FunctionalRequirementsforSubjectAuthorityData

ALA 2009 - SACO-At-Large Meeting, Chicago, Ill., July 12, 2009

A Report prepared by the Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR) WG

Presentation by Athena Salaba, Ph.D.

SLIS, Kent State University

  ThispresentationisbasedontheworkoftheFRSARWorkingGroupandsuggestionsfromtheAdvisoryGroup,establishedbytheIFLADivisionIV.BibliographicControlandespeciallytheSectionofClassificationandIndexing.

  FRSARWorkingGroupmembers:LedaBultrini,LoisMaiChan,JonathanFurner,EdwardO’Neill,GerhardRiesthuis,AthenaSalaba,DianeVizine‐Goetz,EkaterinaZaytseva,MarciaLeiZeng,andMajaZumer.

  FRSARAdvisoryGroupmembers:VictoriaFrancu,HemalataIyer,DorothyMcGarry,DavidMiller,PäiviPekkarinen,andBarbaraTillett.

  ThecommunicationandsharingwiththeFRANARWorkingGroupchairedbyGlennPatton.

  IFLA,OCLC,andKentStateUniversityhaveprovidedfunding,facilities,andtremendoussupport.

  FRBR:FunctionalRequirementsforBibliographicRecords  Originalframework(approved1997,published1998)  Definesallentities  FocusonGroup1entities

  FRAR/FRAD:FunctionalRequirementsforAuthorityData  Authorityrecords  FocusonGroup2entities  Justpublished(June22,2009)

  FRSAR/FRSAD:FunctionalRequirementsforSubjectAuthorityData  FocusonGroup3entities  EstablishedApril2005  DraftReportreleasedforcomments(June23,2009)  http://nkos.slis.kent.edu/FRSAR/

  Group1 (productsofintellectualandartisticendeavor)▪  Work▪  Expression▪  Manifestation▪  Item

  Group2 (actorsrelatedtoGroup1entities)▪  Person▪  CorporateBody▪  [Family(addedbyFRAD)]

  Group3 (subjectsofworks)▪  AllinGroups1and2plus:▪  Concept▪  Object▪  Event▪  Place

  tobuildaconceptualmodelofGroup3entitieswithintheFRBRframeworkastheyrelatetotheaboutnessofworks,

  toprovideaclearlydefined,structuredframeofreferenceforrelatingthedatathatarerecordedinsubjectauthorityrecordstotheneedsoftheusersofthoserecords,and

  toassistinanassessmentofthepotentialforinternationalsharinganduseofsubjectauthoritydatabothwithinthelibrarysectorandbeyond.

FRSAR=FunctionalRequirementsforSubjectAuthorityRecords

UserTasks

FRSAD

Findasubjectentityorentities

IdentifySelect

Explorerelationships,etc.

FRBR

Find

Identify

Select

Obtain

FRAD

Find

Identifyanentity

Contextualize,placeincontext,explorerelationships

Justifytheformofanaccesspoint

  Howtosubdivide(ifatall)?  Object,Concept,Event,Place  Concrete/abstract  Class/instance  Othermodels

‘Issues’withGroup3

Scenariosdiscussed  “Continuation”

  KeepFRBRGroup3entitiesandonlyanalyzeattributesandrelationships.

  “Expansion”  AddtimetotheFRBRlist.

  “Revision”  TakeRanganathan’sfacetsasbasis.  Take<indecs>asthebasis.  Makeapragmaticlistofentities.Oneexampleisthe

onebyBuizzaandGuerrini

  Entities:  Thema:anyentityusedasasubjectofawork  Nomen:anysignorsequenceofsigns(alphanumericcharacters,symbols,sound,etc.)bywhichathemaisknown,referredtooraddressed

ThismodelconfirmsoneofthebasicrelationshipsdefinedinFRBR:WORKhasassubjectTHEMA/THEMAissubjectofWORK.  Thema="anyentityusedasasubjectofawork".  ThemaincludesanyoftheFRBRentities:

  Group1andGroup2entitiesand,  inaddition,allothersubjectsofworks.

