Quoting Michael Lackhoff <[log in to unmask]>:


> How long is it still a manifestation of the original work? How much
> change has to be done to the text that it becomes a new work?
>
> My guess is that it is almost impossible to draw such a line though at
> the same time I see that it somehow makes sense to speak of a "work".
> And this is the point where I am a bit lost...
>
> The problem is not just philosophical. If I want to present links to
> other manifestations of the title on display in the OPAC, I have to draw
> this line. I'll have to decide which links to show.

While I don't disagree with this dilemma, I don't think it is new.  
FRBR simply formalizes already existing cataloging concepts. Work is  
the title portion of a uniform title (240) field, or the author/title  
presented in a 7xx field. Expression is the Work + language + format,  
etc., like "Hamlet. Danish. 1937". The difference seems to be that we  
didn't overtly identify Works in most records (even when we did have  
translations, the uniform title was often not used). So FRBR makes all  
of this more part of the cataloging process. I think that the Work  
decision is unfamiliar to most of us, but some catalogers have been  
making that decision all along when creating uniform titles or added  
entries. (The added entries in music cataloging are a prime example.)

Where I think we run into a problem is when we try to use FRBR as a  
record structure rather than conceptual guidance, which is what you  
allude to. This is the place where some implementations have decided  
to either merge Work and Expression or Expression and Manifestation  
because the Expression layer seems to make user displays more  
difficult. (I have also heard that the XC project found that putting  
the FRBR levels back together for display was inefficient.)

If you consider that the card catalog entries would have been filed in  
this order:
Author
Uniform title
Title

then in FRBR terms that is Work -> Manifestation, with possibly some  
Expression info included in the Uniform Title, but only in some  
circumstances (e.g. translations and new editions).

kc



-- 
Karen Coyle
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