Dear Martin, Thank you for your comments. I'll strive to add an introduction to my proposal of a mapping, and to sum up the problems I had to deal with; I originally intended to do so but I wanted to send my document on Thursday last week, as I had promised, because I was to leave my office until yesterday and I didn't want to leave my promise unfulfilled, but I hadn't time enough to write an introduction before I left on Thursday. Actually, one might consider that in FRBR's "group 1" of entities there are only two entities: "content" and "materialization". "Work" and "expression" might be regarded as a refinement of "content", and "manifestation" and "item" as a refinement of "materialization". "Work" and "expression" are purely intellectual, exclusively in the mind of man, whereas "item" is purely physical; "manifestation" on turn is at the junction between mind and matter. I interpret it as already something physical -- a set of things, as you put it -- but you are right when you say that "all that unites the items of a manifestation is the sharing of characteristics". I don't quite agree with your comparison to a blueprint for a car: for me, a manifestation is not analogous to a blueprint for a car, but to all cars that have been produced according to the same blueprint. However, perhaps a more accurate definition for "manifestation" would read like: "a set of common characteristics normally shared by a number of objects (or: items) at the moment they were produced, pertaining at the same time to their intellectual content (they all are the embodiment of the same expression), to their physical aspect (all of their physical attributes are instantiated in the same way at the time of their production), and to the commercial aspects of their coming to existence (they all have the same relationship to the same actor(s) in the role of publisher/producer)". I insist that this is not the "orthodox" FRBR definition but my own definition, as inspired to me today by your own comments. Here is the original FRBR text, both for "manifestation" and for "item" (you'll see that it insists on the physicality of "manifestation"): "3.2.3 Manifestation The third entity defined in the model is manifestation: the physical embodiment of an expression of a work. The entity defined as manifestation encompasses a wide range of materials, including manuscripts, books, periodicals, maps, posters, sound recordings, films, video recordings, CD-ROMs, multimedia kits, etc. As an entity, manifestation represents all the physical objects that bear the same characteristics, in respect to both intellectual content and physical form. When a work is realized, the resulting expression of the work may be physically embodied on or in a medium such as paper, audio tape, video tape, canvas, plaster, etc. That physical embodiment constitutes a manifestation of the work. In some cases there may be only a single physical exemplar produced of that manifestation of the work (e.g., an author's manuscript, a tape recorded for an oral history archive, an original oil painting, etc.). In other cases there are multiple copies produced in order to facilitate public dissemination or distribution. In those cases there is normally a more formal production process involved, and a publisher, producer, or distributor takes responsibility for the process. In other cases there may be only a limited number of copies made of an original exemplar for purposes such as private study (e.g., a dubbing of an original recording of a piece of music), or preservation (e.g., a photocopy produced on permanent paper of an author's original typescript). Whether the scope of pro duction is broad (e.g., in the case of publication, etc.) or limited (e.g., in the case of copies made for private study, etc.), the set of copies produced in each case constitutes a manifestation. All copies produced that form part of the same set are considered to be copies of the same manifestation. The boundaries between one manifestation and another are drawn on the basis of both intellectual content and physical form. When the production process involves changes in physical form the resulting product is considered a new manifestation. Changes in physical form include changes affecting display characteristics (e.g., a change in typeface, size of font, page layout, etc.), changes in physical medium (e.g., a change from paper to microfilm as the medium of conveyance), and changes in the container (e.g., a change from cassette to cartridge as the container for a tape). Where the production process involves a publisher, producer, distributor, etc., and there are changes signaled in the product that are related to publication, marketing, etc. (e.g., a change in publisher, repackaging, etc.), the resulting product may be considered a new manifestation. Whenever the production process involves modifications, additions, deletions, etc. that affect the intellectual or artistic content, the result is a new manif estation embodying a new expression of the work. Examples: w1 Harry Lindgren's Geometric dissections e1 original text entitled Geometric dissections m1 the book published in 1964 by Van Nostrand e2 revised text entitled Recreational problems in geometric dissections .... m1 the book published in 1972 by Dover w1 J. S. Bach's Six suites for unaccompanied cello e1 performances by Janos Starker recorded in 1963 and 1965 m1 recordings released on 33 1/3 rpm sound discs in 1965 by Mercury m2 recordings re-released on compact disc in 1991 by Mercury e2 performances by Yo-Yo Ma recorded in 1983 m1 recordings released on 33 1/3 rpm sound discs in 1983 by CBS Records m2 recordings re-released on compact disc in 1992 by CBS Records w1 Jean Jolivet's Vraie description des Gaules.... e1 the cartographer's original rendering m1 the map issued in 1570 m2 a facsimile reproduction published in 1974 by Hier et demain w1 The Wall Street Journal e1 the Eastern edition m1 the print format of the Eastern edition m2 the microfilm of the Eastern edition e2 the Western edition m1 the print format of the Western edition m2 the microfilm of the Western edition Changes that occur deliberately or even inadvertently in the production process that affect the copies result, strictly speaking, in a new manifestation. A manifestation resulting from such a change may be identified as a particular "state" or "issue" of the publication. Changes that occur to an individual copy after the production process is complete (e.g., the loss of a page, rebinding, etc.) are not considered to result in a new manifestation. That copy is simply considered to be an exemplar (or item) of the manifestation that deviates from the copy as produced. Defining manifestation as an entity enables us to name and describe the complete set of items that result from a single act of physical embodiment or production. The entity manifestation serves to describe the shared characteristics of copies of a particular publication, edition, release, etc., as well as to describe unique productions such as manuscripts, original oil paintings, etc. With the entity defined as manifestation we can describe the physical characteristics of a set of items and the characteristics associated with the production and distribution of that set of items that may be important factors in enabling users to choose a manifestation appropriate to their physical needs and constraints, and to identify and acquire a copy of that manifestation. Defining manifestation as an entity also enables us to draw relationships between specific manifestations of a work. We can use the relationships between manifestations to identify, for example, the specific publication that was used to create a microreproduction. 3.2.4 Item The fourth entity defined in the model is item: a single exemplar of a manifestation. The entity defined as item is a concrete entity. It is in many instances a single physical object (e.g., a copy of a one-volume monograph, a single audio cassette, etc.). There are instances, however, where the entity defined as item comprises more than one physical object (e.g., a monograph issued as two separately bound volumes, a recording issued on three separate compact discs, etc.). In terms of intellectual content and physical form, an item exemplifying a manifestation is normally the same as the manifestation itself. However, variations may occur from one item to another, even when the items exemplify the same manifestation, where those variations are the result of actions external to the intent of the producer of the manifestation (e.g., damage occurring after the item was produced, binding performed by a library, etc.). Examples: w1 Ronald Hayman's Playback e1 the author's text edited for publication m1 the book published in 1973 by Davis-Poynter i1 copy autographed by the author w1 Allan Wakeman's Jabberwocky e1 the author's design for the game and text for the notes m1 the game and accompanying notes for teachers issued in 1974 by Longman i1 copy lacking notes for teachers Defining item as an entity enables us to separately identify individual copies of a manifestation, and to describe those characteristics that are unique to that particular copy and that pertain to transactions such as circulation, etc. involving that copy. Defining the entity called item also enables us to draw relationships between individual copies of manifestations. " Best wishes, Patrick
