Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data
n. (abbr. FRSAD)a conceptual entity–relationship model designed to support widespread sharing and reuse of subject authority data both within and outside of the library worldIFLA 2010, 10While the Group acknowledges that there are cases where a vocabulary provides terminology, or has been used, also for isness, the focus of the FRSAD model is on aboutness (the FRBR-defined relationship work “has as subject ...”).IFLA 2010, 38The FRSAD model is developed with the goal of assisting in an assessment of the potential for international sharing and use of subject authority data both within the library sector and beyond.Furner 2012, 495International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ (IFLA’s) Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD): A Conceptual Model presents a data model that, in combination with sister models such as the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) models, is intended to guide the design and construction of resource discovery systems. The FRSAD model focuses on requirements for the production and organization of descriptions of the subjects of resources, and its construction was guided by the compilers’ resolving, for pragmatic reasons, to agree on the precise way in which several basic philosophical questions about the subjects of works and subject-related phenomena should be dealt with.Coyle 2012, 42FRSAD is a description of subject authority data. The FRSAD elements are registered in the Open Metadata Registry. Because of the FRSAD approach to subject authorities (it has only two entities, Thema and Nomen), the FRSAD element set consists only of nineteen elements and relationships, some of which are administrative in nature (“reference source,” “script of nomen”). The elements of FRSAD have been given a status of “published,” which means that they are currently available for use.Hyvönen 2012, 48The third conceptual model of the FRBR family is Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD). FRSAD is a model for the subject relationship between works and their subjects. FRSAD extends the FRBR model with new entities and relationships in the same vein as FRAD. The subject relationship is represented using with entities . . . that were already declared in FRBR.Park and Howarth 2013, 282The resulting Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD), a more abstract model than either FRBR or FRAD, and based on “thema” and “nomen,” is well-suited to the Semantic Web environment, as Poulter explains, in that it “matches well with schemas such as SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System), OWL (Web Ontology Language), and the DCMI Abstract Model.” He observes that, while “this paper found no fundamental criticism of FRSAD…it is almost as though FRSAD itself has never appeared” at least as far as its incorporation into the structural foundations of subject access (and chapters) in RDA is concerned. Poulter’s chapter suggests that, “there seems to be a general denial of the FRSAD model,” and offers a “mechanism, based on PRECIS, for putting into practice this model.”Gilliland 2014a, 115–116FRSAD, published in 2010, is the third in this set of conceptual models. It addresses the “aboutness” of works and provides a “structured frame of reference for relating the data that are recorded in subject authority records to the needs of the users of those records.” Those needs, or tasks, are identified as Find, Identify, Select, and Explore.
Notes
In 2010, the IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR) published a final report on Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD). FRSAD, along with Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD), derive from Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 1998. These three models are also known as the Functional Requirement (FR) family of conceptual models.
