How to use FRBR

What is FRBR?

"Functional Requirements for Bibliographical Records (FRBR) is a conceptual model of the bibliographical universe outlined in a 1998 report from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The report uses entity-relationship analysis to "provide a clearly defined, structured framework for relating the data that are recorded in bibliographic records to the needs of the users of those records". (FRBR Report, p.7) The most influential parts of the FRBR report are the definitions of user tasks and bibliographical entities". (Quote from TechEssence, May 2006)

Definition of FRBR bibliographic entities

FRBR defines three groups of entities:

I. The first and primary group contains four entities:

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1. WORK: the distinct intellectual or artistic creation
2. EXPRESSION: the intellectual or artistic realization of a work
3. MANIFESTATION: the physical embodiment of an expression of a work
4. ITEM: a single exemplar of a manifestation

II. The second group includes entities responsible for the intellectual or artistic content, the production, or ownership of entities in the first group (e.g. persons and corporate bodies)

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III. The third group includes entities that represent concepts, objects, events and places. Entities in the third group as well as those in the first two groups form the subject of a work

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How to use FRBR

The four entities, WORK, EXPRESSION, MANIFESTATION and ITEM describe different aspects of the resource.

WORK: a distinct intellectual or artistic cration. A Work is an abstract entity. The Work is recognised through individual realisations or Expressions of the Work. A Work is not a particular version of a film or a CD, but the intellectual creation that lies behind all the various Expressions of the Work. Because the notion of a Work is abstract, it is difficult to define precise boundaries for the entity. Translations from one language to another, musical transcriptions and arrangements, and dubbed or subtitled versions of a film are considered as different expressions of the same original work.

But when the modification of a Work involves a significant degree of independent intellectual or artistic effort, the result is viewed as a new Work. Thus paraphrases, rewritings, adaptations for children, aprodies, musical variations on a theme and free transcriptions of a musical composition are considered to represent new works. Martin A. Hansens Løgneren is a work, and the film Løgneren by

An Expression is the specific form that a Work takes each time it is "realised".

A Manifestation may contain multiple Expressions, eg. a CD containing multiple songs, each of which is an Expression of an individual Work.

An Item is an individual copy of a Manifestation, whether a physical thing or a copy of file

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