What is FRBR? A conceptual model for the bibliographic universe

Abstract

From 1992 to 1995 the IFLA Study Group on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) developed an entity relationship model as a generalised view of the bibliographic universe, intended to be independent of any cataloguing code or implementation. The FRBR report1 itself includes a description of the conceptual model (the entities, relationships, and attributes or metadata as we would call them today), a proposed national level bibliographic record for all types of materials, and user tasks associated with the bibliographic resources described in catalogues, bibliographies, and other bibliographic tools. IFLA continues to monitor the application of FRBR and promotes its use and evolution. The IFLA Cataloguing Section’s Working Group on FRBR, chaired by Patrick LeBoeuf, has an active online discussion list and a website at http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/wgfrbr/wgfrbr.htm. The website includes presentations, training tools, a hot-linked bibliography, and much more. © 2005, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.