Towards a FRBR compliant catalogue: prospects for the City of Cape Town Public Library Management System

The City of Cape Town Library and Information Services (CCT LIS) currently operates the Brocade Library Management System (LMS), which uses cloud (web-based) software developed by the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and is distributed in South Africa by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), with additional support from CiBLis (CIPAL Bibliotheca Library information system). Brocade makes use of the Apache Lucene search engine to search its catalogue. CCT LIS operates 104 libraries which support a local population with an ever increasing literacy rate with growing information needs. The advent of the Internet and the emergence of new formats of items stocked in libraries have exposed a need for LMSes to restructure their online search results. IFLA initiated the development of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) conceptual model. Its work, expression, manifestation and item level entities, together with its relationship framework equip LMSes to restructure their catalogues. For CCT LIS the retrospective manual FRBRization option would be too labour intensive and time consuming, while a retrospective programmatic FRBRization process could prove very costly. Also, CCT LIS has a unique relationship with the Western Cape Library and Archive Services (WCL&AS). The former is an independent municipal institution which cooperates with the latter Provincial institution with regard to catalogue records, which could have further implications for the FRBRization process. Brocade in its current configuration does allow for the implementation of the FRBR conceptual model for newly acquired works. By utilising an existing cataloguing option currently available on Brocade, cataloguing can be done on an expression level leading down to the manifestation and item levels. The degree of FRBRization of the CCT LIS catalogue is dependent on software vendor support and the relationship with WCL&AS from where a sizable number of catalogue records are imported programmatically.