Download KVIS - An Information System for Museums and Similar Institutions

KVIS – An Information System for Museums
and Similar Institutions
Kersti Alev-Christoffersen, GenNet Laboratories, Tartu, Estonia
Jurgen Christoffersen, National Museum of Denmark, DKC, Copenhagen
Denmark , Baltic IT Review 4 '99
There are many different programs on the market for museums and similar institutions that
are designed for management of collections. They usually catalogue objects by name attributes
such as numbers, measures, materials, free text descriptions and image recording. These
programs seldom offer systems that can classify objects from various aspects, thus allowing
for expanded research into our cultural history. The new KVIS information system, which was
designed for museums and related institutions, is a product of cooperation between the
Central Register of Cultural History (DKC) at Denmark’s National Museum, the Estonian
Ministry of Culture and GenNet Laboratories. GenNet has undertaken responsibility for the
design an implementation of what is now known as the Information System of Cultural
Values, or Kultuuriväärtuste Infosüsteem – KVIS.
The KVIS system is a knowledge database which is based on the idea that all human activity is
cultural. Each human being has a role to play, and when other objects are involved, a cultural
event is created. This event takes place at a specific location in time and location, leaving behind
either physical traces or an oral tradition concerning the activity. The interrelation among these
elements defines or classifies the function of the event, the person and the object, as illustrated in
Figure 1.
The classification of events and objects is organized into
hierarchical structures on a broad-to-narrow basis,
focusing on functional categories, groups, units and
components. The system has a high and unique degree
of flexibility, inasmuch as the user can classify and
query as many functions as an object or a person may
have in one event, in short-term or long-term processes,
or in a variety of events over the course of time. All
terms and names in the system are terminologycontrolled and based on bilingual thesauri in Danish,
English and Estonian; these are still being compiled.
Most of the terms are being incorporated from other
systems, such as the international Art & Architecture
Thesaurus (AAT), the thesaurus of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England,
and various Danish systems. All terms, names, special designations and synonyms that are
incorporated from other systems are given keys to origin.
The KVIS system will satisfy the requirements of a modern IT system in several respects. First
of all, the object-oriented design ensures a true knowledge database to hold information on
objects, whether cultural or non-cultural, on persons and on places through time. Secondly, the
system is designed for a wide range of administrative purposes in the running of a museum, in
producing magazines or in organizing exhibitions, not only as a local instrument, but also as part
of a national net-system, as well.
The Danish and Estonian background
The Danish National Museum established its Central Record on Culture History (DKC) in 1992
after two years of development and pilot projects. The design and programming of the DKC
system has developed over the years from sequential files to databases (ORACLE and ACCESS)
in various environments. From the beginning the DKC system has been planned as an instrument
for administration, as well as scientific research at all of the prehistoric sites and monuments
(some 200,000 in all) that are known throughout Denmark and in the archives of the country’s
museums. Recently it was decided to expand the central database to contain not only data about
antiquarian sites and monuments, but also data concerning objects and phenomena from a wide
range of cultural history, up to the present day.
As one of the first systematic, nationwide databases on sites and monuments in the world, the
DKC has taken part in (and closely monitored) the development of similar databases elsewhere,
hosting an international conference on the matter in 1991, as well as another conference, on
"Nordic Museums and Information Technology", in 1996.
The Estonian KVIS system was initiated in 1992 as an information system for museums. It was
designed and implemented by the Tartu company GenNet Laboratories at the Museum of Art, as
well as the Estonian National Museum in Tartu. The first databases were created in DataEase in
DOS, and the structure of the system was based on the object itself in a one-to-one relationship
with the event. It was an instrument both for recording and for the administration of collections.
The Geological Museum and two local museums have also used the version, which has been
adapted to various classification systems in order to deal with a wide range of object types.
During the next five years, information technologies evolved, and the desire of Estonian
museums to expand their registration processes grew, and this served as a good reason to
upgrade the system to a higher international standard, allowing it to cope with the requirements
of the modern IT society. The new KVIS is an object-oriented database in PowerBuilder,
designed for the SQL server and network.
