modeling cover records for bound volumes and how to convey the notion of an intellectual / virtual object

[beaudet]

How should we best represent "cover records," which are physical objects like bound volumes? In these cases, the volume is the primary physical entity, with the pages as intellectual or virtual entities inherently tied to it.

Consider these two examples, which demonstrate different approaches based on the concept of separability:

Example 1: A bound volume modeled such that the volume itself is the primary physical object and each bound page is an intellectual entity. This relationship is defined as physical/intellectual in TMS.

Example 2: A portfolio of unbound, loose pages where the title sheet is the physical parent object and all other pages are its parts, maintaining a purely physical relationship.

In scenarios where intellectual relationships exist, it seems the children (pages) are treated as virtual because they cannot be separated from the parent (volume). Is there a way to effectively capture such nuances in our model? Our previous discussion suggested that the concept of separability isn't always black and white, yet it significantly influences how we model these objects.

For acquisition analysis, the model should reflect our findings about what has been acquired, which appears closely linked to separability. Perhaps we need to enhance the Linked Art (LA) model to support both web rendering of parent-child objects and accurate acquisitions analysis. Acquisition decisions, often informed by provenance, might suggest that when acquiring works like a portfolio, we acquire the entire set as one, not just the parent or individual pages. How can we align the structure of object parts with the acquisition and provenance models to accurately reflect these relationships?