The CIDOC CRM – an Ontological Approach to Semantic Interoperability of Metadata

This paper presents the methodology that has been successfully employed over the past 7 years by an interdisciplinary team to create the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM), a high-level ontology to enable information integration for cultural heritage data and their correlation with library and archive information. The CIDOC CRM is now in the process to become an ISO standard. This paper justifies in detail the methodology and design by functional requirements and gives examples of its contents. The CIDOC CRM analyses the common conceptualizations behind data and metadata structures to support data transformation, mediation and merging. It is argued that such ontologies are property-centric, in contrast to terminological systems, and should be built with different methodologies. It is demonstrated that ontological and epistemological arguments are equally important for an effective design, in particular when dealing with knowledge from the past in any domain. It is assumed that the presented methodology and the upper level of the ontology are applicable in a far wider domain.