FRBR

FRBR, Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, is a conceptual framework developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to improve bibliographic description, discovery, and access. It models the relationships among creative works, their expressions, and their published or realized forms, with the goal of supporting user tasks and enabling interoperability across catalogs and systems.

FRBR distinguishes four group 1 entities: Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item (WEMI). A Work is a distinct intellectual or artistic creation. An Expression is the linguistic, musical, or other realization of a Work. A Manifestation is a concrete publication, recording, or other physical or digital embodiment of an Expression. An Item is a single exemplar of a Manifestation, such as a particular library copy. These entities are connected by relationships, notably that a Work is realized by Expressions, an Expression is embodied in Manifestations, and a Manifestation is embodied in Items. A Work may have multiple Expressions, and a Manifestation may have multiple Items.

FRBR also defines user tasks to guide catalog design and retrieval: Find, Identify, Select, and Obtain. These tasks focus on locating related entities, confirming their identity, choosing appropriate resources, and acquiring access or copies.

FRBR arose from IFLA's FRBR Study Group in the 1990s and was published in the late 1990s. A more formal revision, the FRBR Library Reference Model (FRBR-LRM), was released by IFLA in 2017. FRBR has influenced modern cataloging standards such as Resource Description and Access (RDA) and several linked-data initiatives, though its implementation can be complex and resource-intensive, drawing both support and criticism.