Fig 1. Basic Data Model

In this model:

• The primary focus is the work

• A work can have one or more creators. Different creators may have different roles (author, editor, illustrator). Sometimes, the roles will have a time scope. For example, the role of editor of Westerly will change over time.

• Works can be related to other works. Common relationships include:
  • partOf this work is part of another work which maybe a collection, sequence or a serial
  • reviewOf this work is a review of another work
  • criticismOf this work is a criticism of another work
  • influencedBy this work was influenced by another work

• Works can be published/distributed/"instantiated" in one or more forms. We use the term "instantiation" to represent this.

• Works and creators can be nominated for and given awards (Well, I guess creators are always given awards, as Works can't make acceptance speeches or spend the money. But some awards are given for specific works, others for a creator's body of work, contribution to the culture, etc.)

• Creators can be related to other creators. Common relationships include:
  • pseudonymOf these creators represent the same person
  • relationshipWith creators can have relationships - family, influence, movement,...
    MLA: co-writers, writer partnerships

• Instantiations can be associated with creators where the instantiation involves some added creative act above that of the work. For example, it is proposed that translations be considered to be instantiations, and the translators may be credited with the translation by a "translator" link from the instantiation of the translation to its creator.

• Instantiations of works are probably held somewhere. ALEG almost certainly won't record many holdings itself, but providing information about holdings, possibly retrieved from other databases, is an important function of ALEG. Users of the system may or may not be interested in the holdings of a particular instantiation: the system will support viewing holdings information for either a particular instantiation or any instantiation of the work (even if that instantiation is not recorded in ALEG).
  MLA: How would we provide holdings info if we don't have a record for it? If only 2-3 editions? Kinetica?
  KF: not sure - Kinetica might be a good start if we can reliably (and cheaply!) match on title/author

But there are many more potential relationships, and the topics of relationships (settings, periods, movements, influences, genres etc) themselves form topics of great interest. See accompanying documents for more information:

• Introduction
• Relationships
• Visualisation

Ancillary entities are not shown:

• Usage logs
• Workflow/management information
• Thesaurus/Authority file structures

The work, creator, and instantiation entities each have a richer structure than is described here. For example, the work entity is actually just a general term for a creative work of which there are many types. Some of the attributes of these types are common, some are not. For a further analysis of these entities, refer to the ALEG Entity index page.

Page number references below refer to the GUIDE FOR AUSTLIT INDEXERS Feb 2000 edition.

Examples of a work:

• "The Twyborn Affair" - a novel by Patrick White

• "Great Australian Bites" - an anthology by Dave Warner. This work would have an instantiation recording that it had been published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1997

• "The Dog Formerly Known as 'Prince' " - a short story by Santo Cilauro. The only instantiation of this work would record that it was published in "Great Australian Bites", p 47-51

• "Westerly" - the journal. This "work" would not be instantiated, because it is an abstract work. However, it is a convenient 'hook' to record general information about Westerly, such as who the editors have been and relationships with other journals (predecessor, successors). And in some cases, reviews will be linked to "the journal" rather than an issue in general or particular contents.

• "Westerly - 1956 No. 2" - the issue of the journal. This work is linked to its "parent" with the "issueOf" relationship. This work is also linked to from instantiation records of works included in this issue. For example, an instantiation record would be created for the work "Cry Away, Mrs. Appelstrudel!" which records that this work appeared in this issue of Westerly on page 9.

  Special Editors of this edition of Westerly would be linked to this work.

• "Cry Away, Mrs. Appelstrudel!" - a short story by Max Brown. The only instantiation of this work would record that it was published in Westerly - 1956 No. 2.

Attributes of a work:

• workReference

  a unique reference for each work

• title

• variantTitleList

• abstract

• languageList

  English as the default; list taken from language authority file

• ranking

  For certain types of "works about other works" (form List: review, criticism, any others?), the system will allow two rankings to be stored which may be used to order search results to provide "better" information at the top os the search result list.

  • subjectiveRanking

    specified by the indexer as "high", "neutral", "low" (default is "neutral")

  • citationRanking

    calculated by the system based on the number of works referencing this work - the more, the higher the citationRanking

  MLA/TW: Or ranking by user's particular area of expertise? Ranking according to audience? eg, School, Tertiary, Research

  KF: we need to add new attribute recording intended audience

• MLA: intendedAudience and usefulForAudience

  Having thought again about using 'Intended Audience', we've decided we'd like to use a similar field for 'Useful for Audience' (ie pre tertiary, tertiary), but that we'd prefer to keep Young Adult and Children's as sub-genres. This is because they are *studied* as genres, and because want to retain that flexibility of being able to have people find John Marsden's works whether they search from the Young Adult or the novel approach.

• earliestKnownDate

  When the work was first made available (?)

  MLA: when we know

• firstLineOfPoetry

  only for formList: poetry

  KF: worktype, form, genre as listed here are outdated - soon to be described definitively here.

