachra, President & CEOCEO
VTLS Inc. Blacksburg, VA, USAVTLS Inc. Blacksburg, VA, USA
VTLS HQ in Blacksburg, VA, USA
About VTLS Inc.
First spin-off corporation from Virginia Tech (VT) - Virginia’s
largest University – home of System X - 3rd fastest
Supercomputer in the world when built from 1100 PCs
purchased off the web. Total cost under $5M.
Vinod Chachra served as VP for Information Tech at VT.
VTLS has offices in 7 countries; does business in 40.
VTLS has three major product lines Virtua – Alexandria Egypt; many National Libraries
VITAL – Fedora based Institutional Repository – developed in
partnership with the Australian ARROW project.
VTRAX – RFID based tracking & security systems for libraries
VTLS is a Worldwide CompanyPartner or Office* Locations
Australia*Brazil*BruneiEgyptFranceGreeceIndia*KuwaitMalaysia*PhilippinesRussia
Slovakia
Spain – European HQ*
Switzerland*
Tunisia
Taiwan
Thailand
UAE
USA*
Select Customers: National Libraries
Europe: National Library of SwitzerlandEurope: National Library of WalesEurope: National Library of IrelandEurope: Royal Library of BelgiumEurope: National Library of SlovakiaEurope: National Union catalog of PolandAfrica: Library of Alexandria (Egypt)Africa: Notional Library of MoroccoAsia: National Library of IndiaAsia: National Library of IndonesiaAsia: National Library of MalaysiaUnion Catalogs (regional) of Catalan and Switzerland
Work Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
WW
FRBR Link Types: Group 1
WE
E W
E M
M E
M I
I M
Responsibility Relationships
Item
Manifestation
Expression
Work
Person / Corporate Body
FRBR Link Types: Group 2
R e a l i zed b y
P r o d u c ed b y
Cr e a t ed b y
Owned b y
A little History – Back in June/July 2003.
Navigating FRBR with Virtua
Vinod Chachra
& John Espley
ALA/ CLA, Toronto: Sunday, June 21 2003 AALL, Seattle: Sunday, July 13, 2003
VTLS shared 11 educational Power Points
All 11 Power Points produced in 2003 were provided freely on the VTLS web site as an educational tool Several Library schools used these power points to teach students on the details of FRBR with concrete examples The examples covered the following topics
A FRBR demonstration (FRBR1) FRBR Cataloging (FRBR2) FRBR OPAC (FRBR3) FRBR Work to Work Links (FRBR4) FRBR Multi Volume Sets (FRBR5) FRBR series (FRBR6) FRBR Collected and Selected Publications (FRBR7) FRBR Music Analytics (FRBR8) FRBR Journal Indexing (FRBR9) FRBR Super Works (FRBR10) FRBR Circulation Requests (FRBR11)
VTLS purchased LC Music Database
As a demonstration project, VTLS purchased the LC music database and FRBRized it to show the power and utility of FRBR. VTLS provided this free to the public for a period of time.
Present status of VTLS FRBR
In the last five years VTLS has sold only about 20 contracts for FRBR. The view in the library community seems to be that FRBR is still an experimental idea (wrong!) with an unknown future (wrong again!). Nevertheless, this is preventing rapid deployment of systems.
Recent Important Additions
VTLS recently developed FRBR SaaS (Software as a Service)
VTLS extended FRBR concept to create an Archival System
Two World Views of FRBR
There are two world views on FRBR
First View: The catalog should contain the “flat”records (as they are now) and these records should be FRBRized on the fly for display purposes.
Second View: The catalog should contain separate record of works, expressions, manifestations and items that are linked together by appropriate linking fields to form a “hierarchy” of linked records.
Strengths of First View
First View: The catalog should contain the “flat”records (as they are now) and these records should be FRBRized on the fly for display purposes.
It is simple to implement – does not require any changes to present cataloging practices and therefore it is easier to sell.
Requires no change in ILS data base structures as the record is only collocated on display.
As FRBR display management algorithms improve, no change in data is required to improve the display
Weaknesses of First View
The hierarchical results are built on the fly. Display algorithms have to be perfect as there is no possibility of intellectual intervention by humans to improve the displayed result sets. No advantages are gained in cataloging No possibility of making requests (Holds, ILLs)
At the work level (eg: user is willing to accept any expression of the work in any language) ORAt expression level (eg: user is will accept any edition of the work in the language of choice). At present Holds and ILLs are placed at the manifestation level.
