is part of

Paolo Ciccarese, Silvio Peroni. The Essential FRBR in OWL2 DL Ontology. Revision: 1.1.0. http://purl.org/spar/frbr.

* **v1.1.0**: Added new documentation, including annotation properties (e.g., `bibo:doi`, `schema:codeRepository`, etc.), term properties (e.g., `vann:example`, `vs:term_status`, etc.), exemplary competency questions with their respective SPARQL queries, and a Grafoo diagram. Added alignment with `openwemi` classes.

Sebastian Barzaghi (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0799-1527)

David Shotton (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5506-523X)

2011-06-29

Paolo Ciccarese (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5156-2703)

Silvio Peroni (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0530-4305)

2026-08-14

The **_Essential FRBR in OWL2 DL Ontology (FRBR DL)_** is an expression in OWL 2 DL of the basic concepts and relations described in the _IFLA report on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)_, also described in [Ian Davis's RDF vocabulary](http://vocab.org/frbr/core). FRBR is a general model, proposed by the _International Federation of Library Association (IFLA)_, for describing documents and their evolution. It works for both physical and digital resources and it has proved to be very flexible and powerful. One of the most important aspects of FRBR is the fact that it is not associated with a particular metadata schema or implementation.  FRBR describes all documents from four different and correlated points of view: _Work_, _Expression_, _Manifestation_ and _Item_; each of which is a FRBR _Endeavour_. These can be illustrated by considering of the book _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ by Lewis Carroll as an example: * _Work._ A FRBR Work is a high-level abstract Platonic concept of the essence of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation, for example the ideas in Lewis Carroll's head concerning _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_, independent of any representation of these ideas in a particular form. A Work is realised through one or more Expressions; * _Expression._ A FRBR Expression is the realisation of the intellectual or artistic content of a Work. Thus, the original text of _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ and its Italian translation _Le Avventure di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie_ refer to different Expressions of the same Work. An Expression is embodied in one or more Manifestations; * _Manifestation._ A FRBR Manifestation of a work defines its particular physical or electronic embodiment, for example, the particular format in which _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ is stored: as a printed object or in HTML, represent two quite different Manifestations. In publishing, different manifestations of a journal article will all bear the same Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which identifies the Expression of the work, not its various Manifestations. However, a paperback and a hardback version of a book will bear different International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), since these identifiers are assigned at the Manifestation level. A Manifestation is exemplified by one or more Items; * _Item._ A FRBR Item is a particular physical or electronic copy of _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ that a person can own, for example the printed version of the book you have in your bookcase, or the Mobipocket format copy you have downloaded to read on your e-book device. All Items that are identical to one another – for example books from the same printing, are exemplars of the same Manifestation. Starting from [Ian Davis's RDF vocabulary](http://vocab.org/frbr/core) that expresses the basic concepts and relations described in the IFLA report on FRBR, we have created an expression in OWL 2 DL of FRBR in order to be used in other SPAR Ontologies that require this kind of descriptions, e.g., [FaBiO](https://www.sparontologies.net/ontologies/fabio) and [BiRO](https://www.sparontologies.net/ontologies/biro). ## Examples of use In the following subsections, we introduce some examples to showcase how to use FRBR DL. The prefixes that are used in all the examples provided below are defined as follows: @prefix application: <http://purl.org/NET/mediatypes/application/> . @prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> . @prefix frbr: <http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#> . @prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> . ### Using FRBR for describing a bibliographic entity FRBR DL allows one to describe information related to a bibliographic entity such as the following one: Pompeu Casanovas, Núria Casellas, Christoph Tempich, Denny Vrandečić, Richard Benjamins (2007). OPJK and DILIGENT: ontology modeling in a distributed environment. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 15 (2): 171-186. June 2007. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s10506-007-9036-2. Print ISSN 0924-8463. Online ISSN 1572-8382. Published online (PDF) May 31, 2007. From the previous reference we can extract the following information: 1. the document is an academic research article – deducible from the journal in which it is published; 2. Pompeu Casanovas, Núria Casellas, Christoph Tempich, Denny Vrandečić, and Richard Benjamins are the authors of the article; 3. the article was published in 2007; 4. the article is entitled "OPJK and DILIGENT: ontology modeling in a distributed environment"; 5. it was published in the 2nd issue of the 15th volume of Artificial Intelligence and Law; 6. the DOI of the article is "10.1007/s10506-007-9036-2"; 7. the Print ISSN of the journal is "0924-8463"; 8. the Online ISSN of the journal is "1572-8382"; 9. the PDF version of the article was published online on May 31, 2007; 10. the journal issue within which the printed version of the article was published bears the publication date June 2007; 11. the page range of the article within the printed version is "171-186"; 12. the publisher of the journal is Springer. Although it is possible to use FRBR (in combination with DC Terms) to give a structured and unambiguous description of all the bibliographic entities, the example makes it clear the severe limitations of FRBR. These are caused by the lack of terms in the FRBR Core ontology which allow publications to be described in normal everyday language. This issue is addressed by using FaBiO entities. :opjk-and-diligent a frbr:Work ; frbr:creator :casanovas , :casellas, :tempich, :vrandecic, :benjamins ; dcterms:title 'OPJK and DILIGENT: ontology modeling in a distributed environment' ; frbr:realization :version-of-record . :version-of-record a frbr:Expression ; dcterms:issued '2007'^^xsd:gYear ; dcterms:identifier 'doi:10.1007/s10506-007-9036-2' ; frbr:embodiment :printed , :pdf ; frbr:partOf :issue-2-volume-15-ail . :issue-2-volume-15-ail a frbr:Expression ; dcterms:identifier '2' ; dcterms:description 'Issue' ; frbr:embodiment :printed-issue ; frbr:partOf :volume-15-ail . :volume-15-ail a frbr:Expression ; dcterms:identifier '15' ; dcterms:description 'Volume' ; frbr:partOf :ail . :ail a frbr:Expression ; dcterms:title 'Artificial Intelligence and Law' . :printed-issue a frbr:Manifestation ; frbr:producer :springer ; dcterms:issued '06-2007'^^xsd:gYearMonth ; frbr:part :printed . :printed a frbr:Manifestation ; frbr:producer :springer ; dcterms:issued '06-2007'^^xsd:gYearMonth ; dcterms:extent [ a dcterms:SizeOrDuration ; dcterms:description '171-186' ] . :pdf a frbr:Manifestation ; frbr:producer :springer ; dcterms:format application:pdf ; dcterms:issued '31-05-2007'^^xsd:date . :casanovas a frbr:Person ; dcterms:description 'Pompeu Casanovas' . :casellas a frbr:Person ; dcterms:description 'Nuria Casellas' . :tempich a frbr:Person ; dcterms:description 'Christoph Tempich' . :vrandecic a frbr:Person ; dcterms:description 'Denny Vrandečić' . :benjamins a frbr:Person ; dcterms:description 'Richard Benjamins' . :springer a frbr:CorporateBody ; dcterms:description 'Springer' . ## Competency Questions FRBR DL can be used for answering several questions related to documents and their different description levels. In the following subsections, some of them are introduced together with their respective SPARQL queries. The prefixes that are used in all the SPARQL queries provided below are defined as follows: PREFIX frbr: <http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#> PREFIX dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> ### CQ1 Which expressions realize a given work, along with the creators of that work? SELECT ?work ?title ?creator ?expression WHERE { ?work a frbr:Work ; frbr:realization ?expression . OPTIONAL { ?work dcterms:title ?title . } OPTIONAL { ?work frbr:creator ?creator . } } ### CQ2 What are the manifestations embodying an expression, along with their format and producer? SELECT ?expression ?manifestation ?producer ?format WHERE { ?expression a frbr:Expression ; frbr:embodiment ?manifestation . ?manifestation a frbr:Manifestation . OPTIONAL { ?manifestation frbr:producer ?producer . } OPTIONAL { ?manifestation dcterms:format ?format . } } ### CQ3 What is the hierarchical containment chain of an expression (e.g., article to issue, volume, and journal)? SELECT ?childExpression ?parentExpression ?identifier ?description ?title WHERE { ?childExpression a frbr:Expression ; frbr:partOf ?parentExpression . OPTIONAL { ?parentExpression dcterms:identifier ?identifier . } OPTIONAL { ?parentExpression dcterms:description ?description . } OPTIONAL { ?parentExpression dcterms:title ?title . } } ### CQ4 What are the full WEMI relationships (Work, Expression, Manifestation) for a publication and its responsible corporate body or persons? SELECT ?work ?expression ?manifestation ?producer ?issueDate WHERE { ?work a frbr:Work ; frbr:realization ?expression . ?expression a frbr:Expression ; frbr:embodiment ?manifestation . ?manifestation a frbr:Manifestation . OPTIONAL { ?manifestation frbr:producer ?producer . } OPTIONAL { ?manifestation dcterms:issued ?issueDate . } }

https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.b34b43

2011-06-29

FRBR

bibliometrics

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

scientometrics

scholarly publishing

semantic publishing

2026-08-14

frbr

http://purl.org/spar/frbr

Essential FRBR in OWL2 DL Ontology (FRBR)

1.1.0