WORK has as subject THEMA / THEMA is subject of WORK

Thismodelalsoproposesanewrelationship:THEMAhasappellationNOMEN/NOMENisappellationofTHEMA.

• NOMEN=any sign or sequence of signs (alphanumeric characters, symbols, sound, etc.) by which a thema is known, referred to or addressed

THEMAhasappellationNOMEN/NOMENisappellationofTHEMA

Note:inagivencontrolledvocabularyandwithinadomain,anomenshouldbeanappellationofonlyonethema

differenttypesofnomen

nomenrepresentation=“graphic”

Source:STNDatabaseSummarySheet:USAN(TheUSPDictionaryofU.S.

AdoptedNamesandInternationalDrugNames)

Example:variousnomensforthesamethema

  Differentandoverlappingmeaningof‘subject’,‘topic’,‘concept’,‘class’,etc.

  Differentviewsongranularity  ‘Name’understoodas‘propername’

Therefore:  TermsfromLatinthatdonothavetobetranslatedandarenotloadedwithothermeanings

  Hierarchical  Partitive  Generic  Instance

  Associative

Otherthema‐to‐themarelationshipsareimplementation‐dependent

Source:ArtandArchitectureThesaurusOnline

  Equivalence

Equivalencecanbespecifiedfurther,e.g.:▪  replaces/isreplacedby▪  hasvariantform/isvariantform▪  hasderivation/isderivedfrom▪  hasacronym/isacronymfor▪  hasabbreviation/isabbreviationof▪  hastransliteratedform/istransliterationof

  Partitive

20

  toseparatewhatareusuallycalledconcepts(ortopics,subjects,concepts,classes[ofconcepts])fromwhattheyareknownby,referredto,oraddressed.

  Type  attributesareimplementation‐dependent.Typeisthereforetheonlygeneralattribute,butitsvaluesare,again,implementation‐dependent.

  Inmostimplementationswecanorganizethemaaccordingtotheirkindortype.

  UnifiedMedicalLanguageSystem(UMLS)semantictypes

EntitiesPhysicalObject

OrganismAnatomicalStructureManufacturedObjectSubstance

ConceptualEntityIdeaorConceptFindingOrganismAttributeIntellectualProductLanguageOccupationorDisciplineOrganizationGroupAttributeGroup

  ArtandArchitectureThesaurus(AAT)facets

[TopoftheAAThierarchies] AssociatedConcepts PhysicalAttributes StylesandPeriods Agents Activities Materials Objects

EventsActivity

PhenomenonorProcess

  Type:typeofnomen,suchasidentifier,controlledname

  Scheme:schemeinwhichthenomenisestablished

  Referencesource:sourceinwhichthenomenisfound

  Representation:wayinwhichthenomenisexpressedsuchaspicture,letters,symbols,sound

  Language:languageofanomen

  Script:scriptusedforthenomen

  Transcription/Transliteration:rules,system,orstandardusedtorenderthenomeninadifferentrepresentation

  Encoding:Anycharacterset,usedforanomen,willbeencodedaccordingtoaparticularstandard

  Form:additionalinformation,whichhelpstointerpretthenomen

  Timeofvalidity:timeperiod,inwhichaparticularinstanceofnomenis/wasusedoris/wasvalidwithinascheme

  Audience:communityorusergroupforwhichthisnomenisthepreferredform

  Status:statusofaparticularnomeninacontrolledvocabulary

  Reportliststhemostcommongenerallyapplicableattributes

  Notallareapplicableinallcases  Additional,implementation‐specificattributesmay

bedefined  Elementssuchasnotesand/oradministrativedata

arecurrentlyincludedinsubjectauthorityrecords  Records:maymergethemaandnomen(orevena

setofnomen)descriptionsintoonerecord.

"FunctionalRequirementsforSubjectAuthorityData(FRSAD)‐‐DraftReport"  Availablethrough:http://nkos.slis.kent.edu/FRSAR/index.html

  ordirectlyfrom:http://nkos.slis.kent.edu/FRSAR/report090623.pdf

  Commentsdeadline:July31,2009tomzeng@kent.eduandasalaba@kent.edu