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What is LRMoo?

LRMoo is a formal ontology intended to capture and represent the underlying semantics of bibliographic information and to facilitate the integration, mediation, and interchange of bibliographic and museum information. LRMoo is designed as an extension to the CIDOC CRM model that aligns with the IFLA Library Reference Model (IFLA LRM), which was approved in August 2017. The first official release, 1.0, of LRMoo was fully approved in April 2024. 

LRMoo succeeds and builds on the FRBRoo model, just as IFLA LRM consolidates and succeeds the three models in the IFLA functional requirements family of conceptual models:

  • Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) 1998
  • Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) 2009
  • Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD) 2011. 

The FRBR model was originally designed as an entity-relationship model by a study group appointed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) during the period 1991-1997, and was published in 1998. A first official release version 1.0.1 of FRBRoo was approved in January 2010. Subsequently, FRBRoo was expanded to also include all elements introduced by FRAD and FRSAD, leading to version 2.4 of FRBRoo, completed in 2015.
 

What is the idea?

The idea that both the library and museum communities might benefit from harmonising their two models was first expressed in 2000 and grew in the following years. Eventually, it led to the formation, in 2003, of the International Working Group on FRBR/CIDOC CRM Harmonisation, to bring together representatives from both communities with the common goals of: a) Expressing the models in the IFLA FRBR family with the concepts, tools, mechanisms, and notation conventions provided by the CIDOC CRM, and: b) Aligning the two object-oriented models with the aim of contributing to the solution of the problem of semantic interoperability between the documentation structures used for library and museum information, such that: 

  • all equivalent information can be retrieved under the same concepts and
  • all directly and indirectly related information can be retrieved regardless of its distribution over individual data sources;
  • knowledge encoded for a specific application can be repurposed for other studies;
  • recall and precision in systems employed by both communities is improved;
  • both communities can learn from each others concepts for their mutual progress.

 

Text status: 
Work in progress