In the early seventies, libraries began converting their catalog card files to flat databases, with the AACR2/MARC format. By the turn of the century,In the early seventies, libraries began converting their catalog card files to flat databases, with the AACR2/MARC format. By the turn of the century, computer science and user expectations had outgrown the capabilities of a flat database. In 1998, the FRBR (Fundamental Requirements for Bibliographic Records) study was set up, along with the somewhat later FRAD (Fundamental Requirements of Authority Databases) and FRANSAR (Fundamental Requirements and Numeration of Subject Authority Records) to study what exactly was needed by different types of catalog users and how this could be achieved in principle with an entity-relationship type of relational database structure.
This book, by BYU cataloging guru Robert L. Maxwell, is designed to explain what FRBR is all about. There are two problems with the book: first, it was written in 2007, when FRBR was fairly advanced, but FRAD was still in early rough draft and FRANSAR was only beginning; RDA (Resource Description and Access), the successor to AACR2 based on FRBR principles, was also just beginning to be worked on, and his few comments about it are in the way of guesses what it might be like. Today, of course, RDA is about to be implemented. The second problem, is that Maxwell is not quite sure of his audience: is he writing a simple guide to FRBR for librarians like me who are anxiously trying to figure out what it is all about and what it means for my library, or a critique for the FRBR committee? Each chart he presents about how FRBR works is accompanied by another chart showing how he thinks it ought to have been set up.
The book did give me a basic understanding of the FRBR model, but I also know a little about databases; some of the other catalogers at my library were totally confused by it....more
I'm taking Joyce's class on RA service now. This is a totally different way of looking at books for me, not judging whether a book is good or whether I'm taking Joyce's class on RA service now. This is a totally different way of looking at books for me, not judging whether a book is good or whether I personally like it, but trying to analyze the appeal factors to know whether to suggest it to someone who likes a particular kind of book or a similar author. The key is, we do not recommend books, we suggest them. There is a lot of good information in this book about where to find reviews and information about books and series in various genres, and how to train your staff to do this sort of work. I've seldom read a textbook that I could so immediately put into practice....more
I finally finished this 900 page book of minute detail -- fortunately, I was allowed to read it "on the clock" at work over the last three months. ThoI finally finished this 900 page book of minute detail -- fortunately, I was allowed to read it "on the clock" at work over the last three months. Those who are library catalogers know what this is and why I needed to read it; the rest of you have no need to know, but if you're curious, RDA is the new set of cataloging rules which is designed to make the transition to related database structures for cataloging, IF the software vendors ever decide to do anything with it. Meanwhile, it is just a change in everything we have to do in cataloging.
I was fortunate to have learned RDA in a week long course taught by Bob Maxwell, the cataloging guru and BYU special collections librarian; this book is a longer and more detailed version of what he taught us. It is organized in the WEMI structure of RDA (Works, Expressions, Manifestations, Items) -- the first and longest chapter, after a short historical/theoretical introduction, is the rules for describing Manifestations and Items -- that is, the actual books, etc. that come across my desk to catalog. The next four chapters are on describing Persons, Families, Corporate Bodies and Geographical Entities -- the sort of things we have to put in as authors, illustrators, translators, publishers and places of publication, and so forth. (There is nothing in the book on describing subjects of books, as that part of RDA has not yet been written -- it was "rolled out" very incomplete and imperfect, and the first couple years have been a nightmare of constantly changing revisions in the rules, with new decisions handed down every few months.) Then there are chapters on Works and Expressions, which the Manifestations are the published editions of -- think, Work = The Iliad; Expression = Pope's translation; Manifestation = a particular publisher's edition of Pope's translation; Item = the specific copy with its own barcode number. The last chapter is on Recording Relationships between all of the above. Then there are a couple hundred pages of "appendixes" on specific types of resource such as books, videos, books on CD and so forth -- basically the "cheat sheets" that show how to actually do it.
I'll be fortunate if I remember ten percent of all this, and mostly what has to do with books, but at least I know where to look up things. Not the most exciting book I've ever read, but necessary for my job and clearer than many other sources on the topic....more
A fascinating survey of book production, bookselling, and libraries from the earliest known collections in Mesopotamia through the end of the Roman EmA fascinating survey of book production, bookselling, and libraries from the earliest known collections in Mesopotamia through the end of the Roman Empire. Of course I was already aware of the great libraries at Alexandria (over half a million rolls) and Pergamum, which were basically academic libraries for scholars, but I wasn't aware that there were public libraries for the general public -- 29 in Rome alone by the early fourth century AD. Such a small percentage of the books survived the early Christian and Moslem depredations, it is really disheartening....more
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