RDA and ranges

There's been something tickling my brain for a bit, so I sat down to  
try to draw up a diagram. Essentially, the question is: what is the  
domain & range of an RDA property? Then I began to wonder what is the  
domain and range of a property based on RDA but not bound to a FRBR  
domain?

My unfinished diagram is here:

kcoyle.net/domainsranges.pdf

and I now realize that title isn't the best example to use. But the  
key element, in my mind, is that the RDA guidance rules both guide the  
metadata creator and define the range of the element. Those ranges are  
inherent in the rules but have not been extracted into the registry,  
in part because many of the ranges are quite complex. In the rules you  
find how the property is to be structured and what values are valid,  
which to me is the definition of the range.

Note that in the diagram I have only filled in the domain and range at  
the bottom (most specific) level. That is because I'm not sure what to  
do beyond that. If we treat the RDA rules as describing the ranges for  
the properties, then all of the properties, regardless of whether they  
are bound to FRBR, are very tightly defined (probably what Tom would  
call ontologically strict). If we wish for other communities to  
provide guidance rules of their own for the properties, then it  
becomes hard to think of them as RDA properties. (This is a can of  
worms that has been a matter of discussion between JSC and the  
registry.)

What I am getting at is that we may need a hierarchy that goes like  
this (from most specific to most general):

1. RDA + FRBR -- range is as defined in RDA; domain is FRBR entity
2. RDA alone -- range is as defined in RDA; no domain?
3. Property with definition -- range and domain are open

I hope I've made some sense here. Although we've discussed whether RDA  
properties must be bound to FRBR, in fact I think that RDA's  
definition of the values/ranges is more of a constraint than FRBR.

kc

p.s. I will try to locate some better examples of RDA rules as ranges.

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

Received on Wednesday, 18 August 2010 00:10:22 UTC