Terminology Initiatives at the British Museum, London
The British Museum has created several in-house thesauri for data entry and retrieval on its MAGUS system. They are being used by staff in the Collections Data Management Section (CDMS), and in the curatorial departments, and are frequently updated. Some of the the thesauri are Museum-wide, while others are restricted to individual departments.
The following is a list of the main thesauri compiled by CDMS, some of which still require a great deal of editing and discussion:
- Materials (of manufacture)
- Techniques (of manufacture)
- Associated names
- Material culture/Period
- Form/Design
- Subject
The Materials Thesaurus was published in December 1997 and is available through these pages at: http://www.mda.org.uk/bmmat/matintro.htm.
It is also available in printed form. See MDA's publications page.
The Object Names Thesaurus was published, online only, in December 1999 and is available at: http://www.mda.org.uk/bmobj/Objintro.htm.
In addition, producer names from the Prints & Drawings Department have been entered into a thesaurus. The Ethnography Library is also compiling two thesauri - Ethnic names and Subject to support the computerized cataloguing of a photographic collection.
CDMS, along with staff from the Ethnography Library, have contributed extensively to MDA's terminology initiatives and continue to play an active part in the Archaeological Object Name Thesaurus Working Group and the Ethnographic Terminology Working Group.
Contact: Tanya Szrajber, Projects & Standards Manager, CDMS
E-mail: tszrajber@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
