This paper discusses the changes that have taken place in the concept of museum information and the role of the International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) during the last 20 years. It is based on a presentation given to the 1995 CIDOC Conference, Stavanger, July 1995.
Andrew Roberts, CIDOC Chair, 1989-95.
I first became involved with CIDOC in 1975, when the Committee had approximately 30 members, 20 of whom typically attended the annual meeting. The Committee had been established in 1950 (Olcina, 1986), largely at the instigation of the staff of the UNESCO-ICOM Documentation Centre , who provided the Secretariat to the Committee for many years. From the early 1970s to 1995, it had four Chairs:
By 1995, the Committee had grown to 750 members from 75 countries, with between 100 and 250 participants at the annual conferences. It now has well developed and effective meetings, Working Groups with structured work plans and an active publication programme, a substantial and highly regarded newsletter and an active advisory role within ICOM. These changes have paralleled changes in the museum profession itself.
I recently carried out an analysis of the organisational structures of a number of museums in the UK (Roberts, 1994). In this, I identified some common influences and responses in museums.
First, there has been a marked tendency for museums to become more business orientated and less bureaucratic, with a greater use of management practices such as performance measures. These changes are characterised as managerialism.
Second, museums have been changing their organisational structures. There has been a marked tendency to move away from a highly fragmented structure - with a number of small collection departments - to a typical model of one or two collection departments together with other specialist departments like Documentation, Registration, Computing and Conservation.
Third, there has been a tendency for museum staff to become more specialised and professional in their practices. The trend to develop specific areas of professional expertise and design new job types is characterised as role specialisation. These specialists often have a co-ordinating or liaison role within the organisation. Documentation, registration and computer specialists in museums are primary examples of role specialisation. Specific posts in these fields were almost unknown 10 years ago, but are now becoming common in large and small museums.
As part of the development of professionalism, there has been a tendency to introduce standardised procedures. In the UK, there has been a marked increase in the development and use of standard professional procedures, in areas like collection care and documentation. A prime example of this work is the UK Museum Documentation Standard (SPECTRUM, 1994) which defines the scope of documentation procedures and the information needs of museums. This work has been paralleled by similar initiatives in other countries, such as the standards work of the Canadian Heritage Information Network (1993) and the Art Information Task Force (1993).
CIDOC has been committed to the development of museum information standards throughout this period. During its 1978 meeting in Julita, Sweden, a set of minimum Information Categories for museum objects was discussed. Robert Chenhall and Peter Homulos presented a proposal setting out 16 general categories designed to identify an object, record the history of its ownership and use and provide information for use in internal museum inventories (Chenhall and Homulos, 1978, Olcina, 1986). A version of these proposals was recommended to national documentation committees as the basis for national standards.
From 1980 to 1992, these recommendations were developed by CIDOC in two parallel initiatives:
At the 1992 ICOM Triennial Conference in Quebec City, the CIDOC Board reviewed progress with these initiatives and identified the need to consolidate the previous work into an accessible and widely available statement of best practice. In this period, CIDOC drew together the expertise of the authors of the different national standards and applied it at an international level. The first edition of the resulting International Guidelines for Museum Object Information was presented at its 1995 conference (International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation, 1995b).
Following an extensive effort by a project team drawn from the CIDOC Data and Terminology and Data Model Working Groups, the Guidelines should have a major impact on museums around the world. The publication has a number of roles:
Similar initiatives have been undertaken by the Archaeological Sites and Ethno Working Groups, which have produced standards for archaeological sites and ethnography (International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation, 1995c and d).
These national and international standards and guidelines are being adopted in individual museums as they have develope their documentation resources and changed their computer applications. Over the last 10 years, most museums have placed an emphasis on the development of inventories, but we are now seeing a parallel concern to record fuller historic and associative information about collections. We are also seeing a switch in emphasis from information development to information use and access: use for active collections management and access by internal and external staff, researchers and the public. We are also becoming more aware of the reusability of information, such as in publications and on-line over networks. Greatly improved computer applications are now available to support these diversified needs, with museums using the standards as the basis for the specification of the application.
ICOM has become very aware of the importance of documentation in recent years. A resolution about documentation and information was adopted at the 1989 General Assembly in the Hague. A number of subsequent ICOM programmes have included a major documentation element, such as the AFRICOM project to support museums throughout Africa. CIDOC has closely collaborated with this project, including helping draft a handbook of standards , closely modeled on the various CIDOC guidelines (International Council of Museums, 1995a).
Since 1994, ICOM and CIDOC have also been collaborating to develop the use of the Internet. The scope of the Internet is outlined in a brochure prepared for ICOM by Leonard Will (former Treasurer of CIDOC), with the support of the UNESCO Division of Physical Heritage (International Council of Museums, 1995b). This explains that the Internet is an interconnecting computer network, which provides three important facilities:
The worldwide use of these services is going through a period of exponential growth. In mid-1995, there were probably at least 5000 museum staff with access to the Internet. At least 200 museums were providing information over the Internet, with this number increasing every week.
In March 1995, the ICOM Secretariat and CIDOC held a meeting at the Museum of London to discuss the impact of the Internet. We focused on a number of issues, with our conclusions being reported to the meeting of the ICOM Executive Council later that month.
First, we agreed that ICOM should provide active support to its committees and members, by issuing publications about the Internet, arranging briefings - such as those given to the ICOM Advisory Committee and Executive Council in Stavanger - and acting in an advisory capacity.
