The earlier workflow
Common information, entered again.
Record · EN / A
Record · EN / B
Record · FR / A
Each variant had its own MARC 21 record. Cataloguers copied common metadata and kept it consistent with considerable effort.
CATOOL · A case study
Manage metadata once,
at the right level.
CATOOL is a cataloguing workspace for multilingual EU publications. A team at the Publications Office of the European Union uses CATOOL. This team manages the EU publications section.
It uses AToM⁴ to connect information shared by a publication with the details of its language versions and editions.
The change in daily work
From repeated records
to a connected publication.
In the team's earlier workflow, separate MARC 21 records for publication variants meant copying common metadata across languages and editions.
With CATOOL
Each detail belongs at its level.
Shared metadata
Language-specificEdition-specific
Shared, language-specific and edition-specific information are maintained as related parts of one publication structure.
Work · Expression · Manifestation
One model.
The right place for every detail.
- A Work is the publication as an intellectual creation.
- An Expression is one realisation of that Work; here, a language version.
- A Manifestation is one edition or form of an Expression.
Select a level to see what belongs there.
Illustrative publication model
A simplified example. A Work may have several language versions. Each version may have several editions. Publications also connect to authorities, subjects and other information.
About WEM and FRBR
CATOOL uses three levels of the established WEMI library model: Work, Expression and Manifestation. The model comes from FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records). CATOOL does not use the Item level for individual copies, so we refer to its model as WEM.
A cataloguer's workspace
Stay with the publication.
Move easily through its context.
CATOOL brings publication records, WEM links, multilingual vocabularies and working views into the AToM⁴ interface.
Open the connected structure. Start from a publication and move between its Work, language versions and editions.
Describe the right level. Enter each detail at its level. Controlled vocabularies such as EuroVoc keep terms consistent across languages. A controlled vocabulary is an agreed list of terms.
Review the assembled output. Check the record that CATOOL assembles for an edition, such as the MARC preview.
From cataloguing to publication
Connected metadata.
Useful outputs.
CATOOL brings together metadata from the appropriate WEM levels. The publication workflow prepares the required outputs, including MARC 21 and RDF. It delivers data through modern APIs to Cellar, the Publications Office of the European Union's repository for content and metadata. An API is an interface for communication between systems.
- 01
Describe
Maintain the metadata at Work, Expression and Manifestation level.
- 02
Assemble
Bring the relevant layers together for each publication variant.
- 03
Transform & publish
Prepare the required metadata outputs for the publication pipeline.
MARC 21, RDF and Cellar
CATOOL's MARC output uses metadata from connected WEM records. The publication pipeline transforms metadata for delivery to Cellar, the Publications Office of the European Union's repository for content and metadata. The publication pipeline uses modern APIs to deliver the data.
The team maintains source metadata in a native linked data model. The required output formats, including MARC 21, remain part of the publication process.
About CellarIn everyday use
A working application.
An evolving platform.
The Publications Office of the European Union uses the tool for multilingual publication metadata. The tool launched in November 2025. It also supports workload sharing, identifier registration, monitoring of metadata imports and exports, and reporting.
Let's discuss your workflow
Many publication variants.
One connected way to work.
Tell us about your cataloguing process, metadata and publication requirements. We can show you CATOOL and explore what AToM⁴ could do for your team.