Incorporation of Multimedia Features in Conventional Cataloguing Database: a Case Study of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies Museum

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Date

1997-05

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Researchers and curators at museums are increasingly faced with providing meticulous inventories of the objects under their care. They are confronted with a dearth of information about relationships between form, function and use of objects, as well as information about production methods, use and users. The IES museum is not an exception to this. Among the major activities preoccupying the museum is information provision on its holdings: maintenance of accession registers, card catalogues, photograph documentation, treatment records etc. This study attempted to address the information handling problems existing 111 the IES museum. Currently manual methods of information management are in place. These methods, however, have created problems in information handling activities because of the size and diversity of the collection as well as varied information requirements of the users. Previous studies suggested conventional computer-based bibliographic database systems as one means of dealing with such problems. Although the recommendations may work well for IES in general and as a starting point for the museum in particular, the user survey conducted in this regard showed that the recommendations are of limited Use to enhance the information handling activity of the museum as records in the museum objects comprise different data types, i.e., structured and Unstructured text, still images, sound, and video, and which are difficult to fit into the conventional formats. To this end, an attempt is made in this work to demonstrate the incorporation of multimedia features in the suggested cataloguing databases in order to enhance systematization in the organization and accessibility of the museum objects at the Institute.

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Information Science

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