Multiple calculations – each time a FRBR record is displayed it has to be re-assembled from flat records. Reverse tree displays are not easily possible
Strengths of Second View
Second View: The catalog should contain separate record of works, expressions, manifestations and items that are linked together by appropriate linking fields to form a “hierarchy” of linked records.
The record system matches the FRBR model Substantial productivity improvements in cataloging Fewer errors -- as data related to works and expressions are not repeated at lower levels Since the data at each level can be manually changed if needed, improvements are possible by human intervention (eg: handling spelling and language variations) Holds/ILLs can be placed at three levels instead of just one. Reverse trees can be easily displayed. Many other creative things are possible (The example of Archival Systems being used at National Library of Wales).
Weaknesses of Second View
Requires change in record structure to support linked records Harder for initial implementation (see new ideas on this) Requires catalogers to be retrained
Task can be reduced by better software See VTLS cataloging work-forms for each level See VTLS validation routines for each level
Requires “inertia” of existing implementations to be overcome
Views expressed by LOC and others
A recent report published by the Library of Congress called “On the record” states: LC and the library community need to find ways of “releasing the value” of their rich historic investment in semantic data onto the Web.
Tomothy Dickey (OCLC) in the article “FRBRization of a Library Catalog” states: “VTLS, on the other hand, has since 2004 offered a complete product that has the potential of modifying existing MARC records – via local linking tags in 001 and 004 fields – to create FRBR relationships… The VTLS solution of adding local linking tags seems most appropriate…The Virtua module from VTLS offers a very tempting solution, but may require a change of vendors”. Not really … see VTLS FRBR SAAS.
The Best of Both Worlds (Short Term)
FRBR SAAS (Software as a Service)
Allows library to keep their catalogs as they are
Allows users to see FRBR record from any traditional record
Allows clean and complete navigation between the traditional and FRBR record
Simple, no hassle solution
Recommended Implementation Options
Best Solution -- Implement a full FRBR solution See what UCL has done (next presentation) See other FRBR examples
Second Best Solution – Use FRBR SAAS Simple implementation Quick results Over time move to first solution
Bad Solution – Ignore the whole issue
FRBR Cataloging ImplementationFRBR Cataloging Implementation
VTLS FRBR Features
Single database can have FRBR and non-FRBR records
Display of FRBR records are in tree structure
System is “aware” of record type and changes displays as needed
Local level fields have values of W, E, and M to indicate type of FRBR record
001 and 004 used as linking tags
FRBR Cataloging
Creating an Original RecordUse FRBR work forms
VTLS provides three default work forms
Frbrwork.wfm Frbrexpr.wfm Frbrmanifest.wfm
Users can create their own work forms
In traditional cataloging the focus is on cataloging the manifestation as material on hand is the manifestation
VTLS is studying the cataloging practices to see if this remains true for FRBR
Bring record into editor
Change profile to “split record”
Save record
Virtua automatically creates three records – W,
E and M records from the one original record
The next example (Rowling) shows the process
Load Options Method
When creating FRBR records from
traditional bibliographic records, you need
duplicate control and merge functions for
Works and Expressions
Duplicate Control
The FRBRizationof the French
record resultedin adding an
expression (forthe French) to
the alreadyexisting Work
record.
Duplicate Control
Bring up Work record (or Expression
record)
Right Click
Select “Create Expression Record” (or
select “Create Manifestation Record”)
Example follows
Adding Expressions or Manifestations
Procedure for MARC “content designation”
validation of Work, Expression, and Manifestation
records is same as validating non-FRBR records
Three new validation files for FRBR with new
rules”
Rules can be modified by users by editing text file
Examples follow
Rules Based Validation
A FRBR SaaS ImplementationA FRBR SaaS Implementation
http://poseidon.vtls.com:8000/cgi-bin/gw_xyz/chameleon
FRBR SaaS Example [1 of 10 Search]
FRBR SaaS Example [2 of 10 Display]
FRBR SaaS Example [3 of 10 Select]
FRBR SaaS Catalog [4 of 10 Tree]
FRBR SaaS [5 of 10 Expand Tree]
FRBR SaaS Example [6 of 10 Navigate]
A FRBR Reverse TreeA FRBR Reverse Tree
FRBR Reverse Tree Example
Reverse Tree (M to E to W)
Advanced Navigation
From tree to tree
From tree to tree to tree
… to tree to tree (Monkey Business)
A FRBR Archival SystemA FRBR Archival System
Archives Management - Background
Archival management functionality in Virtua was a result of functional enhancement to Virtua for the National Library of Wales (NLW).
