NEW CATEGORISATION SYSTEM FOR A VIRTUAL ON-LINE POSTER MUSEUM

The University of Aveiro is at present developing a project involving the construction of a virtual on-line poster museum, containing around 40,000 artifacts.

Given the large number of posters in existence, and the great diversity of representations, this paper describes the development of the project and the reasons behind the creation of “key topics,” which function as gateways to other related information on the web – metadata. It also presents the proposed key topics, considered as a tool that allows the visitor access to contents, not only from the perspective of traditional classifications and catalogue, but also from the point of view of design.  

The categorization of topics is essential to establish a particular order in the collection, and is a way of orienting the visitor. The exhibition is therefore no longer imposed by the museum but rather is constructed according to the visitor’s own choice, allowing each visitor to effectively curate their own exhibition.

Thus, the paper explains the process of selection, mentions the criteria and reasons necessary for the pursuit of the project. For this, it is based upon existing models, which are adapted as regards orientation, cataloguing, indexing and classification, using the LoC – Library of Congress, the UDC – Universal Decimal Classification, the “faceted classification”, the ISBD(NBM) – International Standard Bibliographic Description for Non-Book Material and the UNIMARC as international references. As a national reference, we have adapted the Clip – Compatibilização de Linguagens de Indexação em Português (Compatibilization of Indexing Languages in Portuguese), CDU – Classificação Decimal Universal (Universal Decimal Classification) which is based on the UDC system, and RPC – Regras Portuguesas de Catalogação (Portuguese Cataloguing Rules).

In order to bring this closer to the area of design, the paper presents other references concerning the classification of posters existing in publications on this theme that have more to do with the conceptual and graphic content than with aspects of library management. Through these publications, we can understand the models and criteria adopted by some of the authors in their classifications. Given the specific nature of the topics dealt with in the posters, and also cultural matters, the paper presents the combination of different library methodologies and respective adaptations, while also creating new ones.

It also proposes a new concept, relative to the access to and availability of contents, taking as a basis the creation of a classification system with particular characteristics that could serve as a reference for other virtual on-line poster museums.