• workType

  Describes what type of work this work is for 'special' types of works that usually encompass other works: collected works, selected works, anthology, journal, journal issue, poem sequence, sequence (but not a part of the sequence)

• formList

  creative, novel, poetry, drama, short story, essay, review, criticism, electronic media(?), extract, interview, performance, letter, pictorial, thesis, manuscript, film, autobiography, biography, obituary, column, part of a sequence

  Some forms automatically imply the creative form.

• genreList

  satire, crime, travel, humour, science fiction, drama, historical fiction, war literature, fantasy, romance, young adult fiction, bibliography, myth/legend

• geographicSettingList

  coast, bush, country town, urban, Australia, other countries, states, cities, towns, suburbs, regions, historical place names

  KF: described definitively here.

• temporalSettingList

  decades, centuries, eras (eg 'Depression', 'Menzies Era')

  KF: described definitively here.

• subjectList

• creatorList
  • creatorReference

    reference to a creator

  • creatorRole

    role of the creator (eg, author, editor, illustrator, forward-by)

• relatedWorklist
  • workReference
  • typeOfRelationship
  • relatedWorkNotes

    (eg, a reference to a work being reviewed, or a reference to a previous or reworked version, or reference to an influencing or derived work)

• relatedCreatorList
  • creatorReference
  • typeOfRelationship
  • relatedCreatorNotes

    (eg, biography of W, obituary of X, influenced by Y, criticism of works of Z)

• otherCreatorsFlag (if more than 3? creators)

• manuscriptNotes

  may include a reference to manuscript location

• serialInformation

  for a work representing a serial

  • ISSN

• serialIssueInformation

  for a work representing an issue of a serial

  • workRefOfTheSerial
  • year
  • volume
  • number
  • month/Season (issue description)
  • notes

Creator a creator of any work

Every ALEG Creator is represented by a creator record. A single person or organisation may have several creator records, which record pseudonyms and other names by which the creator has been known.

Attributes of creator:

• creatorReference

  a unique reference for each creator

• name

  For humans, name is broken down into:

  • family name
  • other names
  • title/honorifics (eg, Rev, Sir, Honourable, Ms, ...)
  • display name (if it needs to be displayed in some particular way)

  For organisations, see AACR2 indexing rules

  KF: names are described definitively here.

  An optional date range of name applicabilitity may be specified, to indicate a period during which this name was used. "Nee" and other forms of previous names for humans and organsiations are not represented here, but in separate Creator records linked to together with "formerlyKnownAs" and "subsequentlyKnownAs" relationships.

• variantNameList

  not used for pseduonyms, but for commonly encountered variants of the same name (eg, "Neddy Smith" for "Ned Smith")

• creatorType

  human, organisation

• gender

  male, female, {not recorded}

• birthDetails
  • birthDate
  • birthPlace
  • birthState
  • birthCountry

• deathDetails
  • deathDate
  • deathPlace
  • deathState
  • deathCountry

• nationalityList

• ethnicGroupList

• aboriginal - may include:
  • tribalAffiliationlist
    KK/MLA: kinshipGroup

• expatriateAustralian (AUSTLIT: aust-e)

• visitorToAustralia (AUSTLIT: aust-v)

• arrivedAustraliaDate

• departedAustraliaDate

• relatedCreatorList
  • creatorReference
  • typeOfRelationship
  • relationshipFrom/ToDate
  • relatedCreatorNotes

    (eg, sibling of x, married to y 1943-1966, pseudonym of z...)

• occupationList
  MLA: from RAAM
  KF: another topic map/thesaurus

• manuscriptNotes

  may include a reference to manuscript location, archival material

• biographicalNotesList
  • biographicalNotes

    unstructured blobs of text for storing arbitrary biographical information. There will probably be some structure here - at least attribution of the material.

    referencesToExternallyHeldInformation

    notes about material not stored

Instantiation a physical or electronic instantiation of any work

An instantiation record is created for every "publication" or "distribution" of a work in which ALEG is interested.

There is a slightly odd use of instantiation which covers works which appear as other works: works which are part of another work (such as a poem which is part of a serial issue, or a short-story which is part of an anthology) have no independent instantiation of their own, but appear as part of the serial issue or anthology instantiation. The only extra information which the system records is the pages of the serial issue or anthology on which the work appears.

I find this slightly odd, because the smaller work is being linked here to the larger work not directly, but via the instantiation. I don't think this is necessarily 'bad', just slightly odd and interesting.

Because the only extra information being recorded in these cases is the page information, it may be that the system represents this information on relationship link between the short story and the anthology.

Translations are treated as instantiations. That is, a separate work is not created for a translation, but a separate instantiation is created. The translator may be linked to the translation instantiation as a special creator.

Attributes of instantiation:

• instantiationRef

• workRef

  a reference to the work being instantiated

• publisherList
  • publisher
  • datePublished
  • placePublished

• printerList
  • printer

• reprintAndRevisionlist
  • date
  • reprintOrRevision
  • notes

• editionIdentifier

  eg, 1st, 2nd, 50th anniversary, revised, ...

