Comparison of Persian bibliographic records with FRBR

The purpose of this paper is Identifying the degree of compatibility of the current situation of the Persian bibliographic records (PBRs) with FRBR, as well as identifying the possible approaches and strategies for appropriate application of the model to Persian. The required data were gathered via two checklists were devised for the purpose of this research and each of which was dedicated to “Shahname” and “Nahjolbalaghe”. Also, to determine the characteristics of a suitable functional requirements for bibliographic records (FRBR) model for Iran, 18 implementation projects round the world were surveyed and analysed. Results of the study show that some FRBR requirements were readily available in Persian bibliographic records (PBRs), but in some cases, there are some deficiencies due to some likely reasons, such as lack of commitment to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2, specifications of the library software structure and neglecting bibliographic and family relations in catalogues.

The main goal of this research was to identify the degree of compatibility of the current situation of the PBRs with FRBR, as well as identifying the possible approaches and strategies for appropriate application of the model to Persian records. Research publication was 3,502 records in the National Bibliography of Iran for “Shahname” and “Nahjolbalaghe” of which 365 records were selected using systematic sampling method. Resources types included in the study were books, audio-visual resources, geographical resources, theses, lithographic books, manuscripts and journals.

Results of the study also showed that the appropriate method for implementing FRBR in Iran is the comparative model. According to this model, the current records are saved while they are compared to FRBR model, as a result of which, anomalies are identified and resolved. In another part of this research, 16 important challenges that could exist in implementing the model in Iran were identified and introduced. Also, eight characteristics of a suitable implementation model in Iran are introduced.

FRBR, is a conceptual entity-relationship model, released by IFLA and aimed to determine a minimum level of catalogue functions based on user’s needs. This model consists of four main parts: entities, attributes, relations and user tasks. This research has studied the feasibility of implementing application of the model to Iranian library records. Any research before the present paper (based on PhD thesis) has not been conducted yet in Iran.