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Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata. However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user testing. The purpose of this paper is to present a study on how non-experts in bibliographic systems map the bibliographic universe and, in particular, how they conceptualize relationships between independent but strongly related entities.

The study is based on an open concept-mapping task performed to externalize the conceptualizations of 98 novice students. The conceptualizations of the resulting concept maps are identified and analyzed statistically.

The study shows that the participants’ conceptualizations have great variety, differing in detail and granularity. These conceptualizations can be categorized into two main groups according to derivative relationships: those that apply a single-entity model directly relating document entities and those (the majority) that apply a multi-entity model relating documents through a high-level collocating node. These high-level nodes seem to be most adequately interpreted either as superwork devices collocating documents belonging to the same bibliographic family or as devices collocating documents belonging to a shared fictional world.

The findings can guide the work to develop bibliographic standards. Based on the diversity of the conceptualizations, the findings also emphasize the need for more user testing of both conceptual models and the bibliographic end-user systems implementing those models.

This paper proposes a conceptual model for cataloging which gives primacy to expression‐level bibliographic entity, with the aim of approaching critical issues in cataloging, such as the so‐called “format variations” and “content versus carrier” issues. The term “expression” is defined as “the intellectual or artistic realization of a work in the form of alpha‐numeric, musical, or choreographic notation, etc.” In this paper, the model by the IFLA Study Group on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) is first re‐examined and at the same time the outline of a new model giving primacy to expression‐level entity is illustrated by indicating differences from the FRBR model. Second, by applying the concept “user tasks,” found in the FRBR model, to the new model outlined in this paper, a scenario on how entities are used by users is created. Third, some examples of bibliographic record equivalents in line with the new model are shown.

The purpose of this paper is to model and implement an extensible markup language (XML)‐based editor for library cataloguing. The editor model should support data input in the form of free text with interactive control of structure and content validity of records specified in the UNIMARC and MARC 21 formats. The editor is implemented in the Java programming language in the form of a software package.

The unified modelling language (UML 2.0) is used for the specification of both the information requirements and the model architecture. The object oriented methodology is used for design and implementation of the software packages, as well as the corresponding CASE tools.

The result is an editor for UNIMARC and MARC 21 cataloguing. The editor is based on the XML technologies by which the two basic characteristics are achieved as follows: a possibility of integrating the editor into different library software systems and, moving to another format requires only the changes of the module for bibliographic record data control.

A basic limitation of the system is related to the subsystem that controls validation of the bibliographic records and its expansion for work with other bibliographic formats. In the proposed solution, a part of the control of data input is included into the implementation itself and it is related to the UNIMARC format. That is, a part of data by which the control is done, such as repeatability of the record elements and the codebooks, is contained in the XML document of the format that is input information in the editor. However, the control that is related to validation of the format of content in record elements cannot be performed for any other format without modification in the implementation. Therefore, the research could be continued by considering the separation of data used for content control as input information for the application. In that way, this segment would also become implementation independent. One of the solutions should be extending the XML document of the format by this data. Some other solution should mean creating a totally separate system for the content validation. Moreover, the proposed editor supports processing of a bibliographic record only in the UNIMARC and MARC 21 formats. Processing of records in other formats requires considerable changes in the model.

The model of a new editor is developed on the basis of the experience and needs of electronic management in city and special libraries. Based on the given model a new editor is implemented and integrated into the BISIS software system used by the mentioned libraries. Testing and verification are performed on the bibliographic records of the public city libraries.

The contribution of this work is in the system architecture that is based on the XML documents and is independent of the bibliographic format. The XML document that contains data about the bibliographic format represents the editor input information. After a bibliographic record is created in this editor, the record is stored into an XML document that represents the editor output information. This XML document can be stored into various software systems for data storage and retrieval.

This paper focuses on the way users navigate bibliographic families not only when a user has no specific document in mind but also when he/she has a specific predefined need in mind.

To this end, the Epic of Kings was selected as a test-bed for the study and both situations were studied based on International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions-Library Reference Model (IFLA-LRM), but the potential users (participants of this study) were not directly exposed to the entities of the model. Card sorting, interview and distributing questionnaire constituted the data-gathering process.

Almost all of the participants in this study, when they had no specific resource in mind, generated a top-down view of the family, and in this view, all of them disregarded the item entity and lots of them disregarded the manifestations also. Yet on the other side, when they were asked to assume themselves in certain situations (in need of a specific work with a predefined expression and format), they viewed the bibliographic family from a bottom-up approach.

Most of the studies in this area regard the navigation process of users as a top-down approach and the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) family as a model suitable for hierarchical top-down visualization of bibliographic families. Yet this study poses the bottom-up approach of users regarding the family.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the potential strengths and weaknesses of the BIBFRAME bibliographic model and outline its purpose and key features. In addition, it discusses specific aspects of the model with respect to the pre-existing models of bibliographic description.

A review of source and secondary materials regarding BIBFRAME was undertaken, and a comparison of the conclusions derived from this literature was made to the pre-existing models of bibliographic description.

If the BIBFRAME Initiative can overcome what will likely be some significant challenges to the development and implementation of the model, BIBFRAME appears to be poised to become the next standard of bibliographic description and exchange for the library community.

The findings and conclusions of this paper are based upon an in-depth literature review, not on theoretical or empirical derivations or examples. As a result, further research of both theoretical and empirical natures need to be developed.

BIBFRAME may well become the next standard of bibliographic description and exchange for the library community, leading to significant changes in cataloging practices over the years.

