Identification of Bibliographic Relationships in the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) According to the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) Model: the First Stage in Representing the Knowledge Network of Iranian-Islamic Publications

The aim of this study is to find out the bibliographic relationships between the metadata records in the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) according to FRBR model, in order to represent the knowledge network of Iranian-Islamic publications. To achieve this objective, content analysis method was used. The study population includes metadata records for books in NLAI for four bibliographic families including The Quran, Nahj al-Balagha, Shahnameh, and Masnavi (a total of 28213 records) that were accessible through the NLAI OPAC. In this study, the data gathering methods were structured (systematic) observation and documentary method. A checklist is used for data gathering, and a matrix is used to display the analyzed data. The results of the study showed that all relationship types of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model, except the “arrangement (music)” relationship from the section “Expression-to-Expression Relationships: between expressions of the same work”, were found in metadata records. Since the “arrangement (music)” relationship is used only for musical objects, it can be concluded that NLAI encompasses the entire range of the FRBR relationship types that provided for books. The results of this study can be useful to implement FRBR model in Iranian libraries, and also to design NLAI metadata ontology model and create and publish the NLAI ataset based on linked data method.