Second, we identified opportunities for collaboration and advocacy within ICOM and with outside bodies such as UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
Third, we agreed on a number of ways in which ICOM and its committees can provide services over the Internet. These include making active use of e-mail, setting up announcement and discussion lists and distributing news and reports.
We appreciated that the development of the Internet provides a great opportunity for ICOM. Examples of the potential include:
Since the meeting, the ICOM Secretariat has been pursuing these plans, with support from CIDOC, the Swedish Museum of Natural History and CHIN. ICOM has established a Web site providing access to information resources on the Internet and a number of national and international committees were making active use of the Internet.
In the case of CIDOC, the Committee has been active users for some years and has derived great benefits and efficiencies from this investment.
Most members of the CIDOC Board are on the Internet and almost all Board business is carried out electronically, including organising conferences and producing publications.
In September 1994, CIDOC launched a museum documentation discussion group, called CIDOC-L , which has around 250 subscribers. In July 1995, this was followed by an Internet discussion group, CIDOC-Net.
During 1995, a number of publications were made available through the ICOM archive site. These include the latest CIDOC Newsletter , in English and French versions. It also includes the other CIDOC and ICOM publications referred to above and earlier products such as the CIDOC Fact Sheets on Registration and Labelling and marking (International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation, 1993b and 1994).
For the 1995 conference, CIDOC collaborated with the Getty Information Institute (formerly the Getty Art History Information Program) to provide an Internet service in the conference exhibition area. This Internet Opportunity Center included access to Internet information around the world, together with specifically developed pages about four themes:
This initiatives are now being pursued by the CIDOC Board and a new Internet Working Group , established at the close of the 1995 conference.
As a demonstration of the impact of these discussions and presentations, a resolution about museum information was adopted at the 1995 General Assembly in Stavanger, in this case focusing on the importance of the Internet and other communication networks (International Council of Museums, 1995c). The use of networks is also a core objective in the forward programme of ICOM .
A further meeting was held at ICOM in Paris in September 1995. This led to the development of a policy statement on ICOM and the Internet which was adopted at the 1995 meeting of the ICOM Executive Council, discussing the presence of museums and ICOM on the Internet (International Council of Museums, 1995d). This stressed that ICOM will encourage its component bodies to use the Internet and that ICOM itself will establish a range of Internet services.
In conclusion, I would like to summarise some of the strengths CIDOC now takes into the next three year period, 1995-98:
I look forward to CIDOC continuing to build on these results and to it playing a continuing major role in the development of the museum information profession.
Details of the availability of references published by CIDOC are given in a separate list.
Art Information Task Force (1993). Categories for the Description of Works of Art. Unpublished.
Canadian Heritage Information Network (1993). Humanities Data Dictionary of the Canadian Heritage Information Network. Revision 3. Ottawa: Communications Canada. CHIN Museum Services. Documentation Research Group.
Chenhall, R.G. and Homulos, P. (1978). "Propositions for the Future: Museum Data Standards," Museum , 30(3/4), 1978, 205-212.
International Council of Museums (1995a). Standardization of Collections Inventories in Africa. Handbook of Standards. (AFRICOM programme.) 2nd version. Paris: International Council of Museums. [A later published version of this was produced in 1996]
International Council of Museums (1995b). The Internet for Museums. A brochure prepared by Leonard Will for ICOM, with the support of the UNESCO Division of Physical Heritage. Paris: International Council of Museums.
International Council of Museums (1995c). Resolutions, 18th General Assembly of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Stavanger, Norway, Friday 7 July 1995 . Paris: International Council of Museums.
International Council of Museums (1995d). ICOM and the Internet. Policy statement adopted by the Executive Council, 85th Session, December 1995 . Paris: International Council of Museums.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1992). Data Standards (Fine Arts/Archaeology). Unpublished.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1993a). Data Standards (Fine Arts). Unpublished.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1993b). Registration Step by Step: When an Object Enters the Museum. CIDOC Fact Sheet 1. CIDOC Services Working Group. Paris: ICOM/CIDOC.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1994). Labelling and Marking Objects. CIDOC Fact Sheet 2. CIDOC Services Working Group. Paris: ICOM/CIDOC.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1995a). CIDOC Relational Data Model. CIDOC Data Model Working Group. Washington, D.C.: CIDOC Data Model Working Group.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1995b). International Guidelines for Museum Object Information: the CIDOC Information Categories. Paris: ICOM/CIDOC. ISBN 92-9012-124-6.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1995c). Draft International Core Data Standard for Archaeological Sites and Monuments. CIDOC Archaeological Sites Working GroupParis: ICOM/CIDOC. ISBN 92-9012-125-4.
International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) (1995d). International Core Data Standards for Ethnology/Ethnography. Ljubljana, CIDOC Ethno Working Group. Slovenia: ICOM/CIDOC Ethno Working Group.
Olcina, P. (1986). ‘The development and coordination of museum documentation by international agencies’, in R.B. Light, D.A. Roberts and J.D. Stewart, Museum Documentation Systems: Developments and Applications. London: Butterworths. ISBN 0-408-10815-0. Pages 307-314.
Roberts, D.A. (1994). Organisational Structure and Role Specialisation in Museums. A Dissertation in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Anglia Polytechnic University for the degree of Master of Business Administration. Cambridge: Anglia Polytechnic University.
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum Documentation Standard 1st ed. / edited by Alice Grant. Cambridge: Museum Documentation Association, 1994.
http://cidoc.icom.museum/prof1.htm
revised/dernière mise à jour: 23 July 1996
Original author / Auteur original: Andrew Roberts
Now maintained by / Maintenant entretenu par:
Leonard Will
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