The DKC-KVIS approach to concepts and relations: Theory
No museum object or record of activity can be explained or understood with out a frame of
reference as to concepts and their relations. You cannot answer the questions "What is this
object?" and "What took place?" without a terminology and classification of events and
functions. An object, in broad terms, can be any
being in any environment. But for the sake of
clarity and the structure of relations, we shall
divide up and show the relation among the basic
elements, as seen in Figure 2.
Event: All events are related to time and place.
The interrelations classify the functions of the
event, the person and the object. An event is a
process which occurs between two points in time
(the beginning and the end). We divide events into
major categories and sub-categories (Figure 3).
The first category, natural events, refers to all
kinds of transformations of natural phenomena and nature itself in a broad sense of the word.
The second category, cultural events, is defined as all physical or abstract human activity, except
for events that are related to the recording or administration of cultural history. The basic
activities of feeding, dwelling, transporting, dressing and engaging in social interactions are all
related to creation, the use and disposal of objects, and the involvement of other beings and
surroundings. The third main category, antiquarian and administrative events, is an artificial
grouping for the recording of museum data.
Time: The KVIS system operates with three different
dating systems:
• Calendar date, which allows us to date things in
calendars other than the present-day official calendar
(rural Estonian calendars, etc.);
• Cultural historical dating in different dating systems
such as archaeological or historical periods, styles of
art and architecture, etc.;
• Scientific dating in carbon-, dendro-, fission-track, or
other.
Place: Geographical points or areas of land, sea or
inland waters, defined accurately by systems of
coordinates, latitude and longitude, administrative
areas such as counties, parishes, cadastral units, or
indefinite places or areas. A "place" can also be the sky, space, as well as abstract locations.
Person and role: A person is defined according to gender and attributes, as well as role and
status within family and society. Institutions such as museums are defined as "non-legal"
persons.
Object: An object is defined in general as a physical or metaphysical ("abstract") product of
activity, by nature itself or through human activity. Objects are divided into four general classes.
Human beings, flora and fauna belong to nature. A site refers to the location for human activity,
while structure covers all stationary construction or traces of such, as left by man. An artifact is a
portable object created by man. A phenomenon is either a natural or a supernatural force or
tradition.
The object classification system is organized in a hierarchical structure with four levels. At the
first level, objects are divided up among eight main categories or functions therein:
• Man and nature describes only one "function" – "to exist", or our understanding of the natural
environment. This category is divided up into types of
nature – geological, wet areas, humans, animals, plants,
fossils, etc.
• Subsistence – hunting, fishing, agriculture, food
production, crafts and industry, etc.
• Settlement – settlement types, towns, villages, houses,
construction, households, etc.
• Transport – land, water or air transport;
• Personal expression and accessories – dress, body
ornamentation, personal belongings, etc.
• Spiritual expression – cults, religions, arts,
performances, education, science, etc.
• Social and civil – family, government, defense, communications, health, leisure time, sport, etc.
• Unspecified
The separation of the primary and secondary functional categories in the system is in many ways
very much like other common systems in this area. Compared to these systems, however, the
DKC-KVIS object classification provides a truly exceptional systematic approach in "transverse
object grouping" at the second level of the hierarchy. All objects here are divided up into 10
groups, very much the same as in the previously defined main and sub-category levels. But these
groups are combined freely in each category (Figure 4).
In addition to providing better and easier classifications for the user, the system of transverse
object grouping also enables terminology control over terms an names, which are contained in
the thesaurus of names on functional units at the third level. A "functional unit" is defined as an
object which can function on its own, or driven or carried by man or by some man-made or
controlled energy. A unit may consist of any number of components, which are contained in the
thesaurus of components at the fourth level. A component cannot function on its own and has to
be combined with different units or classified as "unspecified".
KVIS as an instrument
Approximately 90% of the information in KVIS is terminology-controlled, not only for spelling,
but also by content. System-controlled terms are defined in different thesauruses, which can
either be a simple list of terms or a hierarchically organized structure. The thesauri are
multilingual – Estonian, English and Danish at this time – containing synonyms and definitions
of terms. What’s more, the thesauri are divided up between standard and user thesauri. The
standard ones define the main classification system of KVIS and cannot be modified by users.
All classification has to be recorded by the standard system, but users are free to define and add
their own classification systems as separate thesauri and do classification on this basis, too.
