As some of you know, I have been working on a project to use FRBR and facets to improve access to moving images materials in libraries. Although we have managed to lay some theoretical groundwork and work on some practical proof-of-concept projects, I have continued to struggle with finding a way to move the project forward. Someone recently suggested that I should apply for planning grant. The project doesn't seem to lend itself to a lot of smaller grants because the midpoints aren't sufficiently interesting in themselves. The main thing that seems to be holding me back from getting a bigger grant is that I can't even put together a proposal because I don't have the knowledge to make the basic planning decisions related to the technological aspects of the project. I initially thought the planning grant would primarily pay to hire a consultant or consultants. It has also been suggested that alternatively maybe I should form an advisory board and bring a group of people together to help with the planning. What I would like is for someone(s) to do the technical project planning that would be necessary to write a realistic grant proposal--things like evaluate and recommend software platforms and tools, make recommendations on the technical skill sets and personnel needed, and develop a high-level plan of work, timeline and budget. I am looking for advice on how to identify people who would be good members of an advisory board, especially people with a strong technology background or, alternatively, how to identify an appropriate consultant or consultants. If anyone has advice for how to go about this or suggestions for specific names, please let me know. Also, if anyone has general suggestions for the best way to approach this kind of planning project, I would very much appreciate hearing them. To give you some sense of what we hope to do, there are three broad components to the overall project: 1. Conversion of existing data We will convert existing MARC bibliographic data to a form useful for the new interface, i.e., normalized, machine-manipulatable values for important data elements mapped to the appropriate FRBR levels. We will cluster records representing the same movie or FRBR work and use these clusters to create preliminary work records. We are current investigating the potential of the XC Metadata Services Toolkit to perform the initial data transformation. 2. Development of end user discovery interface We plan to develop a discovery interface that will enable users to easily find specific movies as well as explore categories of movies. The interface will also support identification of appropriate versions based on format, location, language options and other characteristics. We have developed an initial prototype at http://blazing-sunset-24.heroku.com/ that was designed to demonstrate the basic concepts of our approach. 3. Creation of tools and documentation for data input and maintenance Although the initial data conversion can be treated as a separate process, we will need to develop tools and forms for inputting records directly into the new system as well as for editing, deleting and mass updating of data and records. Documentation will be needed for data elements, data sources, input standards, and using the tools for data input and maintenance. If you are interested in more details, feel free to email me. Kelley Kelley McGrath Metadata Management Librarian University of Oregon