Cataloguing
The ultimate aim of the IKONOS project was to create a tangible link between two areas of cultural heritage, which are normally thought of, as distinct, self-contained and unrelated. These areas are Digitisation of Cultural heritage and Conservation Practice/Education. Based on the premise that Information Technology (IT) will play an increasingly important role in this field the IKONOS project set out to link the two by exploring the integration of innovative methodologies in artefact risk-assessment and object-based teaching strategies within a tool - an online artefact catalogue - which would be able to provide detailed information on an artefact safely while still being easily accessible to all partner countries.
This first activity thus had two main objectives: create the foundation on which the catalogue would be based; and determine the potential use of object-based risk- and didactic-value assessment in cultural heritage. The above objectives were reached as a result of five distinct activities:
A survey of existing online cultural-heritage-related databases
A sample of 100 databases was surveyed to identify the fields which are considered to be of critical importance in artefact documentation by the major cultural institutes across the world.
The search for, and review of, existing cataloguing methodologies
A report with a full evaluation of the different methodologies as well as internationally-accepted data standards and data validation tools was produced with the aim of identifying the best methodology to adopt, and adapt, for Ikonos' online catalogue.
Research on the application of a didactic-value assessment approach to the cataloguing of cultural heritage artefacts.
The report produced outlines various aspects of learner styles and characteristics and how these converge, enabling us to understand how learning comes about and how learning domain models can therefore be constructed. An instructional system design based on an accurate task analysis and the measurement of attainment targets (used for the division of learning taxonomies belonging to the different aspects of cultural heritage artefacts) was created. However, the subjectivity inherent in the attribution of a didactic value to an aspect of a heritage artefact made the applicability of an object-based mathematical quantification methodology doubtful in the eyes of educators. The report shows that, in order to produce the necessary data to implement such a system, the educators would have to be given time to accept the methodology and explore it.
Research on the application of risk assessment quantification to a cultural heritage catalogue.
A report, based on the results of a literature-review and a series of workshops involving conservators from the targeted areas, archaeologists, curators and IT experts, shows that object-based risk assessment is a concept, which has not yet been accepted by conservation experts, and that problems of subjectivity would need to be addressed by conservation experts before an appropriate quantification methodology could be designed and implemented.
Production of a handbook for cataloguers
- Meant to be used as practical guidelines for the cataloguer/user of the online catalogue by providing a detailed description of a comprehensive list of fields necessary for artefact documentation; as well as lists of controlled terminology to help standardise data content across users in the various countries.
- Explain and evaluate the pros and cons of an eventual implementation of the didactic and risk assessment approaches explored.