The following is being posted to AIA-L, AAT-L, ARLIS-L, CAAH, CIDOC-L, IMAGELIB, MUSEUM-L, and VRA-L. THE ART INFORMATION TASK FORCE The Art Information Task Force (AITF) brings together representatives of communities that use and provide art information: art historians, museum curators and registrars, visual resource professionals and information managers. The AITF works to define information about works of art from the researcher's perspective to create a standard for the description of objects and images, a standard that will facilitate the electronic exchange of this information. The AITF is developing a document entitled *Categories for the Description of Works of Art* that articulates an intellectual structure for the content of object and image descriptions. The document has already received extensive review from panels of scholars in a variety of European and non-European subject areas and from visual resource and art information specialists. AITF seeks to advance consensus among all its constituencies. A special subcommittee of visual resource professionals from VRA and ARLIS/NA helped to refine the Categories, especially those applying to images. By providing guidelines for content, independent from software and hardware, AITF hopes that the Categories will become a standard to which existing art systems may be mapped and upon which new systems can be developed. The Categories are intended to enhance compatibility between diverse systems wishing to share art information. Such a standard will contribute to the integrity and longevity of information transmitted across networks and migrated to new platforms. Above all, it will provide researchers consistent, reliable access to information stored on a variety of systems in far-flung places. Accompanying the Categories and furthering the exchange of art information, is a technical protocol based on ISO 8879, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SGML is a protocol recommended by the consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) which promotes an open, standards-based approach to the creation and international interchange of information by museums and cultural heritage organizations. As SGML is also system-independent and designed to structure content, it is ideally suited to the *Categories for the Description of Works of Art*. SGML document type definitions (DTDs) have already been designed for books, articles and serials. The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) has developed an SGML text encoding model for all types of texts. During 1994-1995, the Getty Art History Information Program and CIMI will sponsor four SGML workshops at conferences beginning with the International Committee for Documentation/Museum Computer Network held on August 31, 1994. The Categories and accompanying materials are scheduled for publication in 1995. A work in progress version of the *Categories for the Description of Works of Art* is scheduled for release through anonymous file transfer protocol (ftp) in November 1994. Comments and suggestions are invited and expected. For more information, please contact Deborah Wilde at the Getty Art History Information Program ([log in to unmask]) ********** Sponsored by the College Art Association and the Getty Art History Information Program, the Art Information Task Force maintains liaisons with the Art Libraries Association of North America, the Museum Computer Network and the Visual Resources Association. Since its inception in 1990, the project has received funding from the Getty Art History Information Program. In 1991 the National Endowment for the Humanities provided impetus to the project by awarding a two-year matching grant to the College Art Association.