• limitedEditionInformation
  • printRun
  • notes (eg, 'signed and numbered')

• physicalDescription
  • specialRenderingInformation

    eg, Braille, large print, talking book, film

  • extent
  • dimensions
  • illustrations
  • maps
  • bibliography
  • portraits
  • notes

• ISBN

• componentWorkList

  For anthologies, serial issues etc, the instantiation contains information about the component works. (Note, however this is physically implemented, these components must be individually addressable, because reviews and holdings information may be linked to these component instantiations.)

  • componentWorkRef
  • pageList

• languageList

  The language of this instantiation if different from that of the work

• specialResponsibilityCreatorList

  There may be creators with a special responsibility for this particular instatiation which were not credited on the base work. For example, a translator, or writer of an important forward.

  • creatorReference
  • typeOfRelationship
  • relatedCreatorNotes

• holdingsList
  • holdingInstitutionCode
  • localIdentifier
  • localLocationCode
  • holdingCount
  • holdingNote

    holdings are only stored on ALEG where they cannot be automatically obtained by searching external systems

Award

Creators can be awarded either for a specific work or for their body of work.

Attributes of award:

• awardName
• notes, link to award web site, ...
• year
• categoryList
  • nominationlist
    • workReference or authorReference
  • winnerlist
    • prizeName (eg, 'winner', 'runner up')
    • workReference or authorReference
    • prizeDetails (eg, '$1000 plus publication in The Age')
    • notes

• publicNotesList
  • notes

• externalReferences
  • referenceTitle
  • referenceText
  • electronicLinkInformationList
    • URL
    • linkPrompt
  • referenceNote
  • referenceSortOrder

• systemStatusAndWorkFlow

  a set of attributes which are not publically viewable but which are used for communication between the ALEG maintainers and by the system for supporting work-flow

  • generalRecordStatus

    pendingCompletion, pendingApproval, available, temporarilyNotAvailable, deleted, deleted(Merged)

  • indexingStatusList

    toBeIndexed, fromOtherSource, indexedFromReview, inProcess, topicIndexingPending, verifyPagination, forEditorialCommitteeMeeting, readerInterpretationRequired

  • recordHistoryList
    • date
    • recordStatus
    • amendedBy
    • amendedHow (what was changed and how)
    • notes

  • informationSourceList

    This allows indexers to record the source(s) for information recorded in ALEG. For example, you may want to record M&M and Ferguson as sources for a birth date, and the ABD as another source for an incorrect value for that same date. Each 'attribute' of a record could potentially be associated with multiple sources.

    • attribute
    • informationSource
    • informationDate
    • verifiedBy
    • notes

  • contributingInstitutionList

    list of ALEG partners responsible for the content of this record

  • ALEGStaffNotes

    These attributes are aimed at facilitating an exchange of questions/replies/information between ALEG staff.

    • from
    • to
    • date
    • comments
    • status

• code

  a short code/identifier of the customer (eg "ANU")

• name

  the customer's name

• typeOfCustomer

  a categorisation to support as yet unknown business analysis functions
  one of: schoolPrimary,schoolSecondary,schoolCollege, schoolOther, tertiaryUniversity, tertiaryOther, educationalOther, libraryState, libraryPublic, libraryOther, person, commercialPublisher, commercialInformation, commercialOther, overseas

• consortiaFlag

• ipAddressList

  a list of IP address ranges which the customer may use to access ALEG without requiring userid/password

• useridPasswordList

  a list of userid/password pairs which the customer may use to access ALEG from any IP address. If required, a customer may be assigned many userids and passwords (eg, separate userids and passwords for staff and students). What isn't supported:

  • restricting userids to IP addresses
  • blocking IP addresses
  • prioritising access by userid

• concurrencyLimit

  an integer specifing how many individual users from a customer can be concurrently 'active' in the system. May be set to '-1' to indicate that there is no concurrency limit (ie, the customer may have any number of concurrent sessions). The definition of 'active' relies on the 'non activity timeout' system setting. It is not proposed that the non activity timeout is an attribute of a customer.

• accessRightsList

  maybe some customers will have access to more information than other customers ? If so, this field will list in some codified manner what access rights this customer has.

• billingInformation

  a set of as yet undefined attributes to support the billing function, maybe including:

  • status (trial, paid, overdue, cancelled, ...)
  • date subscribed to-from
  • subscription amount ($)
  • contact details
  • ...

• notes

• unknown date/place/details - leave empty. The system will generate the appropriate indicator to the user that this data is unknown.

• special publication cases, to be recorded against an instantiation:
  • published by the author
  • no publisher (not an unknown publisher)
  • no date of publication
  • no title

• sequences

  These will be handled by the creation of a work representing the sequence as a whole, and individual works representing the parts of the sequence. The parts will be linked to the sequence with a 'part of sequence'; relationship which for ordered sequences will record a part number.

• letters in response to reviews

  As the review will be a work in its own right, other works about that work will simply refer to the work and the type of relationship between them.

• notes

  AUSTLIT has a large set of 'standard' note templates (page 71). AUSTLIT will retain these but hopefully support easier entry with a mechanism to select the appropriate template and 'fill in the blanks'