Murtomaa, Eeva

Pekkarinen, Päivi

Finnish

Journal.fi

On the importance of conceptual models in the organization of knowledge – a brief feature on the IFLA models  Eeva Murtomaa & Päivi Pekkarinen Technology enables us to create more and more sophisticated knowledge organization systems and services - KOS.  But to make the best use of this technological potential in the global multicultural and multilingual environment requires more and more structured information as well as enhanced inter-operability for satisfying the user needs. The conceptual models of the IFLA Working Groups, Working Group on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering Authority Data (FRANAR), and Working Group on Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAR)  are responses to this requirement.New structures for bibliographic records and authority recordsThe purpose of the FRBR model – published in 1998 – was to identify the functional require-ments of bibliographic records to facilitate us-er tasks. The analysis resulted in three groups of entities:Group 1 work,•	  expression, manifestation, and item – the products of intellectual or artistic endeavour; Group 2 person, corporate body – the •	 actors responsible for the intellectual or artistic con-tent, the physical production and dissemina-tion, or custodianship, of Group 1 entities;Group 3 concept, object, event, place – •	 sub-jects of works, intellectual or artistic endeav-our. (FRSAR  draft 2008–07-19). The FRANAR Working Group, established in 1999, and the FRSAR Working Group, estab-lished in 2005, were charged to extend the FRBR model by analyzing the Group 2 and the Group 3 entities as they appear in authority records or authority data. The role of the FRANAR Working Group was formulated:to define functional requirements of authori-•	ty recordsto study the feasibility of an International •	Standard Authority Data Number (ISADN) and  to examine the possible structure of the number and the type of management that would be necessaryto serve as the official IFLA liaison to and work •	with other interested groups concerning au-thority files. The first and the third goal have been achieved. The numbering issue has been treated separate-ly*. * The final document: A Review of the Feasibility of an International Standard Authority Data Number (ISADN) / pre-pared for the IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records by Bar-bara B. Tillett ; edited by Glenn E. Patton ;  approved by the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Sec-tion, 15 September 2008 is available on the IFLA web site: http://www.ifla.org/VII/d4/wg-franar.htmThe FRANAR Working Group recommends that IFLA should continue to monitor the progress of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 277729 ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) and the VIAF – Vir-tual International Authority File.The role of the FRSAR Working Group was formulated: to build a conceptual model of Group 3 enti-•	ties within the FRBR framework as  they re-late to the aboutness of works to provide a clearly defined, structured frame of •	reference for relating the data that are record-ed in subject authority records to the needs of the users of those records to assist in an assessment of the potential for •	international sharing and use of subject au-thority data both within the library sector and beyond.       The first task concerns subject entities, the sec-ond addresses user needs, and the third encom-passes the issues of interoperability.FRANAR, in its model Functional Require-ments for Authority Data FRAD, has focused on the FRBR Group 2 entities, the actors and their relations to works,  i.e. name authorities, where-as  FRSAR, in its forthcoming  model Function-al Requirements for Subject Authority Data  FR-SAD, has focused on the Group 3 entities, the subjects of works,  i.e. subject authorities.The FRAD document draft defines authority record or data as the aggregate of information about a person, family, corporate body or work whose name is used as the basis for a controlled access point for bibliographic citations or records in a library catalogue or bibliographic file. Con-trolled access points support structured access.FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) Entity-relationship diagramThe lower half of the diagram represents the as-sociations between names and identifiers, on the   23PersonFamilyCorporate bodyworkexpressionmanifestationitemconceptobjecteventplacerulesagencynameidentifierhas appellationassignedbasisforgovrned byapplied bycreated/modified byassociated withbibliographic entitiescontrolledaccess pointis appellation of  one hand, and the controlled access points based on those names and identifiers, the rules that gov-ern those controlled access points, and the agen-cies that apply the rules in creating and modify-ing controlled access points on the other. Subject entities and their main relationships For reasons of clarity, the FRSAR Working Group has introduced new Latin terms for subjects and how they are called: Thema and Nomen. In the FRSAR model, subject entities and their relation-ships can be described as in the figures below:language or script, or any knowledge organiza-tion tool, cataloguing code, classification scheme, thesaurus, or vocabulary. User tasks – user functionsAs in the FRBR report, users of authority data