FRBR and RDA:
Advances in Resource Description
for Multiple Format Resources


Prepared by Chris Oliver

March 2009

Prepared for:
Initiative for Equitable Library Access
Library and Archives Canada






The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect those of Library and Archives Canada.



i

Executive Summary

The multiple formats issue has been a challenge that current
cataloguing standards were unable to resolve. This paper describes the
multiple formats issue and demonstrates how the issue is resolved
through a new pespective on bibliographic data and a new cataloguing
standard. The new perspective on bibliographic data comes from the
conceptual model, Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
(FRBR). The new standard is Resource Description and Access (RDA),
which is built on the theoretical framework expressed in the FRBR
conceptual model. RDA and FRBR, the conceptual model on which RDA
is founded, resolve the multiple formats issue and point the way for
improved access to resources for all users, and particularly for users
with print disabilities.

The multiple formats issue, with its two aspects of alternative formats
and multimedia resources, has its root in the Anglo-American
Cataloguing Rules 2s’ (AACR2) inconsistent approach to content and
carrier and inconsistent categorization of the classes of material.
Alternative formats bring to the fore the unresolved problem of
whether the content or the carrier should have primacy when
describing a resource. Different approaches to the problem were
unsatisfactory because they emphasized either the carrier or the
content, to the detriment of the other. Resources consisting of multiple
types of content and/or carriers were also not well served by AACR2
rules. AACR2 has a bias towards choosing one characteristic as having
primacy. Such an approach may give the cataloguer a way to approach
the description of the resource, but it does not necessarily allow for a
full description of the resource, where all characteristics are equally
well described.

In order to understand RDA’s resolution of the multiple formats issue,
it is important to understand how the solution emerged. Attempts to
resolve the multiple formats issue within the AACR2 framework were
unsuccessful and eventually led to the deconstruction of AACR2 and
the development of RDA. The key to understanding RDA is the fact
that it is built upon the conceptual framework expressed in the model
known as FRBR.

The FRBR conceptual model is based on a detailed analysis of
bibliographic data. The model offers a map to the bibliographic
universe and it looks at bibliographic data from the user’s perspective.
FRBR changes the focus of the cataloguing process. The focus is no
ii