Table 1
IFLA LRM (Riva et al., 2024).
| ENTITY | DEFINITION | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
| Work | The intellectual or artistic content of a distinct creation | Homer’s Odyssey |
| Expression | A distinct combination of signs conveying intellectual or artistic content | The English translation by Robert Fagles of Homer’s Odyssey, copyright 1996 |
| Manifestation | A set of all carriers that are assumed to share the same characteristics as to intellectual or artistic content and aspects of physical form. That set is defined by both the overall content and the production plan for its carrier or carriers | The Odyssey of Homer/translated with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore, first Harper Colophon edition published in the Perennial library series, in New York by Harper & Row in 1967, ISBN 0–06-090479-8 [manifestation containing the complete text of Richmond Lattimore’s English translation of the Greek poem] |
| Item | An object or objects carrying signs intended to convey intellectual or artistic content | Library of Congress Copy 2 of Homer. The Odyssey/translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, Deluxe edition published in New York by Penguin Books in 1997, ISBN 0–670-82162-4 |
Table 2
WikiProject:Books (Mandal, 2023).
| ENTITY | DEFINITION | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
| Written work or one of its subclasses | Any work expressed in writing, such as inscriptions, manuscripts, documents or maps | Natural History (Q442) |
| Version, edition or translation | Specific version of a work, resulting from its edition, adaptation, or translation; set of substantially similar copies of a work | Pliny’s Natural History (Q123853189) |
| Individual copy of a book | Specific physical copy of a book | Pliny’s Natural History (Q123938582) |
Table 3
BIBFRAME (Library of Congress, 2016).
| ENTITY | DEFINITION | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
| Hub* | An abstract resource that functions as a bridge between two or more Works | Great expectations (https://id.loc.gov/resources/hubs/9c9f5603-596b-9708-276c-0ab4d5c1bb45. Last accessed date: 1 November 2025) |
| Work | Resource reflecting a conceptual essence of a cataloging resource | Great expectations (https://id.loc.gov/resources/works/9398625. Last accessed date: 1 November 2025) |
| Instance | Resource reflecting an individual, material embodiment of a Work | Great expectations (https://id.loc.gov/resources/instances/9398625. Last accessed date: 1 November 2025) |
| Item | Single example of an Instance | Great expectations (https://lccn.loc.gov/65029850. Last accessed date: 1 November 2025) |
[i] *The BIBFRAME Hub is described as an aggregating or collating class that provides a bridge between two or more works (Ford, 2025), rather than an equivalent class to the LRM Work.
Table 4
A comparison between IFLA LRM, WikiProject:Books, and BIBFRAME.
| IFLA LRM | Wikiproject:BOOKS | BIBFRAME |
|---|---|---|
| Work | Written work or one of its subclasses | Work |
| Expression | Version, edition or translation or one of its subclasses | |
| Manifestation | Instance | |
| Item | Individual copy of a book | Item |
Table 5
IFLA LRM (Riva et al., 2024).
| SUBJECT | OBJECT | PROPERTY | INVERSE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Manifestation | exemplifies | is exemplified by |
| Manifestation | Expression | embodies | is embodied by |
| Expression | Work | realizes | is realized through |
Figure 1
Proposed model for Wikidata’s bibliographic domain. The empty arrows are subclass links, the full arrow is an instance link (more specifically, exemplifies). The dashed lines describe the aforementioned specific relationships, which are omitted from the graph for simplicity.
Table 6
Minimum set of Work item properties.
| PROPERTY LABEL | PROPERTY ID | WIKIBASE DATA TYPE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| instance of | P31 | item | relation of type constraints; value should be written work or subclasses |
| title | P1476 | monolingual text | published name of a work |
| subtitle | P1680 | monolingual text | for works, when the title is followed by a subtitle |
| author | P50 | item | main creator(s) of a written work |
| author name string | P2093 | string | stores unspecified author or editor name for publications |
| language of work or name | P407 | item | language associated with this creative work |
| inception | P571 | point in time | time when an entity begins to exist |
| main subject | P921 | item | primary topic of a work or act of communication |
| genre | P136 | item | creative work’s genre |
| has version (property proposal required) | TBD | item | defines a relationship between the Work entity and its Expression (Version) |
Table 7
Minimum set of Expression item properties.
| PROPERTY LABEL | PROPERTY ID | WIKIBASE DATA TYPE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| instance of | P31 | item | relation of type constraints; value should be version |
| title | P1476 | monolingual text | published name of a work |
| subtitle | P1680 | monolingual text | for works, when the title is followed by a subtitle |
| author | P50 | item | main creator(s) of a written work |
| publication date | P577 | point in time | date or point in time when a work or product was first published or released; this property is currently conflated and requires further analysis |
| editor | P98 | item | person who checks and corrects a work (such as a book, newspaper, academic journal, etc.) to comply with a rules of certain genre |
| illustrator | P110 | item | person drawing the pictures or taking the photographs in a book or similar work |
| author of foreword | P2679 | item | person who wrote the preface, foreword, or introduction of the book but who isn’t an author of the rest of the book |
| author of afterward | P2680 | item | person who wrote the postface, afterword, or conclusion of the book but who isn’t an author of the rest of the book |
| translator | P655 | item | agent who adapts any kind of written text from one language to another; only applicable if relevant |
| language of work or name | P407 | item | language associated with this creative work |
| writing system | P282 | item | alphabet, character set or other system of writing used by a language, word, or text, supported by a typeface |
| has edition (property proposal required) | TBD | item | defines a relationship between Expression and Manifestation |
| has translation (property proposal required) | TBD | item | defines a relationship between the original Expression and its translations |
Table 8
Minimum set of Manifestation item properties.
| PROPERTY LABEL | PROPERTY ID | WIKIBASE DATA TYPE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| instance of | P31 | item | relation of type constraints; value should be edition |
| title | P1476 | monolingual text | published name of a work |
| subtitle | P1680 | monolingual text | for works, when the title is followed by a subtitle |
| author | P50 | item | main creator(s) of a written work |
| contributor | P767 | item | person or organization that contributed to a subject: co-creator of a creative work or subject |
| publisher | P123 | item | organization or person responsible for publishing a work, such as a book, periodical, printed music, podcast, game or software |
| place of publication | P291 | item | geographical place of publication of the edition |
| issue date (property proposal required) | TBD (currently handled under P577) | point in time | date a manifestation is released |
| edition number | P393 | string | number of an edition (first, second, … as 1, 2, …) or event |
| part of the series | P179 | item | series which contains the subject |
| printed by | P872 | item | organization or person who printed the creative work |
| ISBN-10 | P957 | external identifier | former identifier for a book (edition), ten digits |
| ISBN-13 | P212 | external identifier | identifier for a book (edition), thirteen digits |
Table 9
Minimum set of Item item properties.
| PROPERTY LABEL | PROPERTY ID | WIKIBASE DATA TYPE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| instance of | P31 | item | relation of type constraints; value should be individual copy of a book |
| exemplar of | P1574 | item | links an individual copy of a work to the item for that work or edition |
| location | P276 | item | location of the object |
| owned by | P127 | item | owner of the subject |
| catalog code | P528 | string | catalog name of an object |
| inventory number | P217 | string | identifier for a physical object or a set of physical objects in a collection |