The computerized cataloguing of historic watercraft: A case study in information retrieval in museology

Abstract

In 1985, the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada re-catalogued its historic watercraft collection. The project raised many questions about the application of information science concepts and existing museum computer systems to these large and complicated artifacts. This article is a result of the fieldwork done for that project, utilizing the guidelines and Data Dictionary of the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), Canada's National Museum computer organization. Museums are information systems. Because of this, it is possible to apply concepts of information science to problems in collections management, the branch of museology most concerned with information storage and retrieval. Two central problems of collections management are the description and classification of museum artifacts. A brief history of museum computerization introduces a discussion of museum data and how it differs from other kinds of data. Citing examples from museology and information science, a controlled vocabulary is identified as the most important requirement for the precise description and classification of museum artifacts. Maritime museums are selected as a case study in museum information management because their particular problems well illustrate the larger issues. The data required by maritime museums about their historic ships and boats is a subset of museum data generally. Existing standards for maritime data are examined as a prelude to a discussion of the CHIN system. Existing data fields from CHIN are searched for those which can accommodate the kind of data required for adequate records of historic watercraft. A list of fields to be used for the computerized cataloguing of historic watercraft is proposed, along with a cataloguing protocol to help non-specialist curators and cataloguers make use of the system. The conclusion suggests the application of optical storage methods to museum cataloguing, and identifies the ideal museum cataloguing method as a kind of expert system. © 1989 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.