|
The International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums
(ICOM-CIDOC)
|
This page provides information about museum documentation terminology standards and developments. It is one of a number of pages about museum information standards and related documentation issues
Standards contents page..
Anglo-American cataloguing rules. 2nd ed., 1998 revision, with separate 1999 amendments. - London : Library Association, 1998. -720p. - ISBN 1-85604-154-9 (paperback); ISBN 1-85604-313-4 (hardback); ISBN 1-85604-229-4 (CD-ROM).
Contains rules for data elements and syntax for description and access points for cataloguing library material, including manuscripts and realia.
Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) / Toni Petersen, director. - 2nd ed. - New York : Oxford University Press, 1994. - 5 v. : ill. ; 29 cm. - ISBN: 0195087569 (set : acid-free paper)
A project of the Getty Vocabulary Program within the Getty Research Institute, the AAT is a structured vocabulary of around 125,000 terms, scope notes, and other information for describing fine art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, and material culture. It is arranged both hierarchically by facet and alphabetically, reflecting the common usage of scholars and catalogers. The AAT has been endorsed by the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), the College Art Association of America (CAA), the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM). The AAT has also collaborated with institutions in France, Italy, and Spain on the development of multilingual equivalents of AAT terms. The AAT may be browsed in an on-line version that is regularly updated and it is available in printed and electronic formats including the USMARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) format for exchange of authority information. The AAT is also available online through the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) and the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). An online Spanish version has been prepared, with Getty support, by the Centro de Documentación de Bienes Patrimoniales (Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, Chile). This allows searches by Spanish or English terms. The same institution has created the Tesauro regional arqueológico.
Contact for editorial matters: : Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Getty Information Institute. email: aat@getty.edu.
Bibliography on thesaurus construction and use / Leonard Will. - Updated frequently. - [Web page, accessed 2001-04-25]
A listing of papers on thesaurus principles and practice, with references to Web-accessible lists of thesauri and classification schemes.British standard guide to establishment and development of monolingual thesauri / British Standards Institution. - 1st rev. - London : BSI, 1987. - 32p ; 30cm. - (BS5723:1987) (ISO2788-1986)
British standard guide to establishment and development of multilingual thesauri / British Standards Institution. - London : BSI, 1985. - 63p ; 30cm. - (BS6723:1985) (ISO5964-1985)
The two British Standards for thesaurus construction listed above are being redrafted by a working party of the British Standards Institution to bring them up to date, taking account of other terminology developments and the electronic environment. Comments and suggestions are invited, and may be sent to Leonard Will, a member of the working party.
British standard recommendations for examining documents, determining their subjects and selecting indexing terms / British Standards Institution. - London : British Standards Institution, 1984 . - 6p. ; 30cm. - (BS 6529:1984).
Controlled Vocabulary
A series of occasional reports delivered by the Controlled Vocabulary SIG to eSpectra. The reports will be mere snapshots of how colleagues use controlled vocabularies or, in some cases, elect not to use controlled vocabularies. In addition to examples from practitioners, the reports will point to the relevance of controlled vocabulary to end users. Among the many areas controlled vocabularies can be applied, the reports will focus initially on subject access; "subject matter" being one of the most challenging attributes to manage but potentially one of the more appealing access points for users of our collections and collection information. How do colleagues use controlled vocabulary to enhance subject access? Which tools are used and why? What would colleagues change about their use of controlled vocabularies? - [Web page, accessed 2001-03-02]Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (FISH)Report Number 1 : The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. - Collaborating in the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections (CIDC) at the University Library ... [and] the IMAG/CU Software Project, a digital resource project providing access to an image catalog for the Johnson Art Museum and Cornell special collections and slide libraries. ... Visit http://insight.library.cornell.edu and search the Museum collection in order to see the Museum's subject cataloging in action. - [Web page, accessed 2001-03-02]
The [UK] Forum on Information Standards in Heritage exists to promote and develop standards covering the compilation and organisation of archaeological and architectural heritage 'inventories'. This work takes as its starting point two complementary standards, MIDAS and INSCRIPTION:
- MIDAS, the Monument Inventory Data Standard, is a content standard. It sets out what sort of information should be recorded, for instance to describe the character or location of a monument.
- INSCRIPTION is a set of standard wordlists. Like a dictionary it defines appropriate terms that are recommended by FISH for use in compiling inventories.