To the extent that BIBFRAME can expand discovery mechanisms, the vast array of information currently available to information seekers will open up in previously unthought of ways.

This paper synthesizes a literature that was developed during a more preliminary design of the bibliographic model BIBFRAME and adds to the literature by discussing newer capabilities that have been designed into BIBFRAME 2.0.

The 1998 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) document “Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records” (FRBR) has inspired a family of models that view bibliographic resources in terms of multiple entities differentiated with regard to meaning, expression, and physicality. The purpose of this paper is to compare how three FRBR and FRBR-like models have been expressed as Semantic Web vocabularies based on Resource Description Framework (RDF). The paper focusses on IFLA’s own vocabulary for FRBR; RDF vocabularies for Resource Description and Access (RDA), an emergent FRBR-based standard for library cataloging; and BIBFRAME, an emergent FRBR-like, native-RDF standard for bibliographic data.

Simple test records using the RDF vocabularies were analyzed using software that supports inferencing.

In some cases, what the data actually means appears to differ from what the vocabulary developers presumably intended to mean. Data based on the FRBR vocabulary appears particularly difficult to integrate with data based on different models.

Some of the RDF vocabularies reviewed in the paper could usefully be simplified, enabling libraries to integrate their data more easily into the wider information ecosystem on the Web. Requirements for data consistency and quality control could be met by emergent standards of the World Wide Web Consortium for validating RDF data according to integrity constraints.

There are few such comparisons of the RDF expressions of these models, which are widely assumed to represent the future of library cataloging.

As the demand for new services strains library resources, directors of research libraries must practice efficient cost management and demonstrate alignment with institutional objectives. For technical services, this requires managing the effective cost of metadata services, assessing core functions, and evaluating operational performance. This paper uses Complex Adaptive Systems (CASs) as a framework to expose the network of local and global dependencies that currently define the field of operation for technical services. Comparative analyses using a CASs framework were conducted on reports by the Library of Congress, the Heads of Technical Services in Large Research Libraries Interest Group, and the British Library. Each report addresses financial pressures placed on bibliographic control services in response to the 2008 recession. Statements within the reports were assigned to one of three dominant systems: bibliographic control, institutional identification, and distributive networks. The statements were then mapped to the CASs characteristics to determine environmental pressures and areas of adaptation. The reports exposed long-standing dependencies that tie local bibliographic control to a complex network of external agencies. Institutional shifts toward user-centered services coupled with growing fiscal restraint has disrupted the stability of these networks. The analyses found that in all cases network instability led to localized institutional adaptation to existing economic pressures. The paper recommends applying a CASs model to assess the alignment of distributed metadata standards and systems development to local institutional objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the existing research on the application of semantic technologies in bibliographic databases by providing answers to a set of research questions resulting from a systematic literature review.

The present study consists of conducting a systematic literature review of research works related to the application of semantic technologies in bibliographic databases. A manual keyword search is performed in known academic databases. As a result, a total of 78 literature sources are identified as related to the topic and included in the review. From the selected literature sources, information is extracted, which is then summarized and analyzed according to previously defined research questions and finally reported. Besides, a framework is defined to classify literature sources found and collected as a result of the study. The main criteria, according to which the classification is performed, are the used semantic technology and the research problem for which semantic technologies are applied in bibliographic databases. The classification of the publications is verified by each author independently of others.

The conducted systematic scientific review establishes that the evolution of semantic technologies sets a period of increased interest in the researchers, as a result of which the advantages of using them for bibliographic descriptions are examined and practically confirmed. After defining semantic models for bibliographic descriptions and approaches to transform existing bibliographic data into their correspondence, the research interest is directed at their comparison, collation; enrichment to facilitate search and retrieval of useful information. Possible perspectives for future research are outlined, which mainly relate to the complete use of the created data sets and their transformation into knowledge repositories.

Despite the increasing importance of the semantic technologies in various areas, including the bibliographic databases, there is a lack of comprehensive literature review and classification of literature sources relevant to this topic. The detailed study proposed in the present paper supports introducing with the existing experience in the application of semantic technologies in bibliographic databases, as well as facilitates the discovery of trends and guidelines for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to create a model for an XML document that will carry information about bibliographic formats. The model will be given in the form of an XML schema describing two bibliographic formats, UNIMARC and MARC 21.

The description of bibliographic formats using the XML schema language may be discussed in two ways. The first one relates to creating an XML schema in a way that all elements of the bibliographic format are described separately. The second way, used in this paper, is creating an XML schema as a set of elements that presents concepts of bibliographic formats. A schema created in the second way is appropriate for use in implementation of cataloguing software.

The result is an XML schema that describes MARC 21 and UNIMARC formats. The instance of that schema is an XML document describing a bibliographic format that will be used in software systems for cataloguing. An XML document that is an instance of the proposed XML schema is applied in the development of the editor for cataloguing in the BISIS library information system. This XML document represents input information for that editor. In this way, the implementation of the editor becomes independent of the bibliographic format.

The created XML schema cannot serve as an electronic manual because there is some information about the format that is not included in it. In order to overcome this shortcoming an additional XML schema that will contain remaining format data may be provided.

The originality lies in the idea of creating one XML schema for two bibliographic formats. The schema contains elements that are models for data used in cataloguing tools. On the basis of that XML schema, the object model of bibliographic formats is implemented as well as software component for manipulating format data. This component can be used in development of library software systems.