Functional Requirements for Authority Data

Functional Requirements for Authority Records or FRAR is a conceptual entity-relationship model developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) for relating the data that are recorded in library authority records to the needs of the users of those records and facilitate and sharing of that data.

The draft was presented in 2004 at the 70th IFLA General Conference and Council in Buenos Aires by Glenn Patton. It is an extention and expansion to the FRBR model, addding numerous entities and attributes.

The conceptual work and future implementations are aimed at supporting four tasks, frequently executed by users in a library context -- either the library patrons (the first three tasks), or the librarians themselves (all four tasks):

• Find: Find an entity or set of entities corresponding to stated criteria;
• Identify: Identify an entity;
• Contextualize: Place a person, corporate body, work, etc. in context;
• Justify: Document the authority record creator’s reason for choosing the name or form of name on which an access point is based.

External links

• Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records (FRANAR)