417

Book Reviews

Quiang Jin. Demystifying FRAD: Func-
tional Requirements for Authority Data. 
Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 
2012. 143p. alk. paper, $45.00 (ISBN 
9781598844962). LC 2012-010910.

Resource Description and Access (RDA), 
the code for bibliographic description that 
replaces the Anglo-American Cataloging 
Rules (AACR2), is in use as of March 31, 
2013. This code is based on the Functional 
Requirements for Bibliographic Records 
(FRBR), an entity-relationship model. This 
does not only affect bibliographic records: 
as of the same date, the Library of Congress 
and other national libraries will be produc-
ing authority records according to RDA 
standards. These authority records are also 
constructed according to an entity-relation-
ship model of their own: FRAD (Functional 
Requirements for Authority Data). 

Quiang Jin’s Demystifying FRAD: 
Functional Requirements for Authority 
Data provides not only the background 
for the development of these principles 
of authority data, but clear instructions 
and examples for how this will work. Jin 
states, in her introduction, that the book 
is to “provide a basic explanation of the 
Functional Requirements for Author-
ity Data (FRAD)”; she goes above and 
beyond this statement of principles in 
a clearly written, copiously illustrated, 
and well-organized book that truly does 
“demystify” FRAD and illustrates how to 
create authority records according to the 
principles thereof. In her introduction, Jin 
presents a brief history of the FRAD initia-
tive, the reasons for the adoption of the 
entity-relationship model, the difference 
between the entity-relationship models 
underlying FRBR and FRAD, and a note 
on why authority data are constructed 
at all. Chapter 2 provides a brief expla-
nation of the entity-relationship model 
as used in FRAD, as well as presenting 
the means by which entity-relationship 
models are diagrammed: as these rela-

tionships are more clearly 
presented and understood 
by diagramming, this is es-
pecially helpful, providing 
the foundation for both the 
concepts and the diagrams 
used throughout the book.

Chapter 3 presents the FRAD entities 
and attributes. Each entity is treated in its 
own section, with the attributes thereof 
explained within; each section features 
diagrams to clarify and elaborate upon 
the relationships between the entities 
and their attributes. Additionally, each 
diagram is carefully explained, with the 
entities, attributes, and relationships 
between them highlighted. Chapter 4 
goes into more detail about the afore-
mentioned relationships, which are, by 
necessity, more complex than the entities 
and attributes that they connect. FRAD 
offers a lengthy list of possible relation-
ships; Jin once again clearly explains these 
complex concepts via the use of diagrams 
and explanatory text, transforming a topic 
that might lead one to consider a career 
change into an easily understood one.

Chapter 6 presents FRAD in the context 
of the FRAD user tasks. The user tasks of 
FRBR are “find; select; identify; obtain”; 
because of the difference in purpose of 
authority data from bibliographic data, 
the FRAD user tasks are slightly different: 
find; identify; contextualize; justify. This is 
not only explained by the customary set 
of diagrams and explanations; Jin presents 
five use cases, elaborating on how the use 
of controlled authority data in general 
and the FRAD model in specific can aid 
the user in locating works by or related to 
a person, corporate body, or family, and 
how a cataloger can, bearing these user 
tasks in mind, create an authority record. 
Jin does note that current library manage-
ment systems are not designed to fully 
support these tasks, thus hindering the 
ability to test the utility and effectiveness 



418 College & Research Libraries July 2013

of these user tasks in actual usage; this, in 
itself, should be a call for libraries to ask 
more of their library management systems 
and, possibly, of their own systems staff, 
to expose more useful data to the patron.

Chapter 6 is specifically about RDA au-
thority records, and how they are created 
according to the principles of FRAD. After 
a brief introduction to RDA and how it 
relates to FRAD, Jin provides 18 examples 
of brief RDA authority records, each with 
an explanation of how they use the FRAD 
concepts to describe and clarify entities 
and their relationships to other entities: 
while the structure of an RDA authority 
record is, at root, similar to that of an 
AACR2 authority record, RDA (and the 
FRAD structure) allows for greater levels 
of description and for clearer delineation 
of the relationships between concepts. 
This chapter is followed by an appendix 
mapping FRAD attributes and relation-
ships to the corresponding RDA element, 
in an easily navigated table.

In the buildup to the adoption of RDA, 
much of the focus has been on the con-
struction of the descriptive bibliographic 
record. Demystifying FRAD is the first book 
to provide an explanation of and instruc-
tions for the creation of authority data, and 
it is well worth the wait: with the use of this 
book, the reader will both understand the 
principles behind the creation of authority 
records in general and according to the 
FRAD model, and also be able to create his 
or her own. Given that this book reaches 
the market just as RDA is being widely put 
into practice, Demystifying FRAD is both 
timely and valuable.—Deborah DeGeorge, 
University of Michigan.

W. Bernard Lukenbill. Research in Infor-
mation Studies: A Cultural and Social Ap-
proach. Bloomington, Ind.: Xlibris, 2012. 
422p. $23.99 (ISBN9781469179599). LC 
2012-934936. 

“Research is integrated into the whole 
fabric of modern-day society,” begins 
Lukenbill in writing Research in Information 
Studies; the second and equally important 
foundation for his writing is that intel-

lectual theory is central to the heart of all 
kinds of research, including library and 
information science. Lukenbill, professor 
emeritus at the University of Texas at Aus-
tin, offers an interesting and useful over-
view of the theoretical grounding common 
to many fields of research, especially in the 
humanities and social sciences, though 
the intended audience is librarians and 
information science professionals on vari-
ous levels. The author’s approach covers 
an extremely wide variety of disciplines, 
with strong examples from fields such as 
nursing and education; the emphasis for 
the reader is in every case the integration 
of theory, research, and eventually the 
practice that we all perform. 

Each chapter boasts of a clear organiza-
tion, beginning with concise outlines of the 
chapter objectives that are well integrated 
into the chapter text. Each chapter ends 
with discussion questions, highlights for 
reflection on the main points, and often 
annotated bibliographies to support the 
chapter materials (a good resource). The 
first chapter offers an introduction and 
overview of the scientific research process 
as an objective search for knowledge. 
Research is viewed as multidisciplinary, 
completely integrated with theoretical con-
cepts, and completely a part of human life; 
this chapter includes a nuanced parsing of 
theory and research in a broad variety of 
“research traditions.” The second chapter 
moves from the interdisciplinary nature of 
research into somewhat closer snapshots 
of several humanities and social science 
disciplines, with quick and simplistic over-
views and case studies of how intellectual 
theory has impacted the advancement of 
communication, history, medicine, and 
others—always with an eye toward their 
potential impact on information science. 
The third chapter offers an extension of 
these brief portraits into specifics of how 
theories are built into the processes of li-
brary and information science; it includes 
a brief history of information research from 
early social science through pioneers in 
cataloging to OCLC, and then a discussion 
of current trends in the field.