This vocabulary is an expression in RDF of the concepts and relations described in the IFLA report on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR).
The FRBR-aligned Bibliographic Ontology is an ontology for recording and publishing on the Semantic Web bibliographic records of scholarly endeavours. It forms part of SPAR, a suite of Semantic Publishing and Referencing Ontologies.
The International Standard Text Code (ISTC) is a new identifier for the book industry. Whereas International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) provide a unique identity in the supply chain for each individual product format (either physical products—hardback, paperback; or digital products and formats—downloadable audiobook, PDF e-book, etc.), an ISTC identifies the underlying creative textual work.
"I think we've gotten to the point in these discussions where we have to
define our terms. In the same way that "MARC" means both a structure and
data elements and a content standard, the terms FRBR and RDA are now
taking on multiple meanings."
"Without such a formal domain model, you're just creating 'text', not 'data'. Which is indeed what we used to do, when the text was destined for printed cards or pages. But now we need data."