The Bibliography of Chess
The fundamental concepts

Andreas Saremba

Forchheim, 18. September 2004

A problem of quantity

The human brain is not well suited to work with many facts

But the world consists of many facts

Even a bibliography on a topic as limited as chess contains too many!

What is the silver bullet that solves this problem?

Organization!

From Chaos to Order, or:
How to organize Knowledge

Abstraction

Find general concepts that help you to get a better understanding of your objects of interest.

Terminology

Find good names for your objects of interest, define them precisely and and use them consistently.

Structure

Organize objects into hierarchies.

Identify relations between the objects.

The Need for Abstractions

What do I mean when I talk about
Dufresne's „Kleines Lehrbuch des Schachspiels“ ?

The one book that sits on my bookshelf?

All the books that have been printed together with mine?

All the editions of the book with exactly the same content as mine? Including translations?

All the editions of the book ever produced, regardless of variations in content?

The Need for Terminology

We form our abstractions by assigning names to them:

The one book that sits on my bookshelf is an item.

All the books that have been printed together with mine form a manifestation.

All the editions of the book with exactly the same content as mine (in the same language) form an
expression.

All the editions of the book ever produced, regardless of variations in content, form a work.

Hierarchy (of Group 1 objects)

Work

Expression

Manifestation

Item

is realized through

is realized through

is embodied in

is exemplified by

Intellectual/artistic

content

Physical recording

of content

Group 2: Actors

Our second group of abstractions consists of actors, who create, produce and/or own the Group 1 entities:

Persons

Organizational Bodies

Relations between Group 1
and Group 2 entities

Is created by

Is owned by

Is realized by

Person

Corporate Body

Work

Expression

Manifestation

Item

Is produced by

Group 3: Subjects

In addition to books and their creators, we have to consider their contents.
What are the subjects of books (in addition to the Group 1 and 2 entities) ?

Concepts

Objects

Events

Places

The Subject Relation between
Group 1 and other entities

Work

Person

Corporate Body

Expression

Manifestation

Item

Work

Object

Event

Place

Concept

has as subject

has as subject

has as subject

?

A Benefit of Hierarchy:
Inheritance

If a work has some entity as its subject, the same applies to each derived entity!

Jean Dufresne:

„Kleines Lehrbuch

des Schachspiels“

Concept:

„Illustrating opening theory

by sample master games“

14th edition

1937 printing

My copy

W

E

M

I

has as subject

original relationship

derived relationships

Supporting Entities
(only in BoC, not in FRBR)

In addition to the three main groups, there are five more „supporting“ entities in BoC

Category

Role

Comment

Language

Country

Overview: BoC Entities

Person

Role

Expression

Manifestation

Item

Work

Event

Concept

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Comment

Language

Country

Supporting Entities

Category

Tasks and Challenges

Before we can start, there are
„a few things“ to be done!

Define attributes for the entities

Implement the data model

Get data for an initial database upload

Define clear and precise cataloguing rules

Define and establish an editorial process

Build a good user interface

Task 1:
Define attributes for the Entities

Try to capture everything that is essential

Be realistic!

Every attribute has to be implemented in both the database and the user interface

Don't overwhelm the users! They have to provide the content for the attributes!

Task 2:
Implement the Data Model

This is a task for the technical experts, not the user community

We are in a lucky situation: There is
excellent free software, in particular
databases.

The challenge here is not to „over-normalize“

Task 3:
Get Data for an initial DB Upload

This is a big problem

Reason is not a lack of data, but ...

A library catalog is not a bibliography

Most existing data are inconsistent

Data don't fit our FRBR model

Jurgen will tell you more about this topic

Task 4:
Define clear and precise Rules

Consistency will suffer if everybody is on his own when entering data

It is not too easy to define rules (takes experience)

We need to agree to compromises
(opinions may differ)

This is a (non-technical) task that calls for the experienced bibliographers in the community

Task 5:
The Editorial Process

Everybody will be welcome to provide data for the bibliography, but...

For really good quality, all information will need to be checked and confirmed by experts

Therefore, we need people who

Check new entries

Coordinate the work

We need a good infrastructure for this!

Task 6:
Build a good User Interface

Every data entry involves a search in the existing data, so it has be done online!

Fortunately, the basic infrastructure is available: The ubiquitious Internet

There is no realistic alternative to a Web Interface (which means a browser like Internet Explorer or Mozilla)

My plan is to implement it as Open Source SW (which might attract helpers)

Goal of this presentation: Get a common understanding of what we are doing and how we are doing it. This includes discussion of the ideas that are presented.

Introduce myself: Not a librarian or bibliographer, but somebody who is trained in analyzing structures and processes.

How can we prevent us from drowning in an ocean of facts?

2004-09-13T21:48:38