Metadata Standards for Museum Cataloguing

Introduction to Metadata Standards for Museum Cataloguing

Metadata Standards for Managing and Documenting Museum Collections

Other Metadata Standards useful to Museums

RSLP Standard for Collection-level description
The Research Support Libraries Programme in the UK has developed a standard to enable consistent and machine-readable collection description. This standard is based on Dublin Core, but has additional elements which enable more complete description of museum collections. In addition to the RSLP Collection Description Schema, the RSLP site also offers a Web-based collection description tool (which provides the metadata in RDF) and a set of data entry guidelines. This tool can be used to describe museum collections at a general level (not object-by-object).

Fichier des collections du Musée de la civilisation, Essai méthodologique, 1997.
Musée de la civilisation, Service des collections de la Direction de la recherche et de la conservation. Available in French only.

Description of Art Collections and/or Visual Resources

Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) 
The CDWA is a product of the Art Information Task Force (AITF) and funded by the J. Paul Getty Trust. "The Categories describe the content of art databases by articulating a conceptual framework for describing and accessing information about objects and images. They identify vocabulary resources and descriptive practices that will make information residing in diverse systems both more compatible and more accessible. They also provide a framework to which existing art information systems can be mapped and upon which new systems can be developed...The Categories advise the use of controlled vocabularies, authorities, and consistent formatting of certain information to ensure efficient end-user retrieval."¹. Available in English only.

VRA Core Categories 
Created by the Visual Resources Association (VRA) Data Standards Committee, the VRA Core Categories are an extension of certain portions of the Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA). The VRA Core Categories are guidelines to describe "works of visual culture as well as the images that document them"². The VRA Core Categories are available in English only.

Méthode d'inventaire informatique des objets beaux-arts et arts décoratifs
The Direction des Musées de France has developed this standard to assist museums in creating inventories of their fine and decorative arts collections. Includes examples and some controlled vocabularies. Available online in French only.

Définitions des techniques, médiums, matériaux et supports.
Direction des Musées de France. Available online in French only.

RLG REACH Element Set 
Results of a project by the Research Libraries Group (RLG) to identify the core fields shared among existing data structure standards for museums. The REACH Element Set identifies the core fields shared among:

• CHIN Humanities Data Dictionary
• Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA)
• CIDOC Information Categories
• CIMI Access Points
• Dublin Core
• mda standards
• Museum Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL) Data Dictionary
• Visual Resources Association's Core Categories.

The REACH Element Set advances a more general standard for museum information sharing - it identifies the commonalities among existing international data structure standards for museums.

Le catalogage des estampes
Developed by the Société des musées québécois (SMQ), this document offers guidelines for cataloguing prints. Available in French only.

The Inventaire general des monuments et des richesses artistiques de la France has published a series of guidelines to assist museums in cataloguing specific types of objects, such as paintings, sculpture, furniture, and glass. Available in French only, print format.

Description of Architecture, Archaeological Sites/Monuments

A Guide to the Description of Architectural Drawings 
A product of a collaboration between the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP) the Architectural Drawing Advisory Group (an international consortium), and the Foundation for Documents of Architecture (a non-profit corporation). Categories for the description of architectural drawings, including: subject/built works, people/corporate bodies, geographic locations, and bibliographic sources. The National Archives of Canada and the Canadian Centre for Architecture were involved in the production of this guide. Available in English only.

CIDOC International Core Data Standard for Archaeological Sites and Monuments
Created by the Archaeological Sites Working Group of CIDOC, working in collaboration with the archaeological and architectural working parties contributing to the Council of Europe's Cultural Heritage Committee. This standard "defines the minimum categories of information required to assess an archaeological site or monument, for planning, management, academic or other purposes"³. It is widely used internationally; it has been accepted as part of the Council of Europe's European Plan for Archaeology. A revised version of the standard is being prepared, and will be available soon.

CIDOC International Core Data Standard for Archaeological Objects
Created by the Archaeological Sites Working Group of CIDOC, this standard provides minimum categories of information to be recorded about archaeological objects. Includes fields for identification, institution, references, object name, title, iconography, description, material, technique, dimensions, form, archaeological context, author and cultural milieu, inscriptions and marks, date/epoch, acquisition, and state of conservation. Currently available only in English.

MIDAS Heritage: The UK Historic Environment Data Standard
Developed by English Heritage on behalf of the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (FISH), the updated and expanded version of MIDAS provides a framework data standard for recording all types of heritage assets, their management related activities, map depiction (GIS) and information sources. MIDAS Heritage is heavily influenced by the CIDOC Draft International Core Standard for Archaeological Sites and Monuments and SPECTRUM. . It includes checklists to assist inventory managers with decision-making, units of information to be recorded, along with definitions for each unit of information. It also includes indexing tools which provide advice on "finding or compiling wordlists or thesauri to use in indexing inventory entries"⁴. MIDAS Heritage is available online and can be downloaded as a free PDF on www.midas-heritage.info .

Méthode d'inventaire informatique - Archéologie.
Direction des Musées de France. Available in French only.

Other metadata standards for archaeology are available on the Archaeology Data Service site.

Description of Ethnological/Anthropological collections

CIDOC International Core Data Standard for Ethnology/Ethnography
Prepared by the Ethnology Working Group of CIDOC the CIDOC International core Data Standard for Ethnology/Ethnography provides data categories to assist museums with ethnological or anthropological collections. The standard aims 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"⁵. Print version available from CIDOC Ethnology Working Group.

Content Standard for Anthropological Metadata
The U.S. Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR) has developed a metadata standard for anthropological data as part of the development of the National Guide to Anthropological Records database.

Méthode d'inventaire informatique - Ethnologie.
Direction des Musées de France. Available in French only.

La documentation des ensembles.
Developed by the Société des musées québécois (SMQ), this document offers guidelines for cataloguing objects with multiple parts. Available in French only.

Handbook of Standards Documenting African Collections / Manuel de normes : documentation des collections africaines.
Published by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), these standards were developed to facilitate collections management, identify and ensure security of objects, and facilitate information exchange. Available online in French and English.

Description for Object Identification and Security 

Object ID: Protecting Cultural Objects in the Global Information Society
Object ID is an international documentation standard for the information needed to identify cultural objects. It was "developed through the collaboration of the museum community, police and customs agencies, the art trade, insurance industry, and valuers of art and antiquities"⁶. The project, initiated by the Getty Information Institute, "helps to combat art theft by encouraging use of the standard and by bringing together organisations around the world that can encourage its implementation"⁷. Among other things, Object ID encourages museums to record information about "Inscriptions & Markings" and "Distinguishing Features" of items in their collection that would help to identify the item. Museums that are designing collections management systems or procedures should consult Object ID to ensure that they are recording information that can indentify an object in case of theft. The SPECTRUM standard is compatible with Object ID. Also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Spanish.

1 "Categories for the Description of Works of Art". Sep. 20, 2000. Available online at www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/cdwa/index.html. Last accessed: Jun 23/06.

2 "VRA Core Categories, Version 3.0". Feb. 20/02. Available online at http://www.vraweb.org/vracore3.htm. Last accessed: Jun 23/06.

3 "Introduction to the Draft International Core Data Standard for Archaeological Sites and Monuments". Dec. 1997. Available online at www.cidoc.icom.org/arch0.htm. Last accessed: Jun 23/06.

4 "Introduction to Midas" Available online at www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/FISH/web_midasintro.htm. Last accessed: Jun 18/08.

5 "Introduction to the International Core Data Standard for Ethnology/Ethnography". Nov. 1996. Available online at www.cidoc.icom.org/ethst0.htm. Last accessed: Jun 23/06.

6 "Object ID". Available online at www.object-id.com. Last accessed: Jun 23/06.

7 Ibid.