CHIN is a member of CIMI
(the Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information), which
works to enable the electronic interchange of museum information.
From 1998 to 1999, CHIN participated in a CIMI Metadata Testbed
which aimed to explore the creation and use of metadata for facilitating
the discovery of electronic museum information. Specifically,
the project explored the creation and use of Dublin
Core metadata in describing museum collections, and examined
how Dublin Core could be used as a means to aid in resource
discovery within an electronic, networked environment such as
the World Wide Web.
Part of this project involved the creation of a searchable
database of Dublin Core records contributed by various
CIMI partner organizations. CHIN contacted staff from several
Canadian museums which were contributing data to Artefacts
Canada, and obtained permission to use a small number of
their Artefacts Canada records in the CIMI testbed. CHIN
produced a "mapping" between the
Artefacts Canada fields and the Dublin Core, and
created computer code that would convert the Artefacts Canada
records into Dublin Core format. CHIN then provided CIMI
with a subset of the Artefacts Canada data, in Dublin
Core format, to be used in the CIMI Metadata Testbed.
CIMI used these records from CHIN, along with records from
other organizations, to create the Metadata Testbed Database.
CIMI used the experience gained from the participants in this
project to test "assumptions related to the flexibility and
simplicity of the Dublin Core element set, and its suitability
and readiness for deployment1",
and investigated various means for expressing metadata . As
a result of this research, CIMI also created a "Guide
to Best Practices" for the creation and editing of Dublin
Core records by museums.
CHIN is also involved in a project to create metadata for
a pan-Canadian inventory of learning resources available on
Canadian museum Web sites. Working in consultation with the
Consortium for the
Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI), the Gateway
to Educational Materials (GEM) [link to GEM in Section G],
and SchoolNet, the project
involves the creation of a Guide to Best Practices and cataloguing tool for generating
metadata for online learning materials. The project also involved
the development of Dublin Core-based metadata for each of the
online educational resources created by Canadian museums. CHIN's
Learning with Museums Metadata Element
Set is based on Dublin
Core, and also draws from the metadata element set of
the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) and Canada's
SchoolNet for education-specific elements and vocabulary.
CHIN also defined several local elements that were needed for
the Learning with Museums application. Note: The CHIN
Learning with Museums metadata elements and vocabulary
lists are currently under review - contact CHIN for information
on the revisions that are pending. For the Learning With
Museums project, CHIN built a cataloging tool, the MetaCollector,
that enables museums to create metadata easily. The MetaCollector
is an online form that, once completed, generates HTML
and RDF
metadata. This metadata can be sent back to the museums to be
embedded in the HTML header of their Web pages, and is loaded
into a database to be used in the CHIN Learning with Museums
gateway.
CHIN use of Z39.50 Communications Protocol - Fishnet
CHIN is involved in a project to make species data available
in an international biodiversity resource called Fishnet
The Fishnet project uses Z39.50
to allow seamless searching of the distributed records of fish
specimens housed in museums and other institutions. CHIN has
set up a Z39.50 server, and has worked with the Canadian Museum
of Nature to make 28,626 fish records available to anyone searching
Fishnet. Search and retrieval in Fishnet is performed
using Z39.50; presentation of the result set is done through
a Z39.50 or XML
client.
Structured Vocabularies as Access
Tools in CHIN databases
CHIN has found that structured vocabularies, which museums
have used for many years as tools to catalogue and index collections,
are invaluable as access tools to assist with search and retrieval.
Artefacts Canada:Humanities and the Virtual Museum
of Canada (VMC) Image Gallery use the Art
& Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) as a tool to facilitate
access to approximately 2 million museum object records.
Because the records in Artefacts Canada are contributed
by museums across Canada with no common vocabulary standards
(often no vocabulary standards are used at all), there is great
variation in the terminology used to describe museum objects.
It is impossible and impractical to impose a common vocabulary
standard on the museums that contribute to Artefacts Canada
and the Virtual Museum of Canada. In addition, the terms
used within museums to catalogue their collections are not always
the same as the terms the public searching Artefacts Canada
is familiar with; for example, natural science museums usually
use Latin names to describe their specimens whereas the public
generally uses common names. It becomes essential to focus on
developing tools that will allow access to the data regardless
of the variations in terminology and language used by searchers
and cataloguers.
CHIN conducted
a study to determine whether the Art & Architecture Thesaurus
could be used as an access tool within the CHIN databases. The
study showed that the AAT matched the CHIN data in key
search fields (Object Name, Object Type, Materials, Technique,
School/Style, and Culture) at a very high rate. Therefore, CHIN
has implemented the AAT as a part of the Artefacts
Canada search engine. Using the relationships defined in
the AAT, a searcher of Artefacts Canada will find
the "watercolours" when searching for "Paintings", or find the
items catalogued as "Inuit" when searching for "Eskimo" objects.
CHIN has also added 2600 French
equivalents to AAT concepts (for the most commonly-used
term in key search fields), to facilitate searching and retrieval
of data in French. Therefore, if a user searches for "painting",
she will also find the objects catalogued as "peinture". CHIN
will continue to add French terminology to the vocabulary tool
to improve the level of access to all records in the database.
Use of the AAT as an access tool in Artefacts Canada
- allows museums (and searchers) to use whatever terminology
they feel is appropriate.
- allows the generalist to find all the relevant material,
even those objects that are catalogued using specialist or
regional terminology.
- Enhances bilingual access (through the language equivalents
added to the AAT by CHIN)
Although the implementation of the AAT in the Artefacts
Canada:Humanities and Virtual Museum of Canada Image Gallery
does assist in overcoming some problems caused by inconsistencies
in vocabulary, language differences, etc., it also creates some
problems. Because the AAT is a very large, rich resource,
it contains far more terms and relationships than will ever
be needed for access to the CHIN data. As a result, the following
problems are encountered:
- The large size of the AAT requires substantial system
resources - if a broad search with numerous relationships
(such as the term "wood") is performed, the system is overloaded.
