The conceptual structure of the bibliographical record

Abstract

It is assumed that the conceptual structure of bibliographic records is based on the knowledge of the user needs. In this sense, the application of the entityrelationship model to the library catalogue allows us to consider the authoritaty and bibliographic records as entities, data elements in the bibliographic records as attributes, and the links between records and between records and elements as relationships. We point out the bibliographic relationships of UNIMARC format, the analysis of hierarchical relationships carried out by Goossens and Mazur- Rzesos, the tipology of bibliographic documents established by McCallum; we Scire. 2 : 2 (jul.-dic. 1996) 53-77 also present the seven types of relationships developed by Tillett: equivalence, derivative, descriptive, whole part (or part whole), accompanying, sequential, and shared characteristic relationships. Then, we give the results of an empirical study carried out to establish the extent and features of bibliographic relationships in the computer-based catalogue of the Library of Congress. (Author)