Collection Cataloging Standards

Before you start cataloging. Before you even decide on a type of collection management database you should clearly define what the structure and content standards of the database will be.

Data Structure Standards articulate a conceptual framework for describing and accessing information. For example, what fields will be in your database, such as Title, Date, Description, Identification numer

Data Content Standards are the guidelines which prescribe what type of information is recorded in each field (title, credits, notes, etc.) and how it is formatted (for example, initial articles should be dropped from titles, or names should be formatted as Lastname, Firstname)."

The use of both content and structure standards contribute to the integrity and longevity of data and facilitate its inevitable migration to new systems as informational technology continues to evolve. Above all, it helps to give end-users consistent, reliable access to information, regardless of the system in which it resides.

Some museum cataloging standards include:

Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA)

• Provides a conceptual framework for describing and accessing information about works of art, architecture, other material culture in a museum (or other repository) database

• VERY comprehensive, includes 512 categories and subcategories

• Identifies the core categories (categories considered as a basic necessity for a catalog record.)

• The Categories provide a framework to which existing art information systems can be mapped and upon which new systems can be developed. This makes migration of data easier and gives the end user consistent data to work with

• The CDWA identifies vocabulary resources and descriptive practices that will make information residing in diverse systems both more compatible and more accessible.

Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO)

Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images

• provides standards for data structure and content

• Crosswalks to CDWA core and VRA core categories

• Less comprehensive with 116 elements vs. over 530 in CDWA

• Designed for use by professionals in museum collections, visual resource collections, archives, and libraries that have a primary emphasis on art, architecture, and material culture.

• The primary focus of CCO is art and architecture, including but not limited to paintings, sculpture, prints, manuscripts, photographs, built works, installations, and other visual media.

• CCO also covers many other types of cultural works, including archaeological sites, artifacts, and functional objects from the realm of material culture.

Why use CCO / CDWA instead of local standards?

• Benefit from being compatible with broader community, data sharing, compliant with standards

• CCO/CDWA are intended for a diverse audience: museums, archives, libraries, VR collections, others who catalog cultural heritage

• You may look to CCO/CDWA for rules for all cataloging needs

• Or use CCO/CDWA in conjunction with other standards, to supply instruction where your other rules are lacking

There are quite a few other standard elements, some like DACS, Marc, Dublic Core that you are probably more familiar with. Take a look at this crosswalk that shows you how each of these standards relate. No matter what standard you use it’s important to come up with a structure and cataloging manual in advance so that data can easily be shared and is consistent with standards in other museums. No need to reinvent the wheel!

CDWA Core Standard Fields

I’m going to walk through the core fields in CDWA to familiarize you with each. This will be useful in your cataloging project.

Classification – Controlled field- Placement of a work of art or architecture within a classification scheme that groups other, similar works together on the basis of similar characteristics. The image to the left shows the Revised Nomeclature which is the most universally used Classification system.

Titles or Names -- Free text- Titles, identifying phrases, or names given to a work of art, architecture, or material culture.

This is not a controlled field. This is where you want to record a title or name for the work you are cataloging.

· Inscribed title: Include any title that was applied to the work by the creator with the apparent purpose of giving it a title.

· Descriptive title: The descriptive title must convey to the user what the work is or what its subject is about.

· Repository's titles: Include any titles assigned to the work by the repository.

Creation--

1. Creator Identity-- Controlled-- ULAN, LC Name Authorities or internal authority file- The identity of any one individual or corporate body that played a role in the creation of a work of art or architecture.

For example:

Gogh, Vincent van

Feature Animation, Disney Studio Walt Disney Company

New Artists' Society

2. Creator Role -- Controlled—AAT- The role or activity performed by a creator or maker in the conception, design, or production of a work.

For example:

Artist

Painter

Designer

Draftsman

3. Creator Date -- Free text (not controlled, although the format should be consistent for example Height x Width x Depth)- A concise description of the date or range of dates associated with the creation, design, production, presentation, performance, construction, or alteration of the work or its components, presented in a syntax suitable for display to the end-user and including any necessary indications of uncertainty, ambiguity, and nuance.

For example:

1881

1766-1782

12 December 1991

Measurements -- Free text (not controlled) Information about the dimensions, size, or scale of the work, presented in a syntax suitable for display to the end-user and including any necessary indications of uncertainty, ambiguity, and nuance. It may include the scale of the work. It may also include the number of the parts of a complex work, series, or collection.

Current Location -- Controlled-- TGN, LCSH, LC Name Authorities, LC Name Authorities, NIMA and USGS- The name of the repository that currently houses the work and the geographic place where the work is located, including the location of the repository, the site of a building other large work.

Unique Identifier -- Free text (not controlled)- Any unique identifiers assigned to a work by the current or last known repository.

For example:

1987.776.32 A

P&D 3455-90

Subject Matter -- Controlled -- Indexing terms that characterize what the work depicts or what is depicted in it, including generic terms and proper names.

For example:

seascape

woman

baby

Person/Corporate Body Authority -- Controlled -- Information about artists, architects, and other individuals and corporate bodies responsible for the design and production of works of art and architecture. This authority may also contain information about patrons, repositories, and other people or corporate bodies important to the record for the work.

For example:

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Board of Transportation

Gilbert & George

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Material Name: terracotta

Technique Name: vase painting

Subject: religion/mytholical, object (utilitarian), Xibalbá (Maya iconography), underworld, skeleton, death, ax, altar, celebration, sacrifice, ceremonial object

Repository Name/Geographic Location:Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Collection (New York, New York, United States)

Repository Numbers: 1978.412.206

Authority Resources

We've been looking at structure and content standards but we also need to look at

Data Value Standards

Data Value Standards are controlled vocabularies used to ensure consistent entry. The purpose of value standards is to identify lists of normalized terms for consistent entry and sharing of information. These can found in Authority / Classification File Resources.

Revised Nomenclature

The Revised Nomenclature, published by the American Association for State and Local History, is a hierarchical classification system (and partial term list) for man-made objects (excludes natural history objects).

This classification system is the most widely used by museums. The book is divided into 10 categories and 100 subcategories. The first half of the book lists these 10 categories with each of the subcategories and a hierarchal list of terms. The individual terms are listed in the back alphabetically.

It’s hard to visualize without seeing the book but imagine you have a photographic print. You would look up Print, Photographic in the back of the book. From here it will ask if the object is documentary or art photo. It will then direct you to the correct category and subcategory which if it is a documentary photo would be:

Category: Communication Artifact

Sub-Category: Documentary Artifact

Object Name: Print, Photographic

Included Below are the Ten Classifications and some example Subcategories

1. Structures: Artifacts originally created to serve as shelter from the elements or to meet some other human need in a relatively permanent location.

• Buildings (examples: Permanent structures such as barns, train stations, jails, garages and temporary structures such as tents)

• Building Components (examples: doorknobs, window sashes, roofs)

• Other Structures (examples: dames, mines, bridges)

2. Building Furnishings Artifacts originally created to be used in or around buildings for the purpose of providing comfort, care, and pleasure to occupants

• Bedding (pillows, blankets)

• Floor Covering (rugs, carpets)

3. Personal Artifacts Artifacts originally created to serve the personal needs of individuals as clothing, adornment, body protection, grooming aids, or symbols of beliefs or achievements

• Adornment (Jewelry, Ornaments)

• Clothing ( Shirt, Hat)

• Personal Gear (Goggles, Umbrella, Knapsack)

4. Tools and Equipment for Materials Tools, equipment, and supplies originally created to manage, oversee, capture, harvest, or collect resources and to transform or modify particular materials both raw and processed.

• Fishing & Trapping T&E

• Food T&E (processing, storage, preparation of food)

• Forestry T&E (cutting, handling, processing timber)

5. Tools and Equipment for Science & Technology Tools, equipment, and supplies used for the observation of natural phenomena or to apply knowledge gained from such observation

• Acoustical T&E (measuring sound)

• Astronomical T&E (artifacts to observe, measure and document events outside the earth's atmosphere)

6. Tools and Equipment for Communication Artifacts originally created for the purpose of facilitating human communication

· Drafting T&E (ex. T-squares, drafting tables)

· Printing T&E (ex. engraver's blocks, handpresses, photocopiers)

7. Distribution & Transportation Artifacts Artifacts originally created to transport or distribute animate and inanimate things.

