Application of the FRBR and RDA to Audio Visual Materials for Discoverability and Bibliographic Records

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) is a conceptual model of the bibliographic universe to describe entities, relationships and attributes (i.e., metadata) associated with each of the entities and relationships, and it proposes a national level bibliographic record for all of the various types of materials. It also reminds us of user tasks (find, identify, select, obtain) described in catalogs, bibliographies, and other bibliographic tools. The paper describes work applying the FRBR model to audio-visual material, as the basis for implementing a fully FRBR compliant digital library and achieve system. A detailed analysis of the FRBR and Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) entities and attributes is presented for audio visual (A-V) materials. Description and access of content contained on time-based media has been a daunting challenge for many decades. This has been particularly difficult in the case of original and unique moving image and recorded sound material within libraries and archives, and are challenging for all users to access. A data model that supports the needs of A-V resources must allow for the description of content and carriers in a way that supports collection management, captures the salient characteristics of the media, describes the content appropriate to user needs, and yet is flexible enough to apply to description and discovery of materials. Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a set of cataloging instructions based on FRBR and FRAD. It could be considered hierarchical work-centric models, in that they identify work as the top-most entity applicable to a resource?s description