include cataloguers and reference librarians who create, maintain, and use authority files directly. Also, their users include library users who use au-thority information either through direct access to authority files or indirectly through the access points in databases.In the FRBR, FRAD and FRSAR models, us-er tasks are defined as follows:FRBR (1998): To find entities that correspond to the user’s search criteriaTo Identify an entity ( i.e. to confirm that the en-tity described corresponds to the entity sought, or to distinguish between two or more entities with similar characteristics)To select an entity that is appropriate to the us-er’s needs To acquire or obtain access to the entity de-scribed (through purchase, loan or electronical-ly etc.)FRAD (2007):To find one entity or set of entities corresponding to stated criteria (i.e. to find either a single entity or a set of entities using an attribute or combina-tion of attributes or a relationship of the entity as the search criteria); or to explore the universe of bibliographic entities using those attributes and relationships. To identify an entity ( i.e. to confirm that the en-tity described corresponds to the entity sought, or to distinguish between two or more entities with similar characteristics) or to validate the form of name to be used for a controlled access point. To contextualize;  a place, a person,  corporate body, work etc. in context; clarify the relation-ships between a person, corporate body, etc. and work themahas as subjectis subject ofthema nomenhas appellationis appellation ofNomen is defined as any alpha numeric, sound, visual etc. symbol or combination of symbols by which Thema is known, referred to or addressed as. Accordingly, all the entities of the  FRBR three groups may be subject of a work, may be, i.e. Thema The FRAD model treats persons, corporate bodies and families and their names as separate entities, which have relationships. Also, FRSAR treats Thema, subjects of works, and Nomen, how the subjects are called, as separate entities, which have relationships such as thoseBetween the entities: Work – Thema  and Thema – NomenWithin the entities: Thema – Thema and Nomen – Nomen.The FRAD and FRSAR models are designed to be independent of any existing system, format, Thema is defined as anything that can be sub-ject of a work.a name by which that person, corporate body, etc. is known (e.g. name used in religion versus secular name).To justify; to document the authority data - the creator’s reason for choosing the name or form of name on which a controlled access point is based.FRSAR (2006 / 2008 draft):Find: to find an entity (thema or nomen) or set of entities corresponding to stated criteriaIdentify: to identify an entity (thema or nomen) - to confirm that the entity described corresponds to the entity sought or to distinguish between two or more similar entitiesSelect: to select  an entity (thema or nomen) – e.g. to select  the thema corresponding to the us-er’s information need or select the nomen in ap-propriate form or language Explore: to explore relationships between subject entities (thema or nomen), correlations to oth-er subject vocabularies or the structure of a sub-ject domain.To integrate user tasks to the functional require-ments of bibliographic and authority data of these models, user tasks are mapped to the entities and their relationships. All these three models support the idea to have access to the contents of works in the language, script and format or form which is the most convenient for the user.  FRAD was sent to the world-wide review twice (in 2005 and 2007);final revisions were made during the IFLA Con-ference in Québec City, in 2008.The FRSAR document draft was worked on at the IFLA Conference in Quebec City in 2008. The first version of the document will be prob-ably distributed for review by the end of the year.2008.Acknowledgements:Our thanks are due especially to Marcia Lei Zeng, Chair of the IFLA FRSAR Working Group, and Maja Zumer and Athena Salaba, Co-chairs of the IFLA FRSAR Working Group.ReferencesFunctional Requirements for Bibliographic Records : final report / IFLA Study Group on the Functional Require-ments for Bibliographic Records. - München: KG Saur, 1998.  Amended and corrected through February 2008 http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/index.htmFunctional Requirements for Authority Data – a concep-tual model / IFLA Working Group on Functional Re-quirements and Numbering Authority Records (FRA-NAR): draft, 2008-07-15.http://www.ifla.org/VII/d4/wg-franar.htmFunctional Requirements for Subject Authority Data – a conceptual model / IFLA working Group on Functio-nal Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRA-SAR): draft 2008-07-19.http://www.ifla.org/VII/s29/wgfrsar.htmAbout the writersEeva MurtomaaNational Library of FinlandMember of the IFLA FRANAR Working Groupemail: eeva.murtomaa@helsinki.fiPäivi PekkarinenNational Library of Health Sciences, FinlandMember of the IFLA FRSAR Advisory Groupemail: paivi.pekkarinen@helsinki.fi

On the importance of conceptual models in the
organization of knowledge - a brief feature on the IFLA
models

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On the importance of conceptual models in the organization of knowledge - a brief feature on the IFLA models

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