The following is a news announcement from the Research Libraries Group. It
is being posted to other museum and library-related LISTSERVs.
 
THE RESEARCH LIBRARIES GROUP SPONSORS MUSEUM CONSORTIUM
 
The Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG) is pleased to announce that it is
both a sponsor and a participant in the Consortium for the Computer
Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI). The CIMI Consortium will promote
an open, standards-based approach to the creation and interchange of
information by museums and cultural heritage organizations internationally.
 
RLG has joined with the Museum Computer Network (MCN), the Canadian
Heritage Information Network (CHIN) and the Getty Art History Information
Program (AHIP), to provide primary sponsorship for the consortium's first
three years.
 
The CIMI Consortium builds on the work of an MCN project begun in 1990
which brought together representatives from major North American museum
associations and network service providers, including RLG. These meetings
culminated in the report "Standards Framework for the Computer Interchange
of Museum Information" that MCN published in May 1993.
 
It is the CIMI Consortium's mission to see this effort move from the
theoretical to the practical.
 
In addition to its four primary sponsors, the CIMI Consortium has ten other
participating members in North America. The Museum Documentation
Association of the UK and the European Union's Remote Access to Museum
Archives (RAMA) project, a consortium of seven museums and
telecommunications organizations, will also participate.
 
John Perkins, who managed the original CIMI project and co-authored the
CIMI Standards Framework, is the Consortium's project manager.
 
For more information about the CIMI Consortium contact: John Perkins at
[log in to unmask] (Internet email), (902) 826-2824 (voice),
902.826.1337 (fax).
 
To:  MUSEUM-L@UNMVMA