A thorough survey of the specific standards concerning cultural heritage is an enormous task. Therefore, at this moment, the survey can only be initial and partial.

This chapter contains a description of current standards and related initiatives, an analysis of the survey and a commentary on current developments and recommendations for further action.

Given the number of standards and related initiatives in the cultural heritage filed, a mere description will not be enough. In this survey, three ways to categorize are used: scope, country and type. In addition links to other standards/initiatives are given.

scope: part of the cultural heritage field for which the standard is meant (e.g. "archives", "museums", "archaeology")

country: country (or group of countries, or 'international) in which the standard is developed/to which the standard applies.

type:for use in this survey, five types of standardization-activities have been defined:

1. Policy:
   high-level instructions and advice on items concerning the collection and documentation of cultural heritage, including initiators like the European Union.
2. Procedures:
   instructions and guidelines regarding the documentation of cultural heritage-objects, without providing details regarding the units of information (data-standards).
3. Data standard(s):
   descriptions of units of information or fields which should be used to describe a cultural heritage-object. Data dictionaries are included in this type, as they are in fact a very specific data standard.
   'Core' data standards are standards which are designed to contain only the 'core'-information about artefacts.
4. Content:
   actual data (images, database records or authority files like thesauri)
5. Exchange/access:
   attempts regarding data-exchange and on-line access to databases.

Many of the standards and organisations surveyed are concerned with activities of more than one type.

Links: connecting standards and organizations.

Alphabetical description

Please follow this link to this see this section.

Though categories and links are mentioned, the alphabetical character of the above description could hamper attempts at analysis. Therefore, (part of) the information from the description will be repeated in this chapter in two formats:

1. A list ordered by type
2. A linkdiagram

In this list, the standards and related initiatives are ordered by the five types mentioned in section 2.2.1. As was said earlier, some standards are of more than one type. These standards are mentioned under all the relevant types. If, however, a standard or initiative of more than one type has one type which is clearly the most important, the standard is preceded by an '*' in the lists of secondary importance. The brackets at the end of the name of a standard show how the standard is identified in the diagram in section "Linkdiagram"

Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN)
Clearinghouse on Art Documentation and Computerization ('clearinghouse')
Council of Europe Division for Cultural Heritage
European Commission (EC)
The Getty Information Institute (formerly the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP))
International Committee for Costume Museums and Collections ('costumes'){
International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC)
International Council of Museums (ICOM)
Museum Computer Network (MCN)
National Council on Archives (NCA)
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME)
Society of American Archivists (SAA) Standards Board

* Africom - Handbook of Standards
Archival Information Systems Architecture Working Group
Bureau of Canadian Archivists
The Getty Information Institute (formerly the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP))
International Committee for Costume Museums and Collections
International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC)
CIDOC - Fact Sheets
International Committee for Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (CIMCIM)
International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM)
International Council of Museums (ICOM)
International Council on Archives (ICA) Ad Hoc Committee on Descriptive Standards
Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (ICCD)
Museum Documentation Association (MDA)
Society of American Archivists (SAA) Standards Board
SPECTRUM
* Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
Thesaurus Artis Universalis (TAU)

Africom - Handbook of Standards
Archival Information Systems Architecture Working Group
Basisregistratie - HVK
Bureau of Canadian Archivists
Clearinghouse on Art Documentation and Computerization
Committee on Archival Information Exchange (CAIE)
Common Agenda for History Museums{
Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)
CIMI - project Cultural Heritage Information On-line (CHIO)
Council of Europe Division for Cultural Heritage
The Getty Information Institute (formerly the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP))
Information Centre for Culture and Heritage (CIMEC), Romania
International Committee for Costume Museums and Collections
International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC)
CIDOC - Archaeological Sites Working Group ('archaeology')
CIDOC - International Core Data Standard for Ethnology/Ethnography
CIDOC - Guidelines for Museum Object Information ('guidelines')
CIDOC - Relational Data Model ('relational')
International Committee for Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (CIMCIM)
International Council of Museums (ICOM)
International Council on Archives (ICA) Committee on Automation
Marburger Informations-, Dokumentations und Administrations-System (MIDAS)
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME)
Society of American Archivists (SAA) Standards Board
Society of American Archivists Working Group on Standards for Archival Description (WGSAD)
SPECTRUM
* Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML)
Van Eyck project

Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
Art Information Task Force (AITF)
Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN)
ICONCLASS Research & Development Group
Inventaire général des monuments et des richesses artistiques de la France
Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (ICCD)
Network of Art Research Computer Image Systems in Europe (NARCISSE)
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME)
Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)

Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)
CIMI - project Cultural Heritage Information On-line (CHIO)
Extensible Mark-up Language (XML)
CIDOC - Relational Data Model ('relational')
Networked Information Sources in the Arts and Humanities (NISAH)
Remote Access to Museum Archives (RAMA)
Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML)
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

As this diagram is concerned with the links between standards, a few small, 'secluded' families of standards mentioned in the description and the list-by-type are not shown in this diagram (e.g. SAA).

The links in the diagram in section 2.3.3 show which players in the field of cultural heritage & standardizatiom are the best connected:

CIMI, The Getty Information Institute, ICOM and CIDOC.

Though not as generously linked, the MDA should also be included in a list of 'main actors', as its SPECTRUM project is very influential.

A closer look at the five 'main actors' shows that four of them have specialized in some way:

1. The Getty Institute deals mainly with projects concerned with content, CIMI's main concern is with exchange and access
2. CIDOC has, through it's working groups and other contacts, a lot of experience with data standards and already some experience with procedures
3. MDA's SPECTRUM is about procedures based on a data standard.
4. ICOM has, as may be expected of a council of museums, a more general approach, though it has, through it's committee CIDOC, a marked interest in data standards.

Apart from these 'main actors' a European project should pay attention to regional European initiatives. These initiatives focus mainly on content and/or data standards.

European countries or regions where a national data standard has been attempted or achieved are listed below (followed by contacts).

A look at the list in section 2.3.2 will show that most initiatives and standards are concerned with data standards. Data standards come in several types, varying from total standards which define all data elements that can be registered (e.g. AFRICOM) to 'core record' - standards which only try to ensure the standardization of a few data elements (e.g. Van Eyck).

The development towards core records instead of 'total' standards is partly a result of new techniques: the possibility to provide data via Internet has led to a situation in which very different types of database applications are used.

What approach should a project concerning 'cultural heritage on-line' take?

Given the target of the project - on-line access to and exchange of information regarding cultural heritage - and the eventual participation of many European countries, it would seem wise to chose a bottom-up approach: the definition of different core records (art object, archaeological site etc.) and selection of an exchange platform (e.g.. core records in SGML).