Trevor,
Collection level descriptions are the next step up from describing objects. Lots of objects make a collection, which then becomes an identifiable entity in itself. The aim is to try and create a standard approach to describing those collections, and the way they relate to institutions. The project I work on, Cornucopia (http://www.cornucopia.org.uk), is a database of lots of museums, with individual descriptions of their collections (divided by subject - eg archaeology, geology, costumes etc etc). If you have a look at it, you'll see that the information is separated into three 'levels' - institution, collection, and 'star objects'/strengths.
One of the main reasons why there is so much interest in this area is that people want to be able to find what museums have in their collections. They don't necessarily want to know each and every last mollusc, but they do want to know that you have holdings relating to Natural Sciences or Biology. It's a step towards making information about museums more accessible and comprehensible, particularly via online services.
The difficulty comes in that the phrase 'Collections Level Description' is also used to talk about the various means of achieving this accessibility. Specifically, there is a metadata schema for Collections Description which as been derived from the 'Research Support Libraries Programme' (RSLP), which seems to have real potential as a model of how to structure the information about your collections.
(Metadata is structured information about resources (eg a collection, an object, anything you like, really), and all this means is that a standard approach is being developed by which people will describe their collections and then make them available online. By adopting a standard approach, it makes life easier for both people and search engines to find the information about collections via the Internet.
You can find out more at the website of the UK Office of Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) - http://www.ukoln.ac.uk - they run the Collections Description Focus and are an excellent source of information about how it all fits together.
Hope this helps!
Nick
Nick Poole
ICT Adviser
Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries
16 Queen Anne's Gate
London
SW1H 9AA
Tel 020 7273 1410
New! Visit the Cornucopia database of UK museum collections at http://www.cornucopia.org.uk
Visit the Resource website at http://www.resource.gov.uk
Visit the Peoples Network website at http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk
Join the Resourcenews email list at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trevor Reynolds [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 1:55 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Collection Level Descriptions
>
> There seems to be a lot of work going on about Collection Level Descriptions.
>
> Can anyone tell me what exactly they are and why anyone would want to use them?
>
> Trevor Reynolds
>
>
>
> Trevor Reynolds
> Collections Registrar, English Heritage
> Room G01, 23 Savile Row, London, W1S 2ET, UK
> tel: +44 (0)20 7973 3482 fax: +44 (0)20 7973 3001 (GTN 3503 3482)
>
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