Jabes 2010 - RDA "Unimarc, RDA et le web sémantique" - Gordon Dunsire, Université de Strathclyde (Glasgow), dans le cadre des Journées Abes 2010

1. UNIMARC, RDA and the Semantic Web
Gordon Dunsire
Presented at Les Journées ABES
26-27 May 2010, Montpellier, France
(Originally presented at WLIC 2009, Milan, Italy)

2. UNIMARC
A carrier format intended for the exchange of
bibliographic metadata between the systems
used by national agencies
Goals
Maintain and develop in alignment with other
MARC formats and new bibliographic standards.
Enhance portability of data to the Web
environment and interoperability with other
standards.
Improve availability of documentation.
Promotion, dissemination, user support.

3. UNIMARC – ISBD - FRBR
UNIMARC is aligned with International
Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD)
Specifies data elements and their display
ISBD is aligned with Functional
Requirements for Bibliographic Records
(FRBR)
User-focused model for bibliographic data
All 3 standards maintained by IFLA groups
UNIMARC ISBD FRBR

4. RDA: resource description and access
New metadata standard for describing the
content of information resources
Designed for the digital environment
Built on 100+ years of experience in developing
the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR)
Intended for international use
Focus on library collections, but seeks
compatibility with metadata in related
communities
E.g. Archives, museums, and publishers

5. RDA – FRBR - FRAD
RDA aligned with FRBR
RDA attributes grouped by FRBR entities
RDA also aligned with Functional
Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD)
Also maintained by IFLA
FRBR aligned with FRAD
Part of the “Functional Requirements” family
RDA FRBR FRAD

6. RDA - ISBD
RDA is not designed for any specific
metadata carrier format
But mappings developed from RDA elements
to ISBD and MARC21 formats to maximise
integration with existing data
RDA ISBD
RDA MARC21

7. Material designation
ISBD and AACR use the device of a general
material designation (GMD)
Early warning to catalogue users of how resource
content is to be accessed and used
Through a particular human sense (sight, hearing, etc.)
With a specific intermediation device (computer,
magnifier, etc.)
GMDs do not clearly separate content
mediation (e.g. Sight) from carrier mediation
(e.g. Magnifier)

8. ISBD area 0
New area covering content form and media
type
Separates content type (form) from carrier
(media) type
RDA has also developed separate content
and carrier categories
Partial alignment between ISBD and RDA
categories
Some are exact matches
Framework underlying RDA categories can
be applied to ISBD to improve alignment

9. RDA/ONIX framework
An ontology developed by RDA and the
publishing community to improve metadata
interoperability
Set of low-level attributes combined to form
high-level content and carrier types for RDA
E.g. RDA content type “spoken word”
Category attributes
Character: Language
SensoryMode: Hearing
ImageDimensionality: not applicable
ImageMovement: not applicable

10. Vocabulary Mapping Framework (VMF)
Project to extend the RDA/ONIX framework
June-November 2009
Extension covers roles and relationships
between bibliographic entities and agents
E.g. Manifestation:hasManufacturer:Publisher
E.g. WorkA:isDerivedFrom:WorkB
Framework extended to cover other
standards
CIDOC Content Reference Model (CRM), Dublin
Core (DC), FRBR, IEEE-Learning Object
Metadata (LOM), MARC21

11. VMF
RDA VMF
(RDA/ONIX+)
MARC21CRM
LOM
ONIX
FRBR

12. Alignments
Alignments are not exact (one-to-one)
Mappings may be fuzzy, partial or out-of-date
Some are latent within underlying schemas
E.g. RDA/ONIX framework
Development of one standard may not be
synchronised with aligned standards
Standards independently maintained
Aligned standards may be subsequently re-
examined and developed
Alignment drift may be amplified in a chain of
mappings

13. The (partial) chain
RDA
VMF
(RDA/ONIX+)
ONIX
CRM LOM
FRBRUNIMARC ISBD
FRAD
MARC21

14. From UNIMARC to RDA and back again
UNIMARC ISBD RDA
UNIMARC ISBD FRBR RDA
RDA MARC21 UNIMARC
• 2001 mapping between UNIMARC and MARC21
• Time to review alignments?

15. Importance of (mis-)alignment
Impact on national cataloguing rules
E.g. Italian rules
New rules - FRBR?
Current rules - UNIMARC
But FRBR - RDA - ISBD - UNIMARC
Significant impact on new rules?
Semantic Web
Linked-data depends on (semantic) alignments

16. (Semantic) web
1997 mapping from UNIMARC to Dublin Core
UNIMARCXML also available
DCMI RDA Task Group is expressing RDA
vocabularies for attributes and values in
Semantic Web formats
VMF project intends to do the same
Similar initiatives elsewhere
FRBR namespaces, LCSH, etc.
UNIMARC DC

17. To the future
Semantic Web allows “mash-up” of metadata
from different sources using different
standards
Publication statement from publisher; subject
from author; summary from user; ? from
cataloguer
Applying FRBR will help
Multi-lingual sources easier to interoperate
“gesprochene Worte” has same identifier as
“spoken word”
Time to review UNIMARC and the Web?

18. Thank you
g.dunsire@strath.ac.uk