New Concepts: Relationship Elements

1. Relationship Elements
Relationship
elements
RDA Orientation – New Concepts Series
RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20191
Thomas Brenndorfer

2. Relationship Elements
overview
RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20192
In the new Toolkit, RDA relationship elements have grown
in number but are also treated with more consistency.
In this webinar, you will learn about what became of the
relationship designators and of the RDA attributes that
became relationship elements.
You will learn to identify the domain and range in
relationships, as well as find the alternate labels for
relationship element names. We will then explore the new
Toolkit to find the relationship elements of interest.

3. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20193 Relationship Elements
Topics covered
• Entities and relationships from the “functional requirements” models (FRBR,
FRAD, FRSAD).
• The Library Reference Model (LRM) and its effect on RDA and relationships.
• Relationship element case study (Related corporate body of person and
its inverse).
• Exploring special cases:
Nomen as relationships
Metadata work relationships
Relationships in coherent and minimum descriptions
Shortcut relationships
Transformation relationships
Outward facing elements (“related entity” “subject”)

4. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20194 Relationship Elements
“An entity-relationship diagram
is crucial to creating a good
database design.”
Techopedia. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1200/entity-relationship-diagram-erd

5. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20195 Relationship Elements
ENTITY ONE
Attribute 1 Value
Attribute 2 Value
ENTITY TWO
Attribute 1 Value
Attribute 2 Value
Relationship

6. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20196 Relationship Elements
Functional requirements for
bibliographic data in libraries
These documents presented high level conceptual models
that detailed the entities involved in bibliographic data and
the relationships between those entities.

7. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20197 Relationship Elements
Relationships identified with an
entity analysis technique
“The study uses an entity analysis technique that begins by isolating the
entities that are the key objects of interest to users of bibliographic records.
The study then identifies the characteristics or attributes associated with each
entity and the relationships between entities that are most important to
users in formulating bibliographic searches, interpreting responses to those
searches, and “navigating” the universe of entities described in bibliographic
records.”
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: final report, 2009. Page 3

8. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20198 Relationship Elements
Determining the relationships in
bibliographic data…
“Various terms are used by creators and publishers of intellectual and artistic
entities to signal relationships between those entities. Terms such as
"edition" and "version" are frequently encountered on publications and other
materials, as are statements such as “based on ...” or “translated from ....”
…
The problem with relying on commonly applied terms as a starting point for
analyzing bibliographic relationships is that those terms are neither clearly
defined nor uniformly applied. In this study relationships are examined in the
context of the entities defined for the model…”
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: final report, 2009. Page 55

9. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 20199 Relationship Elements
Relationships and the method chosen
for recording the relationship
“It is important to bear in mind that for the purposes of this study
a relationship is not operative unless the entities on each side of
the relationship are explicitly identified. For example, "based on a
play by Henrik Ibsen" does not operatively state a work-to-work
relationship; "based on Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen" does.”
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: final report, 2009. Page 56

10. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201910 Relationship Elements
Entities from FRBR … and
RDA’s original take on them
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Person
Corporate Body
Family
Names/Identifiers <>
Controlled access points
Subject
(Concept, Object, Event, Place)

11. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201911 Relationship Elements
Elements and designators
ELEMENTS DESIGNATORS
Creator author, artist, composer
Contributor editor, illustrator, actor
Related work adaptation of (work), in series,
sequel to
Related corporate body employer, chief executive of,
predecessor

12. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201912 Relationship Elements
Designators with their entities
Work AUTHOR Person
Family
Corporate body
Work PHOTOGRAPHER Person
Family
Corporate body
Expression PHOTOGRAPHER
(EXPRESSION)
Person
Family
Corporate body
Work IN SERIES Work
Work MERGED TO FORM
(WORK)
Work
Expression MERGED TO FORM
(EXPRESSION)
Expression
Person EMPLOYER Corporate body

13. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201913 Relationship Elements
RDA appendices for all relationship designators
Note the combinations…
Family <> Person
Person <> Family
Family <> Family
Family <> Corporate Body
Corporate Body <> Family

14. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201914 Relationship Elements
A relationship designator and its entities
Agent refers to:
• Person
• Family
• Corporate
Body

15. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201915 Relationship Elements
The Library Reference Model (LRM)
LRM consolidated
and replaced the
FR models.

16. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201916 Relationship Elements
Definitions in the new RDA
• RDA entity: an abstract class of key conceptual objects in
the universe of human discourse that is a focus of interest to
users of RDA metadata in a system for resource discovery.
An RDA entity includes an agent, collective agent, corporate
body, expression, family, item, manifestation, nomen, person,
place, timespan, and work.
• entity: an abstract class of a physical or conceptual thing in
the universe of human discourse

17. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201917 Relationship Elements
Definitions in the new RDA
• Relationship: a specific association between two entities
• Relationship element: an element that relates two entities
• Domain: the RDA entity that that is described by an
element
• Range: the RDA entity that is the value of a relationship
element
• Attribute element: an element that is an inherent or
externally imputed characteristic of an RDA entity

18. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201918 Relationship Elements
LRM – more entities introduced
These are the entities in the new RDA, based upon the Library
Reference Model (but not exactly following LRM):
• RDA entity
• Work
• Expression
• Manifestation
• Item
• Agent
• Person
• Collective Agent
• Family
• Corporate Body
• Place
• Timespan
• Nomen

19. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201919 Relationship Elements
The enhanced entity relationship model
RDA entity
Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item
Nomen
Place
Timespan
Agent
Person
Collective Agent
Corporate Body
Family

20. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201920 Relationship Elements
Agent breakout relationship elements
Creator agent of work [formerly “Creator of work”]
+Creator person of work
+Creator collective body of work
+Creator family of work
+Creator corporate body of work
Author agent [formerly “Author”]
+Author person
+Author collective body
+Author family
+Author corporate body

21. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201921 Relationship Elements
New entities mean some attributes
are now relationships …
Previously an attribute: Now a relationship:
Person:
Place of birth
Person < Place of birth > Place
Family:
Place associated with family
Family < Related place of family > Place
Person:
Date of birth
Person < Date of birth > Timespan
Manifestation:
Date of publication
Manifestation < Date of publication > Timespan
Effects of Place and Timespan defined as entities:

22. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201922 Relationship Elements
Previously an attribute: Now a relationship:
Family:
Prominent member of family
Family < Prominent member of family > Person
Corporate body:
Associated institution
Corporate body < Related corporate body of
corporate body > Corporate body
Person:
Affiliation
Person < Person member of corporate body of >
Corporate body
And for consistency, other attribute
elements have also switched to
relationship elements, where applicable…

23. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201923 Relationship Elements
Entities in a relationship element are
recorded using one of the four
recording methods…
ENTITY (Domain) Relationship element ENTITY (Range)
Corporate body Related
corporate body
of corporate
body
Corporate body
Record as:
1. Unstructured
description
2. Structured description
3. Identifier
4. IRI

24. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201924 Relationship Elements
Relationship elements case study
Related corporate body of person
and
Related corporate body of person of

25. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201925 Relationship Elements
Polyhierarchy

26. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201926 Relationship Elements
Inverse

27. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201927 Relationship Elements
IRI for the
relationship
element itself

28. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201928 Relationship Elements
Domain -
PERSON

29. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201929 Relationship Elements
Range –
CORPORATE
BODY

30. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201930 Relationship Elements
Alternate labels can
be:
- “is” or “has”
verbalized form from
RDA registry
- labels used in
original RDA Toolkit
(if significant
change)
- labels of other
elements merged
into this one

31. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201931 Relationship Elements

32. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201932 Relationship Elements

33. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201933 Relationship Elements
Option to record
as an attribute
using an
unstructured
description

34. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201934 Relationship Elements
• name of
corporate body
• access point for
corporate body
• identifier for
corporate body
Recording
methods
for this
relationship
element

35. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201935 Relationship Elements
Original
RDA
instruction

36. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201936 Relationship Elements
Original
RDA
instructions
Recording
methods present
in the original
instructions

37. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201937 Relationship Elements
Person member of corporate body of
• Unstructured description – name of corporate body
(preferred name of corporate body; variant name
of corporate body)
• Structured description – access point for corporate
body
(authorized access point for corporate body;
variant access point for corporate body)
• Identifier
• IRI
Attribute of person – Affiliation
Relationship designator for person – Corporate body
Old RDA
New RDA

38. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201938 Relationship Elements
Nomen?
As relationships?
How does that work?

39. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201939 Relationship Elements
Previously, names, titles, and identifiers were attributes
of entities.
Also, instructions for access points were tacked on, as
part of “identifying” an entity.
With the new RDA, names, titles, access points, and
identifiers are all “nomen strings”.
Names, titles, identifiers –
from attributes to relationships

40. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201940 Relationship Elements
The association of a nomen string with a specific
RDA entity is called a Nomen entity.
That “association” entity, the Nomen, can now
have its own attributes, such as:
• Context of use
• Date of usage
• Language of nomen
• Reference source
• Scheme of nomen
… we mostly focus on the nomen string attribute,
and all the instructions for recording, selecting, or
constructing those nomen strings.

41. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201941 Relationship Elements
A value for the
Nomen’s attribute
“nomen string” is
recorded for the
relationship
element.
That string is no
longer an attribute
of Person, but now
an attribute
identifying the
Nomen.

42. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201942 Relationship Elements
PERSON
Category of
person
Value
Note on
person
Value
NOMEN
Nomen
string
Joe Smith
Reference
source
Value
Relationship:
name of person
The nomen string
is used as the
value of the
appellation
element “name of
person”

43. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201943 Relationship Elements
“A nomen references the
Nomen: nomen string that is
the value of an appellation
element.”
Use the nomen string to
record the appellation
element.

44. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201944 Relationship Elements
“A nomen references the
Nomen: nomen string that is
the value of an appellation
element.”
Use the nomen string to
record the appellation
element.
It’s possible that “name of
person” and “access point
for person” could be the
same nomen string. But
these are still different
Nomen and therefore
different relationships.

45. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201945 Relationship Elements
Name of corporate body: Apple Inc.
Access point for corporate body: Apple Inc.
Same nomen string. Different nomen. Therefore different Corporate Body-
Nomen relationships.
Example using
Appellation of corporate body

46. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201946 Relationship Elements
Name of corporate body: Apple Inc.
Access point for corporate body: Apple Inc.
Same nomen string. Different nomen. Therefore different Corporate Body-
Nomen relationships.
Unstructured vs structured descriptions. The data provenance information is
different.
Name of corporate body
• guidelines or scheme used for transcription
• source of information
Access point for corporate body
• vocabulary encoding scheme (VES)
• string encoding scheme (SES)
Example using
Appellation of corporate body

47. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201947 Relationship Elements
Now let’s explore some
interesting examples of
relationships in the new
RDA Toolkit!

48. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201948 Relationship Elements
Work Relationships

49. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201949 Relationship Elements
Metadata work
“Describe an instance of an entity by recording a metadata
description set that consists of one or more metadata
statements using one or more elements assigned to the entity.”
Work
Manifestation
This work could be a single metadata
statement, or a metadata description set,
describing a manifestation in this example.
Example

50. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201950 Relationship Elements
Metadata work
“Describe an instance of an entity by recording a metadata
description set that consists of one or more metadata
statements using one or more elements assigned to the entity.”
Work
Manifestation
description of
manifestation

51. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201951 Relationship Elements
Metadata work
“Describe an instance of an entity by recording a metadata
description set that consists of one or more metadata
statements using one or more elements assigned to the entity.”
Work
Agent
(who records the metadata)
Manifestation
(used as the content standard)
Manifestation
description of
manifestation
author agent
related manifestation
of work

52. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201952 Relationship Elements
Relationships in coherent descriptions
Coherent description
Relate Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item:
Work: expression of work
Expression: work expressed
Expression: manifestation of expression
Manifestation: expression manifested
Manifestation: exemplar of manifestation
Item: manifestation exemplified
* Manifestation: work manifested
* Work: manifestation of work
Shortcuts…

53. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201953 Relationship Elements
Relationships in minimum descriptions
Minimum for Work:
• Work: appellation of work (title, access point, or identifier)
• Work: expression of work (identify an expression) or Work:
manifestation of work (identify a manifestation)
Minimum for Expression:
• Expression: appellation of expression (title, access point, or identifier)
• Expression: work expressed (identify a work)
• Expression: manifestation of expression (identify a manifestation)
Minimum for Manifestation:
• Manifestation: appellation of manifestation (title, access point, or
identifier)
• Manifestation: expression manifested (identify an expression) or
Manifestation: work manifested (identify a work)
Minimum for Item:
• Item: appellation of item (title, access point, or identifier)
• Item: manifestation exemplified (identify a manifestation)

54. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201954 Relationship Elements
Statement elements
Several super-element statement elements (e.g., Manifestation: publication
statement) are attributes, although some of their components are relationship
elements.
Manifestation: publication statement
sub-elements:
Manifestation: date of publication [manifestation <> timespan]
Manifestation: name of publisher [manifestation <> nomen]
Manifestation: place of publication [manifestation <> place]
Manifestation: series statement
sub-elements:
Manifestation: title of series [manifestation <> nomen]
Manifestation: numbering within sequence
Manifestation: other title information of series [manifestation <> nomen]
Manifestation: statement of responsibility relating to series

55. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201955 Relationship Elements
“Shortcut” relationships
The original shortcut relationship element and its inverse:
Manifestation: work manifested
Work: manifestation of work

56. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201956 Relationship Elements
Name of publisher – a shortcut relationship
Manifestation: name of publisher

57. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201957 Relationship Elements
Aggregates … and more
shortcut relationship
elements!

58. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201958 Relationship Elements
Contributor agent to aggregate – a
shortcut relationship
Manifestation: contributor agent to aggregate
Aggregate
(manifestation)
Expression 1 Expression 2 Expression 3
Work 1 Work 2 Work 3

59. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201959 Relationship Elements
Contributor agent to aggregate – a manifestation
relationship to all the creators of the aggregated content
(expression and work level creators)
Manifestation: contributor agent to aggregate
Contributor agent of:
• cartography
• choreography
• computer content
• moving image
• music
• object
• speech
• still image
• text

60. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201960 Relationship Elements
Contributor agent to aggregate – a manifestation
relationship to all the creators of the aggregated content
(expression and work level creators)
Manifestation: contributor agent to aggregate
Contributor agent of:
• cartography
• choreography
• computer content
• moving image
• music
• object
• speech
• still image
• text
Agents responsible for
expression include
agents responsible for
work.

61. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201961 Relationship Elements
Basic aggregate relationships
Aggregate
(manifestation)
Expression 1 Expression 2 Expression 3
Work 1 Work 2 Work 3
The “aggregating expression” is treated
as another expression and is covered by
Manifestation: expression manifested
The agent responsible for creating an
“aggregating work” is covered by
Work: aggregator agent
Expression chosen as part of the plan of
an aggregating expression is covered by
Expression: aggregates (inverse:
Expression: aggregated by)
Aggregating expression
Aggregating work

62. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201962 Relationship Elements
A few more relationship
elements to explore …

63. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201963 Relationship Elements
Transformation relationships
• carrier version
• language version
• regional version
• transformation by
extension plan
• sequential version
• serialized version
• static version

64. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201964 Relationship Elements
Outward-facing elements
related entity of RDA entity
Also narrower, but now pointing to RDA
entities (and so both Domain and Range
are identified):
related RDA entity of RDA entity

65. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201965 Relationship Elements
Subject – outward facing element
Domain: Work
No range.

66. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201966 Relationship Elements
Narrower elements
under “Subject” are
relationship
elements between
a work and another
RDA entity.

67. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201967 Relationship Elements
Some final tips …

68. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201968 Relationship Elements
Relationship matrix

69. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201969 Relationship Elements
Relationship matrix by domain
RDA entities related
to Person.
“Use a relationship
element that is
sufficiently specific...”
was in old RDA:
“Use a relationship
designator at the
level of specificity
that is considered
appropriate for the
purposes of the
agency creating the
data.”

70. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201970 Relationship Elements
Relationship matrix:
alphabetical lists of
relationship elements
(and inverse
elements indicated
for each)

71. RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201971 Relationship Elements
Navigating
relationship
elements.
Can more be
done?
Breadcrumbs…
Search and browse elements on
each each RDA entity page…

72. Relationship Elements RDA Orientation – Aug 7, 201972
Thank you!
Time for questions …
Go forth and explore!