Hello everyone,

Here is my draft of a FAQ for issue 287. The text has benefitted from input 
from Marie-Chantal L'Ecuyer-Coelho, chair of the ARLIS/NA Cataloguing Committee.

I have attached the text as a file, and also copy it here below.

FAQ on Modelling States of Prints using FRBRoo

Definition of Print (visual works) from the Art and Architecture Thesaurus 
(AAT):
“Pictorial works produced by transferring images by means of a matrix such as a 
plate, block, or screen, using any of various printing processes.”
Thus a print is a visual work, created through a wide range of techniques that 
involve making an ink impression on paper or other material (etc.) based on a 
matrix or plate which creates the image. Many techniques for preparing the 
matrix or plates and striking the prints exist.

The plates are usually intended to be used multiple times to produce multiple, 
essentially identical, copies of the print. This fits with the definition of an 
industrial process. In FRBRoo this concept applies to any system of production 
that can create objects in a series, including small-scale production 
processes; it is not restricted to large factory production.

In the simple case, the modelling of prints using FRBRoo is exactly parallel to 
the creation of any other F3 Manifestation Product Type:
F32 Carrier Production event R26 produced things of type F3 Manifestation 
Product Type.
The use of a specific plate (E24 Physical Man-Made Thing) can be modelled with 
the addition of P16 used specific object. The creator is modelled with an E39 
Actor linked to the F27 Work Conception and to the F28 Expression Creation, 
producing an F22 Self-contained Expression, and possibly a different E39 Actor 
linked to the actual printing via F32 Carrier Production Event R28 produced F54 
Utilized Information Carrier. The individual prints are instances of F5 Item.

At various stages during the production of the matrix or plate, prints (proofs) 
may be taken by the printmaker to ascertain the evolution of the image. (This 
is because it can be difficult to gauge the printed result merely from viewing 
the matrix.) In the course of the print run, or prior to starting a new print 
run which reuses the same physical plate, alterations may be deliberately 
introduced, either by the original creator or by someone else, on the plate 
(adding details or modifying part of the image) which produces variants or 
states of the print. Each proof, or set of proofs, documenting an intentional 
alteration of the matrix or plate defines a distinct state. This is a 
deliberate process, not merely the normal wear of the plate through repeated 
use (which might result in later copies being less crisp, for instance, than 
those produced at the beginning of the print run).

In the Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphic materials) (DCRM(G)), 
a “state” is defined as follows:
“In graphic usage, an impression or set of identical impressions produced from 
a plate or other matrix at a distinct, visually identifiable stage in the life 
of that matrix due to intentional changes to the matrix, and often marking a 
point in its artistic development (such as “etched state” or a “state after 
letters”).”

In FRBRoo the process of creating a state can be modelled using an E39 Actor 
linked to E11 Modification P31 has modified E24 Physical Man-Made Thing (the 
plate). The instance of E39 Actor may or may not be the same as the one 
responsible for the original work creation, etc. This modification event 
happened at a given time, then the production of F3 Manifestation Product Type 
after this time is a new instance of F3, so the F5 Items produced using the 
modified plate are items of this later manifestation, which embodies a new 
expression of the F1 Work, derived from the previous F22 Self-contained 
expression.

This is analogous to the situation of the production of books by hand-press 
printing. Once the type was composed and the printing process started, states 
within that impression could be obtained when more or less minor changes were 
made to the type in the course of printing. Some of these variations can be 
significant and result in variant manifestations, or even variant expressions.
(For more details on states of early printed books see: Jonsson, Gunilla. 
Cataloguing of hand press materials and the concept of Expression in FRBR. In: 
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) : hype or cure-all? 
Patrick Le Boeuf (editor). Haworth Information Press, 2005, pp.77-86). ?



Sorry I will not be at the meeting next week in Heraklion, greetings to 
everyone.

Pat



Pat Riva

Associate University Librarian, Collection Services

Concordia University



Vanier Library (VL-301-61)

7141 Sherbrooke Street West

Montreal, QC H4B 1R6

Canada

+1-514-848-2424 ext. 5255

[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

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