ABSTRACT
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), is the title of a report prepared by an IFLA study group and published in 1998. The term “FRBR” is used to refer both to the report and to the conceptual model described in that report. The FRBR report defined the user tasks find, identify, select, and obtain; developed the FRBR conceptual model to describe bibliographic data; and mapped the user tasks to the bibliographic data. The FRBR model is based on entity-relationship modeling and identifies three groups of entities. Group 1, consisting of work, expression, manifestation, and item is the most fully developed. Group 2 consists of persons and corporate bodies. Group 3 consists of entities that can serve as subjects but that belong to neither Group 1 nor Group 2. The FRBR model has generated both theoretical discussion and applied research, and has affected the modeling of authority data, the development of cataloging rules, and the design of systems for the display of bibliographic data. Although there are unresolved issues associated with the FRBR model it still provides hope for a useful organization of the bibliographic universe.
