I am fairly new to the cataloguing world so I may be lacking in understanding, but it seems to me that the full capabilities of the FRBR model will not be realised until we move away from flat databases to something that will cater for the full hierarchical structure of FRBR. Until (or if) that happens, the W-E-M-I model will not have a great impact on how we catalogue, and may therefore not make much difference to the end user in the short term.
Nicky Nicky Ransom Data Quality Manager & Cataloguer The Library University for the Creative Arts Falkner Road Farnham Surrey GU9 7DS Tel: 01252 892739 nran...@ucreative.ac.uk www.ucreative.ac.uk One of Europe's leading arts and design institutions, the University for the Creative Arts builds on a proud tradition of creative arts education spanning 150 years. Our campuses at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester are home to more than 7,000 students from more than 70 countries studying on courses in art, design, architecture, media and communications. -----Original Message----- From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA] On Behalf Of Dan Matei Sent: 08 April 2011 08:59 To: RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA Subject: Re: [RDA-L] FRBR > > This reminds me of that moment: how hundreds of years worth > of experience is on this list? And there is no agreement on > something like *what is a work*?! How can we ever hope for > any kind of consistency? Of course it goes without saying > that with no consistency, everyone will be fated to stay on > that merry-go-round of "fixing" everybody else's records. However, dear Jim... I'm afraid we tend to dramatise the edge cases. 87.34% of the users will perfectly understand when you state that an article is about "Hamlet", the play or when you state that Mahler composed "Das Klagende Lied" or when you state that (say) The Falkner Estate owns the copyright on "Absalom, Absalom !". So, the (abstract) idea of a work is quite common. And, as John Myers just reminded us, you (catalogers) used it extensively in the uniform titles. "For ages", he said. Dan
