| sectionid | title | version |
|---|---|---|
headerRelatedItemVsFRBR |
RelatedItem vs. FRBR |
v4 |
MEI offers two related concepts for capturing relations between bibliographic items. The model of {% include link elem="relatedItem" %}, as described in chapter {% include link id="sharedRelatedItemDesc" %} of these Guidelines, is derived from MODS v3.4 (see documentation here{:.link_ref}). Its purpose in MEI is to encode bibliographic references between mostly "secondary" material, like reviews, articles, and so on. It may be used to provide cross-references between information encoded in different places of the header.
However, {% include link elem="relatedItem" %} is less ideal for describing the relations between works, differing versions of these works, the sources in which those versions are transmitted, and where applicable the individual copies of a print. For these situations, it is strongly recommended to use the {% include link id="FRBR" %} instead. This module is based on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, as specified{:.link_ref} by the IFLA{:.link_ref}. It allows a much finer description of relationships between such "primary" entities. For compatibility reasons, both models should not be confused or mixed under any circumstances.