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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 [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net ph: 1-510-540-7596 m: 1-510-435-8234 skype: kcoylenet