The standard classification system in KVIS is meant to
be the key to classify all objects and events and thus to
ensure integration into a central database on cultural
history, which is also part of the overall KVIS concept.
All recordings in KVIS are made through events. There
are five recording screens – a retrospective recording
screen for recording museum collections, a registration
screen for recording new objects or information that
enter an institution, an acquisition screen by which
acquisition and inventory numbers are generated for
new objects, an events screen to record the history of
objects, and an administration screen to record all administration activities inside or outside of
the museum and to produce relevant documents. All event screens are divided up into three subscreens or views: tableview for viewing the list of event records, formview to view a full
description of the activated event record, and query-view to define a new query of event records
into tableview.
Object attributes such as measures, conditions, materials, techniques, additional names and
numbers, classification by user classification systems and text attributes (text on object, stamps,
etiquette, physical description, etc.) are recorded in connection to the event to which the
information refers.
KVIS offers many tools to make the recording process both flexible and easy. There are
functions such as copying the source event into another type of event, maintaining the relations
between the event and the objects, place names, dates and source documents, or copying source
object attributes to other objects connected with the same event. It is also possible to query
objects and to relate them with a source event. During the recording process, all thesauri with
definitions and structures are acceptable.
Collection management
KVIS makes it possible to record all administrative activities in which the institution is involved
and to produce related documents. Users can define their own sets of documents, and the system
will keep track of sequence numbers referring to various documents.
All activities related to objects, beginning with
acquisition, are recorded as administrative activities,
and related documents are produced by the system.
Administration events are things like acquisition, loan,
buying, sending to an exhibition, sending for
restoration, etc. Object attributes such as current
location and condition are recorded relative to
administrative events.
Many standard queries are defined to produce statistics
and reports in KVIS – providing information about
administrative activities in specified periods, for
example, or following objects as they change location
and condition over a period of time, the status quo of the collection, etc.
KVIS also has a flexible tool for preparing exhibitions. It is possible to divide up preparation
work among the responsible people, each of whom can concentrate on his or her own part or
theme of the exhibition, and then unite the prepared parts into a single exhibition. Objects in the
exhibition can be related with the exhibition theme, as well as the location in the exhibition
room. The recorded exhibitions are then source material to produce exhibition catalogues.
Queries
In addition to standard queries to support the administration of a collection, KVIS includes many
other standard reports and queries for different users, including exhibition queries for visitors.
Queries into objects may be directed toward single or combined data about collections, materials,
techniques, measures, classification, etc., and there can also be queries about events. It is also
possible to perform a combined or complex query into any part of or all of the information that is
recorded in the database. In complex queries it is possible to link parameters of object events,
persons, dates, place names and attributes such as measures, materials, techniques, additional
classifications, etc. This system makes thematic queries possible: "manufacture of beer tankards
in Estonia", "South Estonian gardening culture in the early 19th century", "secondary use of
coins", etc.
KVIS in the future
KVIS has been designed as a universal database for the recording of all kinds of objects, and it
can therefore be used in different museums. This very broad scope of utility has been achieved
first of all by the KVIS classification system, but it still requires updating in order to be used in
different museums and collections. System developers are responsible for this updating process
and with supplying users with new versions. This sometimes means working out special
applications through small changes in data and screens for different collections, such as art,
archaeology, photos, archival documents, etc. At the moment the system development
incorporates the recording of images and other audio-video materials, as well as a digital
mapping system.
The database system ahs been designed for a local computer or museum net system. No limits
are defined for users on the net. the KVIS system administrator, working with special application
rights, can define new users and their rights. Specially trained system administrators are
responsible for updating the system version and database.
The future plans for the KVIS system include the elaboration of a central national culturehistorical database for Estonia to contain cultural and historical information from all Estonian
museums and related institutions and to make that information available on the Internet. This
will require collaboration, as well as consensus about the data that are to be kept in local
databases and those that must definitely be in the central data base (e.g., object classification and
all antiquarian events are copied to the central database). This of course, also includes terms of
updating and management of the central database, security, etc.
There are many advantages to a central database – quick access for many to a single base, which
avoids all of the problems that exist in linking local databases. This also makes it possible for
local museums to present their collections and rarities on a common platform. What’s more, a
central base is a crucial instrument for the overall administration of Estonia’s cultural heritage
and for research therein.