Q-Tip 4--WEMI and FRBR

Question: What’s WEMI? What does it have to do with FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records)?

Answer: WEMI is an acronym for Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item. These are called “Group 1 entities” in the FRBR model.

FRBR offers us a fresh perspective on the

structure and relationships of bibliographic

and authority records, and also a more

precise vocabulary to help future cataloging

rule makers and system designers in

meeting user needs. Before FRBR our

cataloging rules tended to be very unclear

about using the words “work,” “edition,”

or “item.” Even in everyday language,

we tend to say a “book” when we may

actually mean several things.

For example, when we say “book” to

describe a physical object that has paper

pages and a binding and can sometimes be

used to prop open a door or hold up a table

leg, FRBR calls this an “item.”

When we say “book” we also may mean a

“publication” as when we go to a bookstore

to purchase a book. We may know its

ISBN but the particular copy does not

matter as long as it’s in good condition

and not missing pages. FRBR calls this

a “manifestation.”

When we say “book” as in ‘who translated

that book,’ we may have a particular text in

mind and a specific language. FRBR calls

this an “expression.”

When we say “book” as in ‘who wrote

that book,’ we could mean a higher level

of abstraction, the conceptual content that

underlies all of the linguistic versions, the story

being told in the book, the ideas in a person’s

head for the book. FRBR calls this a “work.”

Page tree