Features: Vocabulary Warehouse
The Shared Shelf Vocabulary Warehouse will utilize and build upon the controlled vocabularies created by the Getty Research Institute (GRI), including the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)™, Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)™, Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)™, and the Cultural Object Name Authority (CONA)™ (in development). The Vocabulary Warehouse will provide tools to enable users to easily draw upon creator names, geographic and classification terms, and work records in a single pool where anyone can access, download, and use these records. There will also be tools for contributors to add new creator names and work records to the warehouse to be collected and submitted to the GRI for possible inclusion in the Getty vocabularies. Such candidate terms will also be usable by other Shared Shelf participants in the interim. ARTstor is working closely with the GRI to develop tools and policies that will complement the GRI's own efforts. The Vocabulary Warehouse will provide:
- Cataloging tools integrated with the authority files of the Getty Research Institute, including ULAN™, TGN™, AAT™ and CONA™ (in development).
- Tools to manage your own institutional controlled lists.
- Tools to submit new "candidate" creator names and work records to a shared pool.
- Faster, more consistent cataloging by drawing upon an aggregated pool of shared authorities.
All names from ULAN will automatically be shared through the Vocabulary Warehouse, because they have already been warranted by the GRI. In collaboration with the GRI and other members of the community, we are developing policies for sharing newly entered names, and we are designing the system so that names (of artists, patrons, etc.) will either be used as a personal list for particular catalogers or be nominated as a term to be shared throughout the network. Policies associated with contribution of work records are also in development, including the ability to restrict work records for local use only or shared with the community.
Support is planned for communal editing of shared name and work records. The vocabulary warehouse will be able to maintain links to authority records in metadata records, even as the terms in the authority file are enhanced. Catalogers will also be able to enter display values for their records while maintaining links to full authority records within the vocabulary warehouse.
Additional features to the Vocabulary Warehouse will be developed based on community demand.
