This page is an introduction to the International Core Data Standard for Ethnology/Ethnography . It is one of a number of pages about museum information standards prepared by the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums ( ICOM-CIDOC ).
The International Core Data Standards for Ethnology / Ethnography has been prepared by the CIDOC Ethno Working Group . The preparation of the International Core Data Standards for Ethnology / Ethnography was one of the principal aims of the CIDOC Ethno Working Group established in September 1993 at the CIDOC Lubljana Conference.
To provide the basis for the International Core Data Standards for Ethnology/Ethnography , the EWG prepared a questionnaire to survey the data standards used in ethnographical, ethnological , anthropological, open air museums and other museums having these types of collections.The questionnaire (with English and French versions) was prepared and distributed to the National Coordinators after a year of work by the EWG members, who discussed the questions of content, length and goals and tested it.
The National Coordinators were found by making contacts during the CIDOC Conferences with people from different countries, by inviting EWG members to become National Co-ordinators or to find a National Coordinator, by making contacts with the members of the European Ethnological Museum Network trying to find National Co-ordinators through them and by writing to the Chairs of all the ICOM National Committees, asking them for assistance to find the National Coordinators for the survey.
The National co-ordinators translated the questionnaire (when needed), distributed it to selected ethnographical, ethnological, anthropological and open-air museums, collected the answers and completed a Report Form summarising the answers to the national survey. Nineteen people from eighteen countries have completed a National report.
When the National Reports were analysed, Members and National Co-ordinators evaluated the results and compared the Report Analysis with the MDA data standards, the CHIN data dictionary, the draft International Guidelines for Museum Object Information of the CIDOC Data and Terminology Working Groups, the AFRICOM Handbook of Standards , the fine arts and archaeology standards and the draft archaeological sites standards.
The core fields with definitions were identified and a draft version of the Standards was prepared and presented at the ICOM Triennial Conference in Stavanger, in July 1995.
The EWG members reviewed the Standards for a second time during their meeting in Athens, in June 1996, after comparing them with the International Guidelines for Museum Object Information: The CIDOC Information Categories and prepared the final version, that where published in September 1996 and presented at the CIDOC Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
The publication contains an introduction to the situation in Documentation for Ethnology / Ethnography, a discription of the the methode used to develop the Standards, the survey analysis and the presentation of the Core Data Standards for Ethnology / Ethnography with their definitions.
The aims of these standards are to facilitate communication between national and international bodies responsible for the recording and protection of the ethnological /ethnographical objects, to assist countries at an early stage in developing record systems for the recording and protection of the ethnographical objects and to facilitate ethnographical and ethnological research at an international level.
The printed form of the Ethno Core Data Standards, ISBN 960-214-012-7 (all rights reserved to
the Documentation Committee of the International Council of Museums ), will be available from:
ICOM , Maison de Unesco, 1, Rue Miollis, 75732, Paris,
cedex 15 France; tel.: +33 1 47340500; fax: + 33 1 43067862; e-mail:
secretariat@icom.org ;
ICOM Hellenic National Committee, Agion Assomaton 15, Athens, Greece; tel +30 1 32 39 41 14;
fax +30 1 32 39 41 14; e-mail Penelope Theologi-Gouti
The electronic version will be available very soon.
http://cidoc.icom.museum/ethst0.htm
revised/dernière mise à jour: 11 November 1996
source: Penelope Theologi-Gouti
Web author/auteur: Andrew Roberts
link to/passerelle vers CIDOC home page/la page d'accueil du CIDOC or
ICOM home page/la page d'accueil de l'ICOM
© the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of
Museums/Comité international pour la documentation du Conseil international des
musées (ICOM-CIDOC), 1996