Developing cultural heritage preservation databases based on Dublin Core data elements

Abstract

Preserving our cultural heritage – from fragile historic textiles such as national flags to heavy and seemingly solid artifacts recovered from 9/11 – requires careful monitoring of the state of the artifact and environmental conditions. The standard for a web-accessible textile fiber database is established with Dublin Core elements to address the needs of textile conservation. Dynamic metadata and classification standards are also incorporated to allow flexibility in recording changing conditions and deterioration over the life of an object. Dublin core serves as the basis for data sets of information about the changing state of artifacts and environmental conditions. With common metadata standards, such as Dublin Core, this critical preservation knowledge can be utilized by a range of scientists and conservators to determine optimum conditions for slowing the rate of deterioration, as well as comparative use in the preservation of other artifacts.