The International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CIDOC) Le Comité international pour la documentation du Conseil international des musées (ICOM-CIDOC)

Museum documentation : standards and guidelines

This is one of a number of pages about museum information standards and related documentation issues prepared by the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CIDOC). There is also an introduction to the overall set of pages.

See a separate page for information about metadata and the Dublin core.

The AFRICOM Inventory Working Group met in Mombasa in September 1996 and Tunisia in 1997. The Group has now completed work on the Handbook of standards (International Council of Museums, 1996. Handbook of standards: documenting African collections/Manuel de normes: documentation des collections Africaines. ISBN 92-9012-029-0). The Handbook aims at establishing common documentation standards for use by museummuseums throughout Africa, to facilitate the development and exchange of information. The Handbook is available on-line. See ICOM News, 50(1-2), 1997, 4-5, for information.

ANSI/NISO Z39.50 Protocol: background reading on Z39.50. See Spectra, 23(2), 1995, p7, for more information. February 1996.

The Berkeley Art Museum has established a Standards page, with details of museum and other standards; see 'Standards for museums', by Richard Rinehart, Spectra, 24(1), Fall 1996, p16-18.

CHIN has published the results of its collections management software review, with details of functional requirements. See Network News, issue 9, Summer 1996. November 1996.

CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model : Introduction to CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) / CIDOC CRM Special Interest Group. - Heraklion, Crete, Greece : Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology (ICS-FORTH), 2000. - [Accessed 2001-10-02]

The CIDOC object-oriented Conceptual Reference Model represents an 'ontology' for cultural heritage information i.e. it describes in a formal language the explicit and implicit concepts and relations relevant to the documentation of cultural heritage. The primary role of the CRM is to serve as a basis for mediation of cultural heritage information and thereby provide the semantic 'glue' needed to transform today's disparate, localised information sources into a coherent and valuable global resource. It has been a working item of ISO/TC46/SC4/WG9 since Sept. 2000.

The CIDOC Ethno Working Group published the International Core Data Standard for Ethnology/Ethnography in September 1996. This includes the results of a survey of ethnographic documentation practice and a core data standard for ethnographic collections. For further information, contact: Penelope Theologi-Gouti October 1996

The CIDOC Multimedia Working Group has published a first public version of Introduction to Multimedia in Museums. For further information, see the page summarising the guide or contact Ann Borda

CIMCIM (the International Committee of Musical Instruments Museums and Collections) has published a Web version of Uniform procedures for data element description in CIMCIM database systems. August 1996

The CIMI Web site including details of the work of CIMI and its SGML and Z39.50 CHIO projects, as well as an online demonstrator searching object records and SGML-encoded exhibition catalogues. For more information, contact John Perkins. See Spectra, 23(2), 1995, p7. October 1995, Summer 1996, 23(4), p11-15, Fall 1997, 25(1), 11-13 and 42-48. December 1997

Interim report on Cultural Heritage Information Online. This is the report of an EU contract to "study and investigate the standardisation issues corresponding to requirements emerging from the activities related to the storage and on-line access of the Cultural Heritage (ref. SOGITS N884)." The report has been compiled by 4 consultants based in the UK, Netherlands and Denmark. The purpose of the report is to look at the technical and documentation standards needed for networked cultural heritage in the EU (and internationally) to achieve inter-operability. "Cultural Heritage" covers sites, buildings, movable objects, literature, archives, sheet music, film and sound.

Details of the International Documentation Standards for the Protection of Cultural Objects project are available. This AHIP project is supported by the Council of Europe, ICOM, UNESCO and other bodies, with active participation from CIDOC. The following three publications give the background of the project; the first two appear to be out of print, being no longer listed in the Getty publications catalogue.

Protecting cultural objects through international documentation standards : a preliminary survey / Robin Thornes. - Santa Monica, Calif. : Getty Art History Information Program, 1995. - 51p. ; 28cm.

Protecting cultural objects in the global information society : the making of Object ID / Robin Thornes. - Los Angeles, Calif. : The Getty Information Institute, 1997. - 81p. ; 28cm. - ISBN 0-89236-495-5.

Introduction to Object ID : guidelines for making records that describe art, antiques, and antiquities / Robin Thornes. - Los Angeles : Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1999. - 72p. ; 24cm. illus. - ISBN 0-89236-572-2.

The International Guidelines for Museum Object Information were published by CIDOC in June 1995. Further information is available in a summary. July 1995.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published a new edition of ISO2709: 1996, Information and documentation - format for information exchange. August 1996.

The MARC (Machine-Readable Catalogue) formats used by the British Library, Library of Congress and National Library of Canada are now being harmonised with an agreement that they will all use the "MARC 21" format. Further information is available from the British Library UKMARC Web page.

Museum archives guidelines / Society of American Archivists. Museum Archives Section, 2003.

These guidelines have been created by the section to assist all types of museums - independent museums as well as museums contained within larger institutions - in the development and administration of archival programs. The guidelines outline the components of a successful museum archives program and should be used in conjunction with detailed information on the administration of archives that is available through SAA and from other professional sources. - Web page.

NOF-digitise technical standards and guidelines. Version One / developed on behalf of the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) by the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN), University of Bath, in association with Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries. Edited by Sarah Ormes and Andy Powell. - Bath : UKOLN, 2000. - At head of title : "People's Network". - Viewed 12th August 20000.

The nof-digitise programme will support the creation of a significant body of digital resources. To support the Stage 2 application process, the Fund has developed a web-based resource providing practical information and advice on technical standards for content creation. These include standards for accessibility, availability, document and file formats, search and request protocols, security and e-commerce, preservation and metadata. A "life-cycle" approach of Creation - Development - Management - Access - Use/Re-use has been taken in the presentation of technical standards. This is because it emphasises the importance of seeing the project as a whole, and how decisions taken at given stages have implications for the rest of the process and affect the continuing development of the service. - [Introduction]