It was designed to allow NLW to preserve the content and arrangement of their existing archival collection materials and to maintain these collections in Virtua.
The functionality was first implemented in release 48 of Virtua and carried over to Release 49. In includes changes to Virtua server, client and iPortal.
Archives Management - Background
Archival cataloguing differs from bibliographic cataloguing because archives, unlike most printed material, cannot be described in isolation.
An archive is, therefore, only fully understood only when there is knowledge of both its content, and also, its context. Content is generally understood through description, but context can only be reflected through arrangement.
Archival arrangement therefore involves the ordering of material to reflect its context.
Archival arrangement is reflected in the cataloguing through the use of a multilevel description system.
Archives Management - Background
Rules for multilevel description are laid down in
“ISAD(G) General International Standard Archival Description”. It has 7 core levels:
Fonds
Sub-fonds
Sub-sub-fond
Series
Sub-series
Files
Items
Not all seven levels exist at all times.
Archives Management - Background
Archives Management - Background
Although the general rules describe 7 levels at present, VTLS was interested in providing a more general solution.
The system takes into account the possibility that more levels could be described in the future, so the implementation had to be flexible to handle this possibility.
The features were also designed in such a flexible manner so that other customers, who may wish to use the functionality, but who did not wish to conform to the seven level architecture could do so.
Cataloging Archival Material
Core foundation of cataloguing archival material is the ability to link bibliographic records together in the system:
Cataloging Archival Material
Core foundation of cataloguing archival material is the ability to link bibliographic records together in the system:
Cataloging Archival Material
Core foundation of cataloguing archival material is the ability to link bibliographic records together in the system:
Cataloging Archival Material
A new 999 “Ancestry” tag defines the context of this record in relation to the records above it:
Cataloging Archival Material
The parent id of each record is stored in the 004 tag
Three fields are stored: ParentID, sibling position, # levels
Cataloging Archival Material
004 tag stores the parent id, the position of the record in relation to its siblings, and the number of levels between it and its parent record (Ex: vtlsxxxx 2 2) :
Cataloging Archival Material – Functions
Change Order:
Cataloging Archival Material – Functions
Add/Remove Levels:
Cataloging Archival Material – Functions
Print Record Tree:
Searching Archival Material - iPortal
Accessing the record tree:
Searching Archival Material - iPortal
The system highlights the title in the tree that the user launched the record tree from for easy context:
Searching Archival Material - iPortal
New ability to expand and/or collapse the tree completely:
Searching Archival Material - iPortal
Expanded tree highlights:
1. Gaps are removed for easier display
2. Tree can be kept in a scrollable area to keep it in context with full card info below
Searching Archival Material - iPortal
Accessing the record tree from a title lower in the tree:
Searching Archival Material Database
Database that includes archival records 193.61.220.19 -- version 49.1.6 -- port 9985 Access by Bibid
Parent Bib Child Bib4180743 4171275 4180747 4171266 4180747 4171267 4180743 4171276 4180754 4171283 4180747 4171268 4180747 4171269 4180754 4171282 4180740 4171258 4180747 4171271 4180747 4171270
For Librarians
Collocation
Better organization to catalog
Easier cataloging
Reduction in cataloging load
Work only cataloged once for all expressions under it
Expression only cataloged once for all manifestations under it
Item cataloging (already simple) remains the same
Summary -- FRBR Benefits
Summary -- FRBR Benefits
Easier to find information Single search retrieves all related materials even
if cataloged in different languages or different subject headings
Greater Benefits For Users Collocation Easier to find information
Single search retrieves all related materials
Easier to see the different expressions of a single work Gives a better global picture
Library Task List
Read FRBR documentation
Study FRBR implementations to see benefits for
library
If there is interest, start a FRBR program
Have VTLS run “Virtua FRBR Analysis Program” to determine what percentage of database records are good FRBR candidates
General results: 5-15 % range
Use ThingISBN or X-ISBN id appropriate
Summary -- FRBR Preparation
The future is even brighter
Think about a discovery tools for FRBR Think about an automatic FRBR equivalent display for
Copy cataloging Discovery Search expansion Collection management
Think about a FRBR union catalog Think about a FRBR global union catalog
A Thought
Poor technology fosters competition.
Great technology
promotes partnerships
Questions …