2014 EVA/Minerva Jerusalem International Conference on Digitisation of Cultural Heritage http://2014.minervaisrael.org.il http://www.digital-heritage.org.il

1. EVA/Minerva 2014 XIth Annual International Conference Van Leer Jerusalem Institute November 2014
Practitioners & specialists: the role of CIDOC in establishing effective communication
Nicholas Crofts, Chair ICOM CIDOC

2. Introduction
•Nicholas Crofts
•Chair of ICOM CIDOC
•MA Philosophy
•PhD Cultural Informatics
•Working in the field since 1985
•Ontology administrator IOC
•Assistant Professor MTTU

3. Overview
•What CIDOC is
•Our mixed audience
•What we’re doing to get them to talk to each other

4. What is CIDOC?
•Comité International pour la Documentation
•“A neutral, international forum for the discussion of all issues relating to information management in museums”
•1 of ICOM's 31 International Committees
•Founded in 1950
•Members in >60 countries
•Voluntary, not for profit
•Free for ICOM members

5. Our focus
•What’s in a name?
–Documentation of collections
–Collections of documents

6. Information management

7. Governance
•ICOM – a French association 1901
•ICOM Statutes, CIDOC by laws
•CIDOC board:
–Chair
–Vice Chair
–Secretary
–Editor
–4 ordinary members
–Ex officio chairs of working groups

8. Finances
•Annual ICOM Subsidy
–core + number of members + performance
•CIDOC Bursary Fund
•Subsidies Getty Foundation
•“Franchised” financial liability

9. Impact on membership
•Motivated & available
•Access to funding
•Predominantly European
•Divided into two groups…

10. CIDOC’s Publics
10
Practioners
Specialists
CIDOC

11. Divergent “domains of discourse”
•Practical concerns... Theoretical
•Technophobe... Technophile
•Conservative... Innovation
•Museums... Research
•ICOM members... Not ICOM members

12. Common misunderstandings
•Rich mass of museum data waiting to be published...
•… museums don’t want to publish it
•Museum meta data is poor quality
•Why do we need new technology?
•Technology is ephemeral, information is perennial

13. What’s at stake?
•Innovation :
–Saving time and money
–Providing better services
–Protecting our heritage
–Getting people involved

14. So what is CIDOC doing?
•Creating a network
•Encouraging communication
•Providing training
•Supporting the profession

15. Principles of Museum documentation
•collections without adequate documentation cannot be considered to be true museum collections
–they cannot be adequately safeguarded and cared for
–the museum cannot demonstrate legal accountability
–their value for research and interpretation is greatly reduced
CIDOC Principles of Documentation, ICOM Rio 2013
16

16. CIDOC Conference
•Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Dresden, New Delhi, Milan
•Balanced programme
•Bursaries

17. Working groups
1.Archaeological Sites
2.Conceptual Reference Model SIG
3.Co-reference
4.Data Harvesting and Interchange
5.Digital preservation
6.Documentation Standards
7.Information Centres
8.Museum process implementation
9.Research Environments
10.Intangible Cultural Heritage

18. Committee culture

19. Publications
•CIDOC Fact Sheets:
–Registration step by step
–Labelling and marking objects
–Recommendations for identity photographs
•International Guidelines for Museum Object Information
•Statement of principles of museum documentation
•The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (ISO 21127)
•Annual newsletter since 1989
•Bilingual French & English and low-bandwidth

20. analysis
implementation
impact
Domain of discourse
Conceptualisation
Technical system
Information systems : theory
maintenance

21. CIDOC CRM ontology
0,n
0,n 0,n
0,n
E52 Time Span E53 Place
is time span of (has time span) P7 took place at (witnessed)
Ent_42 Ent_423
0,n 0,n
0,n
0,n
E7 Activity
P14 performed (carried out by) P125 used specific object
E70 Thing
0,n
0,n
0,n
0,n
E39 Actor E5 Event E77 Persistent Item
P11 had participant P12 was present at

22. CIDOC training programme
•With Museum of Texas Tech University
•Modular - allows flexibility
•For newcomers & experienced staff
•International perspective
•Tutors from CIDOC and MTTU faculty
•Annual:
–2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Texas
–2013, 2014 São Paolo
–2015 ...

23. CIDOC training in Brazil

24. Conclusion
•CIDOC
•Networking
•Accessible documentation
•Training

25. Thank You
•Contact details:
–Email:- nicholas@crofts.ch
–CIDOC web site:- cidoc.icom.museum
•I would like to thank:
–Millie and Susan Hazan
–EVA / Minerva 2014