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| art by D.S.A. 2011 |
FRBR, IFLA, RDF, FRAD...all these acronyms can make a librarian's head spin. But of all the acronyms I have come across so far in my library studies, FRBR sparkles in my eyes. It sounds really boring spelled out: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, and if that's not dry enough, it was developed by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations). FRBR is an abstract, conceptual reference model that urges information providers/organizers (librarians, archivists, catalogers, etc.) to look at information in a new way. With FRBR, information is seen, understood, and organized in relevance to other information. For example, a book that sits on the library shelf is cataloged not merely by the superficial attributes that traditional cataloging looks at (such as title, author, subject heading, call number, etc); it is cataloged with reference to its brother/sister books/films/e-books/any other formats, versions, editions born of the same original work. In essence, FRBR is like a family tree of information -- linking and tracing a book to its roots, ultimately helping the user to find relevant sources and information that perhaps he/she didn't know they were looking for at the onset. For example, using traditional cataloging, I might search for a book about herbs. I might do a specific search for a book I know about or do a subject/keyword search and find a book related to herbs that way, but that is where it usually ends. The potential for "accidental" or "coincidental" searching is slim to none. If an item doesn't have a common attribute with my search, it is left out of the picture. That ignores millions of relevant items (distant relatives are relatives nonetheless...) and is akin to looking through a keyhole as opposed to unlocking the whole door. With FRBR, I might search for a title I know of and I'd be able to contextualize the item within its place in the universe of herbal knowledge. I might find that the author has ties to a school of thought I never encountered but want to now, or that the book is a distant relative of an herbal that was recommended to me but I forgot existed. I might be led to a topic other than herbs that is still highly relevant to me, because finding it was born of my interest in herbs. FRBR shows me the bigger picture.
To me, FRBR is a reflection of the global world-web that we as a human race are finally becoming aware of/can no longer ignore. The internet (world wide web, called that for a good reason) has enabled connection and communication with places and people that until now were seemingly isolated and disconnected. Whether or not we realize it, we are experiencing a major shift in consciousness. It is an obvious truth that today everything and everyone is plainly and actively connected, and our daily lives consist of these cosmic-scale cross-cultural interactions. If a person 50 years ago may have lived life believing that each of us is an island (or each of our countries, or cultures), today no person could deny that we live in a world in which everything is constantly connected. The connections have always existed, yet our consciousness of them has ebbed and flowed throughout time. We are now in a time of rediscovering that all things are essentially one.
It is this awareness of connections, and rejection of isolationism that FRBR as an information model stands for. Just as humanity is uncovering the endless "wires" of the web that we are all a part of, FRBR is born of this reemerging world-view. FRBR is about connections, relationships, and links between items. Books are no longer seen as independent, detached entities that stand on their own - they are the children of the years, efforts, expressions, and manifestations of the world itself. I love FRBR because it respects the past, it respects the surrounding information and the journey of each item. It opens up worlds to the user and leads to pathways that might be otherwise hidden. It exposes through information sharing and organization the billions of intricate webs that bring everything and everyone of us together.
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