Revaluation of the 3-Layered Model in Descriptive Cataloging

Abstract

In several years ago the author proposed a conceptual framework, whose purpose was to grasp a bibliographic item through a structured view and to represent the item on a bibliographic record in a structured manner. That framework was named "3-layered model" on account of its structure shown. Recently IFLA published a study report of which title was "Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. Draft Report for World-Wide Review", for the purpose of a thorough re-examination of the functional requirements for bibliographic records based on an analysis of user needs. The IFLA report, to put it another way, tried to grasp the bibliographic universe through the E-R analysis and also to define in clearly defined terms entities, attributes of each entity, relationships between entities, all of which constitute bibliographic universe. The 3-layered model and the model represented in the IFLA report have much in common on the basic points. The purpose of this paper is to compare the two models above at length and, as a result, to make clear something common and something different between the two. This comparison leads to the re-examination and revaluation of the 3-layered model itself.