Mike, The Getty Research Institute has compiled the following which you may find helpful: The Art and Architecture Thesaurus The Union List of Artist Names The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names all available at http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/ Mike Jusko Senior Art Archivist Walt Disney Imagineering Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 21:13:02 -0400 From: Michael and Mary Tobin Oates <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Cataloguing Advice Needed Hello there, I am setting about the task of cleaning up our collection database. Ours is not a large collection, and includes furniture, decorative arts items, and several hundred works of art, 2-d and 3-d. Over the years, it seems that the registrars have let errors in classification creep in, and I am looking to remedy that. I am looking for some help in my search for reference materials that will define all of the terms I will use to describe the collection. Is there a standard reference manual for the art items, and decorative arts in general?? In the near future, I hope to have this data converted and inserted into a new, more modern collection management software package. I would use the included dictionary to continue at that point, but this data tune-up is the first step. Any suggestions for me?? Many thanks in advance Mike Oates Ottawa, Canada ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).