This page is an introduction to the International Guidelines for Museum Object Information: The CIDOC Information Categories. 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 Guidelines for Museum Object Information: The CIDOC Information Categories is a description of the Information Categories that can be used when developing records about the objects in museum collections. The Guidelines can be adopted by an individual museum, national documentation organization, or system developer, as the basis for a working museum documentation system. This page summarises the Guidelines, the full version of which is available on-line.
At the 1993 CIDOC Board meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the CIDOC Data and Terminology Working Group was charged with developing a set of Information Categories for museum objects. This product was intended to be used by the international museum community, especially small museums with no access to existing standards and those in developing countries.
Members of the Data and Terminology Working Group had previously developed information categories for art and archaeological collections. In addition, the Data Model Working Group had carried out theoretical work on Information Categories, leading to the development of a data model. It was therefore decided that the project would be a collaboration between the two groups.
A project team was set up from the membership of the Working Groups, chaired by Toni Petersen of the Data and Terminology Working Group and Alice Grant of the Data Model Working Group. Liaisons were also formed with four other initiatives which are concerned with identifying Information Categories for specific purposes:
The first priority was to review existing national and international information standards. In October 1993, CIDOC members in 19 countries were invited to contribute to the project. This request yielded 19 data standards. A later request for standards from natural history museums added another four. The project coordinator reviewed these standards and took into account the original list of categories promulgated by CIDOC in 1978, the Information Categories for art and archaeology, the data model, and the lists under development by the liaison groups. An analysis was drawn up, identifying the categories that were in common in these sources.
The main Information Categories in these Guidelines emerged from this analysis. At a meeting in London in April 1994, sponsored by AHIP, members of the project team reviewed the analysis and agreed on the content of a first draft report, provisionally titled Minimum Information Categories for Museum Objects. This draft was the subject of two sessions at the 1994 CIDOC Conference in Washington, D.C. As a result of suggestions from the project team and conference participants, the Guidelines underwent extensive revision.
The Guidelines incorporate the following elements:
The Guidelines are based on the experience of the members of the project team and an analysis of the best practice in a number of other documentation projects. They are compatible with the major national and international descriptions of museum information, including related research in the United States, Canada, the UK, and France, by other CIDOC Working Groups and international initiatives. More details about these initiatives are given in a brochure on Developments in International Museum and Cultural Heritage Information Standards.
The categories of information developed by most of these documentation projects have been described as a data standard or an information standard. A "standard" is a mutually agreed designation that helps to ensure a consistent result. In the current state of this project, we have avoided the use of the term "standard," considering that it should only be applied to a product once it has achieved widespread acceptance. We hope this will be the case with a future edition of the Guidelines.
The Guidelines have been edited by a joint project team of the CIDOC Data and Terminology and the CIDOC Data Model Working Groups. Editors: Alice Grant, Joséphine Nieuwenhuis, Toni Petersen. First published June 1995 in printed and electronic forms. Printed version, ISBN 92-9012-124-6.
The publication is available in the following formats:
Printed and electronic versions are 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;
Art & Architecture Thesaurus; 62 Stratton Road, Williamstown, MA 01267 USA; tel: +1 413 458
2151; fax: +1 413 458 3757; e-mail: aat@getty.edu.
The electronic version of the Guidelines is available on the World Wide Web.
Comments can be sent to the Art & Architecture Thesaurus, 62 Stratton Road, Williamstown, MA 01267 USA; tel: +1 413 458 2151; fax: +1 413 458 3757; e-mail: aat@getty.edu
http://cidoc.icom.museum/guide0.htm
revised/dernière mise à jour: 6th August 2000
Original author / Auteur original: Andrew
Roberts
Now maintained by / Maintenant entretenu par:
Leonard Will
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