In article <[log in to unmask]>, Pat Reynolds
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>In article <[log in to unmask]>, Kerridwen Harvey
><[log in to unmask]> writes
>>Is anyone out there using the Social History and Industrial
>>Classification (SHIC) in their museums to do subject classification of
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>objects?

The main misunderstanding to avoid is the one that Pat Reynolds explains
in the following comment:

>* it's process-driven.  Take that box of matches - it would have a
>different number (or more than one number) depending on whether it was
>used in a display stand by a shop, or in a trade exhibition, by Mr Jones
>to light his pipe, or by Mrs Jones to light the aga.

SHIC is primarily a classification of activities, not of objects. If you
want to group your objects by the areas of activity in which they were
used, then SHIC may well be appropriate. In most museums you will also
want to index objects by form and function, so that knives fall in the
broader category of "cutting tools" and have the narrower category of
"bread knives". These two approaches are complementary and can well be
used together, but they are not alternatives, because they do different
things.

You can read a lot more about SHIC on Stuart Holm's Web site at
http://www.holm.demon.co.uk/shic.htm

and a brief description on the MDA Web site at
http://www.open.gov.uk/mdocassn/descbib.htm#shic

Leonard Will

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