Using an ontology for interoperability and browsing of museum, library and archive information

Abstract

Ontologies play an important part in the development of the future ‘semantic web’; the CIDOC conceptual reference model (CRM) is an ontology aimed at the cultural heritage domain. This paper describes a Concept Browser, developed for the EU/IST-funded SCULPTEUR project (semantic and content-based multimedia exploitation for European benefit environment (programme IST-2001-no. 35372); May 2002 to May 2005), which is able to access different museum information systems through a common ontology, the CRM. The development of this Concept Browser has required mappings from the legacy museum database systems to the CRM. The crucial process of creating the mappings is described, using the C2RMF catalogue (EROS) and library databases as a case study