Scope

In order to perform the given mandate, it is necessary to somehow define the concept of "Cultural Heritage Information". Roughly one could identify the following types of Cultural Heritage (CH) components:

• landscapes & sites
• buildings (architecture)
• movable objects (artefacts, museum objects)
• documents (archival documents, literature, sheet music, still & moving images, sound documents)
• abstract concepts.

There are many ways to preserve this CH:

• collecting and restoration activities relate to the original CH directly (apart from abstract concepts);
• documentation relates to the original indirectly (while it creates a new source itself)
• research deals with the original, its documentation and even more indirect earlier research results (while it creates such a 3rd level source itself).

Cultural Heritage Information can be seen as these: The products of the Documentation and Research - plus the particular information the original object itself contains. Documentation and Research can take several different formats:

• text (catalogues; item history)
• still images (photo's; drawings)
• audio readings
• moving images (film; video).

When talking about Cultural Heritage on-line, focus should be on these information products. Among the many different actors in the field of Cultural Heritage Information, this project has mainly concentrated on those institutions (public and private), that are dedicated to compiling, protecting and researching cultural heritage information. This type of institutions includes Museums, Sites & Monument Agencies, Libraries and Archives. The rationale for concentrating on the "producers" and "guardians" rather than the "distributors" such as publishers and broadcasters is that preserving and enhancing Cultural Heritage Information On-line is a prerequisite for dissemination and use. The advent of the Web has to some degree facilitated simple access to suitable On-line resources, but has done little to ensure a higher level of interoperability and synergy between different repositories of Cultural Heritage Information. Most Cultural Heritage Institutions are concerned about preserving and enhancing the value of their collections by means of Information Technology, but often lack the necessary resources and know-how to chose between available technologies and different complementary standards.

• A primary objective of this project is therefore to identify relevant standards (both official and informal) for digital representation, metadata and system interfaces, which will permit use and exchange of Cultural Heritage Information across a range of organisations - now and in the future.
• Another objective is to identify areas, where available standards appears to be missing or deficient in relation to the requirements of Cultural Heritage Information On-line.

Rather than attempting to invent new standards, this project aims to utilise the vast amount of information about requirements and technical solutions, that has been produced by other projects and cooperative initiatives in the field. The project aims produce two types of results:

• An informal guideline and other tools to assist Cultural Heritage Institutions in selecting suitable standards for recording, describing and disseminating information on-line.
• An overview of areas, where informal or official standards activities are needed in order to facilitate Cultural Heritage Information On-line.

The results will be distributed via the Web and through liaison with other projects.