FRBR Workshop, May 2-4, 2005

Subjects in Fiction: the Experience with WorldCat

Diane Vizine-GoetzOCLC Research

FictionFinder

Brings together expressions and manifestations for a given work for 2.6 million bibliographic records for fiction

Uses existing bibliographic, authority, and holdings information

The records are grouped at the work level using the OCLC FRBR Work-Set Algorithm

OCLC FRBR Work-Set Algorithm

A work set is a group of bibliographic records that has the same Author/Title key

A key is generated for each bibliographic record

Variant forms of names and titles are converted to established forms based on information in the OCLC authority file

Keys are sorted and compared to form work sets

Fiction Subset

2,665,662 WorldCat records (based on fiction indicator, text only)

1,758,479 work sets 1.5 records/set 3,866 sets have 20 records or more 50,540 sets have 5 records or more

Family of Works

Original Russian Translation

Pop-upbook

Annotatededition

Top Sets for Fiction (Records)

Records Key

1,296 defoe, daniel\1661 1731/robinson crusoe

1,267 carroll, lewis\1832 1898/alices adventures in wonderland

971 cervantes saavedra, miguel de\1547 1616/don quixote

828 stevenson, robert louis\1850 1894/treasure island

689 twain, mark\1835 1910/adventures of huckleberry finn

624 twain, mark\1835 1910/adventures of tom sawyer

618 swift, jonathan\1667 1745/gullivers travels

Top Sets for Fiction (Holdings)

Holdings Key

29,043 twain, mark\1835 1910/adventures of huckleberry finn

26,088 carroll, lewis\1832 1898/alices adventures in wonderland

20,843 twain, mark\1835 1910/adventures of tom sawyer

19,410 defoe, daniel\1661 1731/robinson crusoe

18,566 cervantes saavedra, miguel de\1547 1616/don quixote

18,492 stevenson, robert louis\1850 1894/treasure island

18,123 dickens, charles\1812 1870/christmas carol

Buizza and Guerrini on Subjects (1)

“The subject belongs to the real world as a conceptual representation of the indexer, which represents the contents of the work in a summarized and formalised way.”

Buizza, Pino, and Mauro Guerrini. "A Conceptual Model for the NewSoggettario: Subject Indexing in the Light of FRBR." Cataloging &Classification Quarterly 34 (2002): 31-45.<http://www.haworthpressinc.com/>.

“The subject is not an entity present in the work and extracted from it, nor is it a preconstructed entity which exists in its own right. It exists as a conceptual nucleus of information created in order to mediate between the theme developed in the work and the universe of cultural and informational discourses which originate the requests for bibliographical enquiries.”

Buizza and Guerrini on Subjects (2)

What work has the following as subjects?

Adventure and adventurers Animals Curiosity Decision making Dreams Fantasy Girls Illusion (Philosophy) Imagination Innocence (Psychology) Rabbits

Alice’s adventures in wonderland

Adventure and adventurers Animals Curiosity Decision making Dreams Fantasy Girls Illusion (Philosophy) Imagination Innocence (Psychology) Rabbits

“It is a logical entity which persists through the various relationships with diverse works, independent of the expressions and manifestations in which they occur, and allows us to recognise and relate the works which present the same basic theme and to distinguish them from those which develop different themes.”

Buizza and Guerrini on Subjects (3)

Subject Entities

Place

Event

Object

Concept

CorporateBody

Family

Person

Item

Manifestation

Expression

Work

WORK

Group3 Group 1

Group 2

Place

Event

Object

Time

Form/Genre

Concept

WORK

Group 3entities

Additionalentities1

1 John Attig citing Tom Delsey

Current Relationships Has as subjects

• Concept• Object• Event• Place

Additional Relationships Is Example of

• Form/Genre Covers/Depicts

• Place• Time

Place

Event

Object

Summary

Place

Time

Genre

Concept

WORK

Group 3entities

Additionalentities

Summary

Fiction genres

Setting

Subjects

????• Summary

Is Example of• Form/Genre

Covers/Depicts• Place• Time

Has as subjects• Concept• Object• Event• Place

FictionFinder & FRBR

Links and References

John Attig. 2004. New ways of thinking about authority control• http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litamembership/litaigs/authori

tyalcts/FRBR.ppt Buizza, Pino, and Mauro Guerrini. "A Conceptual Model for

the New Soggettario: Subject Indexing in the Light of FRBR." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34 (2002): 31-45.• http://www.haworthpressinc.com/web/CCQ/

OCLC Research: FRBR• http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/frbr/

FictionFinder• http://fictionfinder.oclc.org/