I think there's a different aspect of the Find user task involved here. For example, if one is presented with a manifestation, the user task is to Find all items that exemplify that manifestation. One doesn't retrace steps and do keyword searches and browse searches hoping that some new result set can find all the related items attached to one manifestation. Rather, one is presented immediately with all the items because a convention for a relationship element is in place that links a manifestation to all the items. Essentially, catalogs work that way now-- with bibliographic records displaying above or before all of the holdings on a screen.
The users that benefit from seeing all the resources that embody particular works and expressions include those with roles in acquisition, preservation, and reference. The idea that it's OK to not necessarily find all the resources is an odd assertion in this discussion thread. The name-title string is still the basis behind how catalogs functions. I don't think they're ideal, and whether they're adequate is often dependent on how well a system can handle them. As a case in point, the first web-based catalog I used could have hyperlinks attached to name-title headings. That's great -- except the 1XX+24X fields would not be caught in this net, even though those fields mean exactly the same thing as the 7XX name-title heading-- an identifier for a work. This was less than adequate and would mean anyone who clicked the link would get some related works but not all of them, and in fact, genearlly not the main ones that the library held because those were represented with the preferred title overlapping the 245 title proper. Thomas Brenndorfer Guelph Public Library ________________________________________ From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA] On Behalf Of Heidrun Wiesenmüller [wiesenmuel...@hdm-stuttgart.de] Sent: June-06-12 1:51 AM To: RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA Subject: Re: [RDA-L] "Work manifested" in new RDA examples Thomas said: >> The Find user task needs to be satisfied. In card catalog conventions, the >> main entry heading collocates related works. Using some sort of >> (standardized) method for the value of the "Work manifested" means that >> other works can specify something that will link back to the work in this >> mix of data. The objective in RDA 17.2 is: >> >> "Find>>all<< resources that embody a particular work or expression" -- this >> implies some convention is needed beyond a set of loosely related elements >> like Creator and Title proper. I very much doubt that having a name-title string in the data is an adequate tool to satisfy this user task, at least unless there are additional mechanisms in place. Somebody who wants to "find _all_ resources that embody a particular work" (let's leave out the expression level for the moment), certainly would have a right to expect the following possibilities in order to get there: - keyword searching - using any name (preferred or variant) for the first creator - if there is more than one creator: searching for one of the other creators instead of the first creator, again using any name (preferred or variant) - using any title for the work (not only the uniform title, but also any other title under which it has been published, e.g. the title of a translation) In a world of composite descriptions and current catalog technology, I can think of three approaches to achieve this: 1. Linked authority records: Every title record would have to be linked to an authority record for the work. 2. Expansion of title records for use with search engine technology: Every title record would have to be expanded with the necessary information (especially variant names for creators and variant titles for the work). This could then be indexed in a catalog based on search engine technology. 3. Work clustering algorithms: In a first step, only _one_ manifestation of the work in question has to be found (it doesn't matter which). In a second step, all manifestations belonging to the same work are retrieved by making use of a work clustering algorithm. Method 3 may be especially interesting. In German catalogs, which already have links to authority records for persons and corporate bodies (which means that variant names can be used for searching), it should be easy to retrieve at least _one_ manifestation of a certain work, even if a variant title for the work is used (provided the catalog is of a certain size and also includes a fair sample of material in different languages). Also, there are already implementations of work clustering algorithms which work reasonably well. For instance, in some Primo catalogs, other manifestations of the same work are automatically retrieved and can be displayed by clicking on a button. Of course, we also know the "view all editions and formats" link from WorldCat. I believe that ideas like this are one of the reasons for the German decision to implement RDA in scenario 2 instead of aiming at scenario 1. It is felt that FRBRization can be achieved by technical measures and be shown on a surface level (only "virtually", as it were), without having to change too much in the underlying data structures itself. Having to create an authority record for _every_ work, as it would be necessary for method 1 (and perhaps also for method 2, as the work information obviously must come from somewhere), seems to be a daunting task. But now I come to think about it, I wonder: Wouldn't it be possible to generate work authority records automatically? Based on work clustering, we could e.g. collect all variant titles for a work from the various manifestations. Maybe this is a direction worth looking at. I'm sure there are more methods than the three I've mentioned. And of course, linked data, could also play a part (one possibility of handling variant personal names could be a tool which makes use of VIAF in RDF, for example). Heidrun -- --------------------- Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A. Stuttgart Media University Faculty of Information and Communication Wolframstrasse 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi
