I do think that Martha is right that a more generous reading of the FRBR work attributes is possible than what is explicitly listed in FRBR. The report itself says, "The scope of the attributes included in the model is intended to be comprehensive but not exhaustive." (p. 32) Interestingly, they also note that "the attributes defined for the study were derived from a logical analysis of the data that are typically reflected in bibliographic records." (p. 31) This second statement makes sense as a pragmatic approach, but also suggests to me that they might not have picked up on attributes that are not adequately reflected in our current bibliographic records.
If you look at date in the FRBR model, it is defined for the work, expression, and manifestation level. In the same way that a work has a date of creation that is independent of the date of creation a given expression (although presumably the same as that of the first expression?), I think it could be argued that language or color could be attributes BOTH of a work and of various expressions of a work. These two levels of attributes do not mean the same thing, just as the date of the Iliad as a work is not the same as the date of Dryden's translation as an expression. On the topic of original language, I also find it interesting that LibraryThing tries to use MARC 041$h if it's there to infer the original language of a work. It also allows users to add this information when it's not supplied. LibraryThing then uses this data to produce things like this page of works originally in Russian (http://www.librarything.com/language.php?l=rus). Obviously there are problematic cases, but I think we could do interesting things if we, too, had this kind of data in an explicit form. And, at least for film and video, there definitely are complaints about not being able to search by original language in library catalogs. So I do think the possibility of expanding the FRBR work attributes to cover more characteristics of the original expression would be a useful area to explore. ------------------------------------- Kelley McGrath Cataloging & Metadata Services Librarian (Audiovisual) Bracken Library Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306-0161 Phone: (765) 285-3350 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