· Land Transportation (bicycles, automobiles)

· Rail Transportation (steam locomotives, electric streetcar)

8. Communication Artifacts Artifacts originally created for expressions of human thought.

· Art (painting, photographic print)

· Documentary Artifact (photographic print, handbill, book)

· Exchange Medium (token, coin, ticket)

9. Recreational Artifacts Artifacts originally created to be used as toys or in carrying on the activities of sports, games, gambling, or public entertainment

· Game (board game, dice, cards)

· Toy (doll, blocks, game)

10. Unclassifiable Artifacts Artifacts originally created to serve a human purpose which cannot be identified at the time the object is cataloged.

· Artifact Remnant (segment or incomplete part of an artifact that cannot be determined)

· Function Unknown (artifact with no known purpose)

Other Authority / Classification Resources

Using consistent controlled vocabularies throughout your catalog will make finding and organizing material much simpler. For example, if you have some material related to the American Revolutionary War there are many ways to express this. If you add a subject term that is pulled from an authority file such as Library of Congress then you know that your subject term will be consistent throughout your catalog and with other institutions catalogs.

There are authority resources for many different descriptive fields. Below is a selection.

Library of Congress Authorities

Library of Congress Authorities

Includes authority headings for Subject, Name, Title maintained by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress. Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials is a tool for indexing visual materials by subject and by genre/format. The thesaurus includes more than 7,000 subject terms and 650 genre/format terms to index types of photographs, prints, design drawings, ephemera, and other pictures.

The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)®

The TGN is a structured vocabulary containing around 895,000 records, including around 1,115,000 names, place types, coordinates, and descriptive notes, focusing on places important for the study of art and architecture.

The Cultural Objects Name Authority

(CONA)TM

The CONA is a new Getty vocabulary currently under development. It will include authority records for cultural works, including architecture and movable works such as paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, ceramics, textiles, furniture, and other visual media such as frescoes and architectural sculpture, performance art, archaeological artifacts, and various functional objects that are from the realm of material culture and of the type collected by museums.

Iconclass

A subject-specific international classification system which museums can use for iconographic research and the documentation of images. Iconclass contains definitions of objects, persons, events, situations and abstract ideas that can be the subject of an image.

Consists of a classification system (approximately 28,000 definitions), an alphabetical index, and a bibliography with 40,000 references to books and articles of iconographical and cultural historical interest.

Internal Data Dictionary

Using external nomenclatures and thesaurus is a great way to maintain standard data entry but internal data dictionaries are almost always necessary.

For example, the New York Transit Museum maintains an internal data dictionary for terms such as: contract book, metrocard, car card, trolley model vs. elevated model

Database Systems

Evolution of Database Structures

Museums started out with ledger books and card catalogs to track their objects just as any other similar type of repository.

Like libraries, museums began experimenting with automation systems in the 1960s.

Computers at this time consisted of large mainframes that used punch cards for inputting and magnetic reels for storing it.

Road to the Superhighway

• The development of Personal Computer in the 1980s made it easier to use and afford them

• By 1984 a little over 1/3 of museums had an in-house computer.

• Another significant advent during the 1980s was the relational database

• Commercial museum collection management software programs started to become available

• 1990s Museum Collection Management systems could show pictures, sort information, track locations, generate, reports and began offering online access

Today’s Software Selection

In-house Designed System- These include a database designed internally from scratch specifically for your collection.

• Pro's: Low Start Up Costs; Can Easily Be Customized To Museum's Needs

• Con's: Time Consuming; Requires Knowledgeable IT Staff; Must Be Carefully Thought Through

Commercially Available Database Applications- These are not specifically museum collection management databases but just general databases that can be used for collection management.

Many museums will use them because they are inexpensive and may already have them for administrative functions such as membership, ticket office, retail.

• Microsoft Access - $229

• FileMaker Pro 13- $198

Collection Management Systems- These are databases specifically created for collection management.

There are some commercial software packages that are aimed at both individual collectors and institutions. A certain degree of customization is often possible, especially for some of the larger and more costly programs, where it may be possible to tailor the software package to perform functions that are specific to the particular institution.

· Questor Argus

· KE Emu

· The Museum System

· Re:Discovery

· Collective Access

· Collectionspace

· Past Perfect Museum Software

· Ehive

Project

This week we’re going to use Ehive to catalog our “donations” to the Museum of Vaudeville. See the Ehive Directions in Reading & Resources or the Google Classroom.