18 · Survey Results: Executive Summary
rather than community-specific. “For example, rather
than conceiving of the suite of standards as the
‘museum way’ of describing objects, this combination
of standards emerges as the appropriate form of de-
scription for cultural materials, regardless of whether
they happen to be housed in a library, archive, or mu-
seum…The successful integration of digital images of
material culture from library, archive, and museum
collections hinges on the emergence of a more homog-
enous practice describing like-materials in different
institutions.”8
Achieving a standards matrix and establishing
best practices for art and artifact collections would
enable all types of cultural heritage institutions to be-
come better stewards of these resources and increase
the potential for sharing information. Libraries should
collaborate further with archives and museums to cre-
ate rich and shareable metadata based on standards
adopting a systematic approach to the management
and description of art and artifact collections will ad-
vance the mission of all cultural heritage institutions
and expose hidden collections.
Endnotes
1. Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources.
Dublin, OH: OCLC, 2005, p. 38–39.
2. Christian Dupont, “Libraries, Archives,
and Museums in the Twenty-First Century:
Intersecting Missions, Converging Futures?”
RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and
Cultural Heritage 8, no. 1 (March 20, 2007): 16.
3. Bruce Whiteman, “Cooperative Collection
Building: A Response to Gerald Beasley,” RBM:
A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural
Heritage 8, no. 1 (March 20, 2007): 29–30.
4. Robert Martin, “Intersecting Missions,
Converging Practice,” RBM: A Journal of Rare
Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 8, no. 1
(March 20, 2007): 81.
5. Association of Research Libraries. 2009. Exposing
Hidden Collections. www.arl.org/rtl/speccoll/
hidden.shtml
6. Council of Library and Information Resources.
Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives.
http://www.clir.org/hiddencollections/index.
html
7. Rebecca A. Buck and Jean Allman Gilmore,
editors. The New Museum Registration Methods.
Washington DC: American Association of
Museums, 1998, p. 43–44.
8. Mary W. Elings and Günter Waibel, “Metadata
for All: Descriptive Standards for Metadata
Sharing across Libraries, Archives and
Museums,” First Monday 12, no. 3 (5 March
2007): 8.
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