Developing an Eye for Resemblances: FRBR and Relevancy Rankingin WorldCat Local

Greg Matthews & Jon ScottWorldCat Discovery Day

30 July 2010

This presentation …

• Explores the FRBR model as a conceptual foundation for WorldCat Local architecture and functionality.

• Demonstrates how FRBR concepts and entities facilitate discovery searching by identifying relationships between informational objects in the bibliographic universe.

FRBR background

• “Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records”

• Developed and monitored by the IFLA Study Group on FRBR (1992-95, 1997)

• Intended to be independent of existing cataloging standards, rules, and formats

FRBR basics

• A conceptual, entity-relationship model • New ways to think about cataloging record

structure and application• “… a more precise vocabulary to help future

cataloging rule makers and system designers” meet user needs*

• Potential for basic level cataloging records to provide optimal usability

*Tillett, Barbara, “Terminology,” What is FRBR? A Conceptual Model for the Bibliographic Universe, www.loc.gov/cds/downloads/FRBR.PDF (accessed 26 July 2010).

FRBR structure

• Identifies bibliographic entities

• Distinguishes between three entity groups

• Entity groups are inter-related

FRBR entities• Group 1: WHAT the record describes

– Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item• Four levels of information object representation• “… represent the products of intellectual or artistic endeavour.”*

• Group 2 : WHO is responsible for the work– Person, Corporate Body

• “… responsible for the custodianship of Group 1’s intellectual or artistic endeavour.”*

• Group 3: WHAT the work is about– Concepts, Objects, Events, Places

• “… subjects of Group 1 or Group 2’s intellectual endeavour … .”*

Wikipedia contributors, “Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Data,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_Requirements_for_Bibliographic_Records (accessed June 26, 2010).

Manifestation

• An example of an expression of a work– A paperback copy of a novel

• “Item in hand”– Scope of traditional cataloging describes a

container and its contents• FRBRization groups manifestations of a work– Gathers and organizes the contents of a work

expressed and manifested in multiple containers, sometimes even providing access to a work’s contents

POW! Super works• Evolving FRBR concept– Super record?– Super display?

• Provides database users with faceted search results– A single work can be sub-grouped and accessed by

container, date, creator, language …• Serves as a foundation for relevancy ranking– The more complex and nuanced a work’s

bibliographic existence, the higher its relevance

FRBR and relevancy

• Descriptive data—authors, titles, subjects—can be broken apart and reassembled in a FRBRized environment– Relationships between data are more dynamic

• Relevancy becomes a function of identifying relationships between different pieces of data created when a user utilizes the metadata maintained in a FRBRized system