4  Cultural heritage data models

the work-expression-manifestation-item model and its branches, ontologies, archival data models

We must mention the most important model in the library world in recent decades, the WEMI model, which breaks down the “book” and its metadata into layers of the (abstract) work, expression, manifestations, and items. To refute the Hungarian literary scholar, Iván Horváth’s opinion, although the model resembles philological lemmas in certain respects, it is not identical to them; rather, it creates groups rather than hierarchies, meaning it is not intended for librarians to meddle in the work of literary scholars. In some cases, however, it also helps solve problems in the history of libraries; for example, it can be used to neatly illustrate Péter Kulcsár’s ingenious proposed solution to Shakespeare’s “Bohemian Seashore.”