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Cataloguing Section

FRBR Review Group

FRBR = Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

Organisation and Reporting

The FRBR Review Group reports to the IFLA Cataloguing Section. All reports are posted on IFLANET.

Review Groups are governed by the Division procedures for electing members to IFLA review groups.

Members of the FRBR Review Group are elected by members of the Cataloguing Section Standing Committee. There cannot be less than 8, nor more than 10 members. The chair is appointed for a two-year term from among the members by the chair of the Cataloguing Section. A regular term of service lasts 4 years, with one renewal allowed, and can be restricted to 2 years or extended beyond 8 years under certain circumstances.

Terms of Reference

The current terms of reference were adopted in 2007:

  • Review and maintain the FRBR conceptual model on an ongoing basis, incorporating revisions when needed, in both entity-relationship and object-oriented forms;
  • Develop and make available guidelines and interpretative documents to assist those applying FRBR;
  • Promote the model and encourage its use in all appropriate information organising communities and maintain links with relevant groups both within IFLA and in other communities.

In addition, members of the FRBR Review Group maintain liaison with other relevant IFLA sections (particularly Bibliography, Classification and Indexing), with ICABS, UNIMARC, the ISBD Review Group and the IME-ICC, and Working Groups within IFLA presently extending the modelling effort to authority data (FRANAR Working Group), and subject authority data (FRSAR Working Group).

Working groups

The Review Group is entitled to appoint specific working groups as needed for special assignments, with approval of the Cataloguing Section's Standing Committee. Working groups are generally created for two-year terms which may be renewed. Members and chairs of working groups do not have to be members of the Review Group, although at least one Review Group member will serve on each working group.

The current working groups are:

  1. Working Group on the Expression Entity
    Established: 2003
    Chair: Anders Cato
    Tasks: to clarify the expression entity and provide application guidelines through examples.
  2. Working Group on Aggregates
    Established: 2005
    Chair: Ed O'Neill
    Tasks: to investigate practical solutions to the specific problems encountered in modelling (a) collections, selections, anthologies..., (b) augmentations, (c) series, (d) journals, (e) integrating resources, (f) multipart monographs, all of which are gathered under the generic term "aggregates."
  3. Working Group on FRBR/CRM Dialogue
    Established: 2003
    Co-chair for IFLA: Patrick LeBoeuf; Co-chair for CIDOC: Martin Doerr
    Tasks: in cooperation with the CIDOC CRM SIG, prepare an object-oriented formulation of FRBR (FRBRoo) which is a compatible extension of the CRM conceptual reference model.

Reports of working groups that are no longer active may be found on the Review Group's report page.

Historical Background

In 1997 the Standing Committee of the IFLA Section on Cataloguing approved the FRBR model. In 2002 the IFLA Cataloguing Section formed a Working Group on FRBR in order to provide a focal point within IFLA for the ongoing support and development of the conceptual model and to encourage the use of FRBR as a reference model for the bibliographic universe.  The working group created the FRBR electronic discussion list, compiled the first edition of the FRBR bibliography, and launched the present Web site.

In 2003 the Working Group was transformed into the FRBR Review Group. During 2003-2004 a Working Group on Continuing Resources worked on issues stemming from the application of the FRBR model to continuing resources; after the group disbanded, these issues were referred to the Working Group on Aggregates formed in 2005.


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