BIBFRAME: A Revolution in Knowledge Integration through the Web

Abstract

This article examines BIBFRAME as a modern bibliographic framework designed to improve the organization and web-based availability of bibliographic data. It explains the context that created the need to move beyond the traditional MARC format as libraries increasingly engage with the web, linked data, and the semantic web. The article outlines the relationship between BIBFRAME and earlier or contemporary descriptive standards and models, including ISBD, AACR2, MARC, FRBR, and RDA, emphasizing the shift from closed bibliographic records to a more open model based on links and relationships among entities. It highlights the role of URLs, RDF, and linked data in connecting authors, titles, records, and resources within a discoverable knowledge environment. The article also presents the benefits of BIBFRAME for library catalogs, information-resource linking, enriched search results, and multilingual retrieval. It concludes that BIBFRAME represents a strategic transformation in library work by connecting bibliographic data to the global web and making it more exchangeable, interoperable, and usable beyond the limits of traditional cataloging systems.