Together the two standards are intended to assist the development of a national framework for the many inventories that now exist.
FISH also has an e-mail discussion list to allow anyone with an interest to participate in the work of the forum. - [Web page, accessed 2001-04-25]
ICOM News, 1997, 3, p 6, includes information about the Multilingual Egyptological Thesaurus.
Some Getty databases are accessible in their Collections integrated catalog.
The AKA service was an experiment in using vocabulary resources to give enhanced access to AHIP's cultural information databases. It allowed you to search with the Union List of Artist Names and the Art & Architecture Thesaurus , but this facility has now been withdrawn. The databases of the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals and the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) including its predecessor indexes International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) and RAA are now available by subscribing to the Avery or BHA databases on the CitaDel service of the Research Libraries Group (RLG). The BHA may also be purchased on CD-ROM.
The Getty Thesaurus of geographic names (TGN) is available as a Web browser version. It may also be licenced in two formats created especially for organizations developing their own data management systems: the TGN Relational Files are in relational database format, while the TGN:REC files are ASCII records in a flat file format.
The nearly 900,000 places in the TGN are arranged in a hierarchical structure representing all nations of the modern world. This hierarchy is arranged from broader to narrower context (e.g., continents, nations, states, provinces, cities etc.). The TGN provides vernacular and English names of places, variant names in other languages, and whenever possible, historical names. The record for a place may also contain geographical coordinates, dates, and notes.
The Iconclass Research & Development Group Web site includes a version of the Iconclass system and information about subject classifications.
The Research Libraries Group (RLG) and the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP) have joined forces to improve art information access and development. The RLG on-line search systems will make AHIP art-historical indexes and vocabularies internationally accessible and RLG and AHIP will design a program for enhanced data creation by participating libraries and cultural collections. Three pilot projects will be pursued over the next year. Source: RLG Press Release, March 1996.
Stuart Holm has produced Web pages with information about the Social History and Industrial Classification (SHIC). Details from Stuart Holm.
Subject data in the metadata record : recommendations and rationale : a report from the ALCTS/CCS/SAC/Subcommittee on Metadata and Subject Analysis. - Illinois, July 1999. - Viewed 12th August 2000.
Recommends the adoption of subject headings and classification from standard schemes, modified if necessary, with other specialised schemes being used as well where appropriate. Encourages development of automatic systems to determine standard vocabulary and classifications from document text and free-text subject terms assigned by authors. Recommendations include:
- A combination of keywords and controlled vocabulary should be used to allow users the choice of simple free-text indexing as well as complex controlled vocabulary indexing. (3.1)
- Use of multiple vocabularies should be accommodated. For a general vocabulary covering all subjects, the Subcommittee recommends the use of LCSH or Sears with or without modification. (3.2.1)
- In order to achieve the desired level of specificity, controlled vocabulary terms assigned to the metadata record could be supplemented and complemented by keywords and other subject-related elements, such as title, abstract, statement of content, etc. (3.2.2.1)
- Synonyms should be handled by system design implementation of the controlled vocabulary or thesaurus. If this is not available, an alternative is to include all identified synonyms and related terms, along with the keywords, in the metadata record. (3.2.2.2)
- Tools such as online thesaurus display should be developed to provide access to controlled vocabulary structures, showing both hierarchically (broader and narrower) and horizontally related terms. (3.2.2.3)
Software for building and editing thesauri / Leonard Will. - Enfield : Willpower Information. - Accessed 2001-10-18.
Tesauro regional arqueológico / Centro de Documentación de Bienes Patrimoniales (Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, Chile). - Accessed 2004-03-21.
An on-line Spanish-language thesaurus of Latin American archaeology, developed by the same institution, and in the same style as, the Spanish translation of the AAT.
The 1995 edition of the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials is now available. See Spectra, Summer 1996, 23(4), p42. August 1996.
Thesaurus principles and practice is the Web version of a paper given by Leonard Will to a workshop held in 1992. This has information about the application of thesauri in museums.
The Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) is now available in electronic and print editions. This is a project of the Getty Research Institute .
wordHOARD is mda's on-line guide to terminology resources relevant to museums. It includes links to a selection of thesauri, classification systems and other authority files, many of which can be accessed free including:
http://cidoc.icom.museum/stand3t.htm
Revised / Dernière mise à jour: 2004-03-21
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), 1997-2004