Fiander's last category of XML development suggests that a third option is open to libraries: libraries could take advantage of the change in technology to create a new library information structure, one that flexibly builds on recent cataloging research.
Two examples from this category include: IFLA's FRBR (the Functional Requirments for Bibliographic Records) and XOBIS (the XML Organic Bibliographic Information Schema). XOBIS is the Medlane project's newest attempt at a schema for library information.
Work is underway to represent the FRBR (otherwise known as "furbur") in RDF. RDF, as you heard yesterday, provides a semantic layer on top of the basic XML syntax.
The admirable efforts of FRBR's creators and implementors provide an immense amount of information regarding the complex structure of MARC and our current cataloging rules. They identify many core concepts and issues.
While exhaustive and very informative, FRBR seems, however, to take a more traditional approach than might be warranted in the digital era. As a result of not being able to find a schema that did what we wanted, we at Lane decided to experiment with different schema models ourselves.