International Guidelines for Museum Object Information: The CIDOC Information Categories

Foreword
The International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC) is the international focus for the documentation interests of museums and similar organizations. CIDOC has over 650 members from 60 countries, including documentation specialists, registrars, computer managers, system designers, advisors and trainers.

CIDOC has been committed to the development of museum documentation standards for over 25 years. It has provided a forum for the discussion of standards issues and a focus for practical initiatives by a series of Working Groups. Its members include most of the national museum documentation standards organizations and the leading specialists in this field. 

During the 1978 CIDOC meeting in Julita, Sweden, a set of minimum Information Categories for museum objects was discussed. Robert G. Chenhall and Peter Homulos presented a proposal setting out 16 general categories designed to identify an object, record the history of its ownership and use, and provide information for use in internal museum inventories (Chenhall and Homulos, 1978). A version of these proposals was recommended to national documentation committees as the basis for national standards. From 1980 to 1992, these recommendations were developed by CIDOC in two parallel initiatives:

• a Data Standard Working Group developed Information Categories for art and archaeology collections (International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation, 1992 and 1993);
• a Data Model Working Group designed a data model of museum information (International Council of Museums. International Committee for Documentation, (1995a).

At the 1992 ICOM Triennial Conference in Quebec City, the CIDOC Board reviewed progress with these initiatives and identified the need to consolidate the previous work into an accessible and widely available statement of best practice. During 1993-95, the experience of the Committee and its members has been applied to the development of these International Guidelines for Museum Object Information. These Guidelines supersede the 1978 recommendations concerning the Information Categories that should be recorded by museums.

This first edition of the Guidelines will be presented to the 1995 ICOM Triennial Conference in Stavanger. Copies of the publication will be widely distributed to CIDOC members, ICOM National Committees, other ICOM International Committees, related organizations and international standards bodies. CIDOC will actively encourage the use and development of the Guidelines, with the aim of reaching a wide consensus on their content by the 1998 ICOM Triennial Conference. A great deal of work remains to be done before the Guidelines are complete and we will welcome your contribution to this process. It has been a privilege to be Chair of CIDOC during this period, when the activity of the Committee has resulted in this publication and a number of other products. We owe a great debt to the project team responsible for these Guidelines, and particularly to the commitment and expertise of

Alice Grant, Joséphine Nieuwenhuis, and Toni Petersen.

Andrew Roberts, CIDOC Chair, 1989-1995
Cambridge, June 1995