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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.