Relevance of a Classified Catalog in the FRBR Perspective and a Proposed Model with ISBD Description and Faceted Class Number as Key Attribute

The article highlights the importance of cataloging as the basic prerequisite for all information retrieval processes, and therefore its relevance as a core in library and information science curriculum. The developments in information communication technology have brought sea changes in the universe of information resources as well as in customer requirements. This situation has caused a redefinition of the functions and format of the catalog and not made it redundant. Formulation of FRBR as a conceptual model for bibliographical databases is a landmark in this context. FRBR is in fact a manifestation of the theoretical frame that Ranganathan proposed for the universe of documents. The recent attempts to incorporate classification numbers to enable browsing resources on the Web and the approach of FRBR aimed at retrieval of the different manifestations and expressions of awork during a search, necessitate a coextensive class number as a key attribute for every work as an access point. Such an approach would necessitate training students of librarianship on the modus operandi of a classified catalog. The article gives an entity relationship diagram for a bibliographical database and a model of a classified catalog with description as per the ISBD and access points derived on the basis of Ranganathan’s rules of the Classified Catalogue Code.