RIMMF3

We have finally released version 3 of RIMMF.

Switch to the RIMMF3 wiki for details and for downloading

RIMMF3 looks the same as the previous versions (mostly) and functions in more or less the same way, but under the cover, R3 represents a big departure from the first two RIMMFs.

In version 3 we are trying to bind RIMMF more tightly to the new version of the RDA registry, published in January 2014. This will result in the following major changes:

In RIMMF2, we thought about the 'Creator' in terms of

1. an Identifier, to link the work to the person
2. a Designator, selected from a value list, to describe the role of the person in the work

Now, in the new registry (which RIMMF3 is trying to model), all of these relationship designators have been expressed as elements. This makes the connection between the work and the entity responsible for it much more direct (at least in our implementation):

And to change the nature of the role, we would now just select a different element:

Its a very interesting change, and one we are still getting used to.

Another new concept in the registry, as you might have noticed above, are the 'directional' labels. Looking at the above example, we are invited to conceptualize the Author statement as:

Work  hasAuthor  Austen ...

which mimics the way these statements will be expressed as linked data. If you would prefer to see the traditional RDA Toolkit labels, they are available via a function key (which toggles from one set of labels to the other).

Going back to the change in thinking about relationship designators, this also has a big impact on the WEMI relationships. In the previous RIMMFs, using one of the relationships would entail a selection from some very long value lists ¹⁾

In RIMMF3, everything is more direct: simply select the type of relationship that you want to make (or just leave it as 'Related Work'), and then select the target work:

To make navigation through this complex list of relationships easier, we are adding a 'Structured view' of these elements, which may be popped up with a function key:

[TO DO]

Compatibility note: RIMMF3 will be able to import RIMMF2 records, but RIMMF2 will not be able to use RIMMF3 records.