CHIN is planning a project to remove many of the AAT terms
that are not needed for access to the CHIN data. This will
probably be done by running a computer match of the CHIN with
the AAT, and removing AAT terms that are not
used. This process will likely need to be done periodically
as the CHIN databases grow, in order to ensure that all the
necessary terms from AAT are included.
- Terms can appear in more than one place in the AAT
hierarchy. For example, "Painting" appears in the AAT
in both the "visual works" hierarchy, and the "Processes and
Techniques" hierarchy. The system uses the first occurrence
of the term in the AAT, and ignores subsequent occurrences,
This sometimes works (if the first occurrence is the meaning
intended by the searcher), but often results in strange result
sets being returned. Although there is no easy solution to
this problem, CHIN has attempted to improve the situation
through:
- careful analysis of which hierarchies of the AAT
should be applied to which searches in Artefacts Canada,
- the re-ordering the AAT hierarchies so that the
CHIN search engine comes across the hierarchy that is most
likely to be relevant first,
- limiting the AAT hierarchies used against the CHIN
data.
- In some cases, problems result from the different languages
used in the tool. For example, a search for the French term
"cloche" (meaning "bell") finds a result set that includes
many English records describing "hats". This is because "cloche"
is an English term describing a particular type of hat, as
well as being the French term for "bell". A similar problem
is encountered when searching for the culture, "African";
many French records with the word 'de' are returned, because
"De" are an African people. This problem is difficult to explain
to users of the database, and even more difficult to remedy.
CHIN continues to look for ways to improve the performance
of search engines through the use of vocabulary tools, and hopes
to use other structured vocabularies, such as the
Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) and the Thesaurus
of Geographic Names (TGN), to enhance searches of Artefacts
Canada: Humanities.
CHIN Research on Pattern-oriented Search Tools
In 1999, CHIN investigated the use of a pattern-directed search
application developed by Practical Reasoning, Inc. to enhance
thematic or pattern-oriented access to Artefacts Canada.
Pattern-oriented search tools have the potential to help users
with complex "pattern-oriented" questions that can not be easily
answered by the traditional database search engine. For example:
Were Lionel Fitzgerald's abstracts primarily in graphite or
in oil? Are Group of Seven winter landscapes more common as
paintings, prints, or drawings? Pattern-oriented searching could
potentially allow the user to see the co-existence of terms,
which represent associations or patterns in the data.
CHIN worked with the Winnipeg Art Gallery to come up with
a set of approximately 1000 records from Artefacts Canada
describing Group of Seven works. This data set was sent to Practical
Reasoning, Inc.; an analysis was performed, and the results
were sent to CHIN.
The results of the study were somewhat limited because of
the size and composition of the sample, but this study showed
that pattern-directed searches can assist the researcher in
answering questions that cannot be addressed using traditional
database search engines. For further information on this study,
contact CHIN. CHIN will continue to investigate tools to improve
access to Artefacts Canada and other resources.
CHIN Involvement in Production of Multilingual Religious Objects
Terminology
CHIN collaborated with the Direction des Musées de France
and Réunion des Musées Nationaux on the production of the Religious
Objects - User's Guide and Terminology. This publication
includes an illustrated guide for data entry, and a hierarchical
terminology (English and French) of more than 300 standard terms
for Catholic religious objects and furnishings, and liturgical
vestments and linens.
A second project, a collaboration between CHIN, the Getty
Information Institute, the French Ministry of Culture, and
the Italian Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation,
has resulted in the development of a multilingual (English,
French, and Italian) lexicon of religious object names. The
multilingual lexicon in entitled, Religious Objects of the
Catholic Faith/Objets religieux du culte catholique/Corredo
ecclesiastico di culto cattolico and is available in print
from the French Ministry of Culture at:
Ministère de la Culture
6, rue des Pyramides
75 041 Paris cedex 01 France
CHIN Involvement in Governmental Standards Working Groups
CHIN is represented in several working groups and committees
within the Government of Canada, which are working on standards-related
issues. These groups include:
- Government On Line Metadata Interdepartmental Working Group
- Interdepartmental E-Learning Material Metadata Sub-group
- Government On Line Thesaurus Interdepartmental Working Group
- Department of Canadian Heritage Metadata Group
CHIO - Cultural Heritage
Information Online
CHIO was a two-part project undertaken by CIMI
(Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information) to demonstrate
the implementation of Z39.50
and SGML for search and retrieval of structured museum information.
- In the first phase of CHIO, CIMI undertook a study which
resulted in the identification of the CIMI
Access Points, a set of attributes that are commonly
used for retrieval of museum information. Using the CIMI
Access Points, CIMI created a DTD
(Document Type Definition) specifically for museum content.
This CIMI DTD "reflects a community-endorsed system for encoding
museum text using SGML and provides a framework for any future
work that CIMI or any cultural heritage organization might
do in applying SGML to museum information.2"
- In the second phase of CHIO, the CIMI Access Points
were used to create a Z39.50
profile (the CIMI Profile), to be used for search
and retrieval of museum information. CIMI then tested the
CIMI Profile in a Z39.50 testbed project, and further
developed the CIMI Profile. In 1998, the CIMI Profile
was further tested in the European project, Aquarelle;
the current version of the CIMI Profile is a "harmonization"
of the original CIMI Profile used in project CHIO with
the profile developed for Aquarelle.
MIDIIS - Museum
Initiative for Digital Information Interchange Standards
MIDIIS is a series of interrelated research projects and test
beds which were planned by the Consortium
for the Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) for 2000-2001: