Welcome
This website is a demonstration of the potential content, layout, and style of ISBD for Manifestation (ISBDM): the ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description) as a metadata content standard for the Manifestation entity of the IFLA Library Reference Model.
Disclaimer
This is a work-in-progress, and content may be changed, added, or removed without warning.
This website and its contents are not endorsed by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) or any of its affiliate organizations.
ISBDM online
The content of ISBDM is optimised for online access. It caters for browsing in the sequence of its presentation, for browsing in a sequence determined by a cataloguing agency, and for instant ad hoc access to any part of its content from within and from external documentation such as application profiles and agency policies.
The main navigation menu at the top of every page reflects the functional structure of the standard. The introduction is followed by the four functional categories of element, with augmentations coming last. Augmentations include controlled terminologies (values), a glossary, and full examples.
These main components have their own internal navigation menus that are displayed on each page. The "click-distance" between any two sections is just 2; one click on the main menu, and another click on the sub-menu. Each section or page is directly accessible and has a unique identifier in the form of a URL.
The sections of the introduction are arranged in order of general and theoretical to operational. A major section is on preliminary assessment of a manifestation before any metadata is created. This reflects the complex relationships between the WEMI components of a resource and their impact on the stand-alone description of the Manifestation component.
The element categories are arranged by general source of information: the manifestation itself (statements), the cataloguer's interpretation of how the manifestation describes itself (notes), the manifestion's intrinsic characteristics described with pre-coordinate terminologies or notes (attributes), and the wider consensus on how the manifestation relates to other library entities.
This is also reflected in the quantity and granularity of elements in each category, from a small number of elements with shallow hierarchies for statements and notes to a larger number of elements with deeper hierarchies for attributes and relationships, which is easy to visualise in this demonstrator.
The four categories of elements and their stipulations have the same internal layout: general stipulations for the category are followed by stipulations for each element. The elements are arranged in alphabetical order of their English labels, within their semantic hierarchies.
A standard layout is used for the content of each element.
An element reference card gives the definition, scope note, domain, and range of the element, and its immediate sub-types and super-types in the hierarchy.
This may be followed by additional reference information.
The stipulations are arranged in order of general to specific.
Linking to a broader stipulation is preferred to duplicating a stipulation. The element hierarchy is used to reduce repetition.
Stipulations are given in a standard format. A condition, if any, is stated first, and an indication of optionality is stated last.
Examples for a specific stipulation are displayed in a standard format. Examples can be opened and closed for display by the user. This helps to avoid page clutter and speeds up the browsing of stipulations.