It is sad that people need convincing.
We (a public library) are paying good money
for "enhanced content" which provides some
"extra stuff" not in the catalogue.  So we
know the public wants to know more than what is
in the catalogue.

Perhaps someone who knows more about it could answer:
I was thinking that a patron staring at a catalog
record in an OPAC might be interested in how this
particular record relates to others.  How far does
FRBR go in "relates to others?"  Does it include,
for example, letting the patron know about a prequel,
about a second series, other works _about_ this work,
or does it only do editions,
formats and stop there?

Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:39 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] OpenFRBR


I think you are better off designing for real cases than made up ones.
But I think you can find a real one that meets all the criteria you want
anyway---doesn't Harry Potter fit that description of your made up book?
Lord of the Rings is another good one. What's the point of a made up one?

The point of a real one, especially such a popular one as Harry Potter,
is in part to convince people that this really does have practical
implications, it really does matter for actual things that actual people
are concerned with, not just for hypothetical cases intentionally made
up to be as complicated as possible.

We're still at the stage, sadly, where many people need to be convinced
that there is in fact a problem that the FRBR model, or the types of
displays you are talking about, can be part of the solution for.

Jonathan

Kevin Kierans wrote:
> I like the idea of playing with what the
> customer/patron will see.  The display, that
> is.  Harry Potter is good.  But I'd like to
> suggest a made up creature:
>
> The Furbur Wars by Manifest Work
>
> It is part of two series : like the Thomas Covenant series
>
> That it has a "The Hobbit" type prequel, not quite
> in the series, but patrons should be told about it.
>
> It can be found bound individually, or included in the entire series.
>
> It has the large print, movie (DVD and VHS), talking book (
> abridged and unabridged), how the movie was made photograph book....
>
> Many books about the book  (literary criticism)
>
> Let's try and make this as hard as possible.  Once we decide
> what we should then show the patron/customer who might send
> a single isbn to OpenFRBR, then we can talk about the DB structure
> that might do things behind the scenes...
>
> What do you think?
>
> Kevin
>
>

--
Jonathan Rochkind
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu