I have used Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to describe numismatic collections and will be discussing the prospect of applying EAD to other artistic objects at the University of Virginia Art Museum. VRA Core is one of the accepted XML standards for dealing with artistic artifacts, but Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) is also out there. I have a paper in the upcoming Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) proceedings about EAD for numismatic collections (and broadly art museum collections). For other approaches to dealing with cultural heritage and archaeological data, you should check out CAA proceedings for the last several years. CAA is *the *conference for computer archaeology, and various groups have put a lot of thought into the management of cultural heritage information. The PDF containing the abstracts from CAA 2009 is at http://caa2009.org/CAA2009_CompletePrelimProgram030409.pdf . There are a few papers relevant to this issue coming out in the proceedings.
As for a collections management *database,* all I can say is that most organizations approach the data management of this sort of complex information in XML schemas. Databases are too rigid to adequately describe archaeological and artifactual data. Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Art Museum On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:09 PM, talita de castro miranda < talita_castro at yahoo.com.br> wrote: > hei, Cheryl > > do you know Afridoc? > See at: > http://icom.museum/http://caa2009.org/Images/Download.gifafridoc/index.html<http://icom.museum/afridoc/index.html> > > I think it's a very usefull guideline for catologuing archaeological and > anthropological artifacts. > > > talita miranda > museu de folclore edison carneiro. rio de janeiro/ brasil > email: talita_castro at yahoo.com.br > > --- Em qua, 3/6/09, Cheryl Klimaszewski <cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu> > escreveu: > > De: Cheryl Klimaszewski <cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu> > Assunto: [MCN-L] Cataloging culture/nationality for archaeological and > anthropoligical artifacts > Para: mcn-l at mcn.edu > Data: Quarta-feira, 3 de Junho de 2009, 17:05 > > I'm writing from the Bryn Mawr College Art and Artifacts Collection, where > we have recently completed our initial migration of data from a disparate > collection of Access databases to a formal collections management database. > Ours is a diverse study collection that includes archaeological and > anthropological artifacts as well as fine arts objects. We're wondering how > other collections are dealing with cataloging culture and nationality > information for objects that have cultural groups as makers as opposed to > individual, known makers (also, where the cultural group may or may not > always correspond to the same geographical region). Our concerns mainly > center around objects of African and Native American origin. > > Though we're most specifically interested in how this data is stored in the > cataloging system (i.e. Is the culture/nationality of the object entered > into a designated "culture/nationality" field? Is an artist/creator record > created for the entire cultural group? etc.), any general comments on > cataloging anthropological and archaeological collections are also welcome. > If anyone has a perspective on this that they would like to share, even if > it's of the "Oh my god, whatever you do, just don't do it this way" variety, > we'd certainly appreciate it. > > Good wishes, > Cheryl > -- > Cheryl Klimaszewski > Collections Information Manager > Bryn Mawr College > 101 North Merion Avenue > Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 > office 610-526-5093 > cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > > > > Veja quais s?o os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados > http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ >
