Hi Robert, The E78 Collection changed name (which of course does not mean anything since the name of a class is just a label and the definition is given by the scope note.) to E78 Curated Holding a year ago (issue 270 resolved in Prato February 2016). The CRM 6.2.2 is not completely updated - unfortunately.
The crucial point is: Can an instance of E78 Curated Holding consist of stuff (to use the old term) that is not moved and cannot be moved. The first sentence of the scope note indicates that a curated holding consists of things that are assembled and thus moved (demonstrating that they are physical objects). "This class comprises aggregations of instances of E18 Physical Thing that are assembled..." If this is the case, one may argue that any assembly of physical objects is in itself a physical object. On the other hand there may well be a open air museum where the collection consists of log houses placed in different locations (say, 1 kilometer apart) but curated collectively. It may be somewhat artificial to model such a collection as a single physical object. However, I agree that the word 'assembled' may cause confusions. If you agree that my collection of log houses should not be modeled as a single physical object, could you suggest a better formulation in the scope note? Best Christian-Emil ******************************************** E78 Curated Holding Subclass of: E24 Physical Man-Made Thing Scope note: This class comprises aggregations of instances of E18 Physical Thing that are assembled and maintained (“curated” and “preserved,” in museological terminology) by one or more instances of E39 Actor over time for a specific purpose and audience, and according to a particular collection development plan. Typical instances of curated holdings are museum collections, archives, library holdings and digital libraries. A digital library is regarded as an instance of E18 Physical Thing because it requires keeping physical carriers of the electronic content. Items may be added or removed from an E78 Curated Holding in pursuit of this plan. This class should not be confused with the E39 Actor maintaining the E78 Curated Holding often referred to with the name of the E78 Curated Holding (e.g. “The Wallace Collection decided…”). Collective objects in the general sense, like a tomb full of gifts, a folder with stamps or a set of chessmen, should be documented as instances of E19 Physical Object, and not as instances of E78 Curated Holding. This is because they form wholes either because they are physically bound together or because they are kept together for their functionality. Examples: the John Clayton Herbarium the Wallace Collection Mikael Heggelund Foslie’s coralline red algae Herbarium at Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, Trondheim, Norway ********************************************** E19 Physical Object Subclass of: E18 Physical Thing Superclass of: E20 Biological Object E22 Man-Made Object Scope note: This class comprises items of a material nature that are units for documentation and have physical boundaries that separate them completely in an objective way from other objects. The class also includes all aggregates of objects made for functional purposes of whatever kind, independent of physical coherence, such as a set of chessmen. Typically, instances of E19 Physical Object can be moved (if not too heavy). In some contexts, such objects, except for aggregates, are also called “bona fide objects” (Smith & Varzi, 2000, pp.401-420), i.e. naturally defined objects. The decision as to what is documented as a complete item, rather than by its parts or components, may be a purely administrative decision or may be a result of the order in which the item was acquired. Examples: John Smith Aphrodite of Milos the Palace of Knossos the Cullinan Diamond Apollo 13 at the time of launch ***************************************************** ________________________________________ From: Crm-sig <crm-sig-boun...@ics.forth.gr> on behalf of Robert Sanderson <rsander...@getty.edu> Sent: 14 April 2017 04:20 To: 'crm-sig' Subject: [Crm-sig] E78 Collection vs E19 Physical Object Dear all, A question completely unrelated to states, I promise ( E78 Collection is described as: “This class comprises aggregations of instances of E18 Physical Thing that are assembled and maintained …” And E19 Physical Object’s scope note says: “The class also includes *all* aggregates of objects made for functional purposes of *whatever kind*, …” (emphasis added) However E78 is not a descendant of E19 … they are both independent descendants of E18. So every E78 Collection must also be, explicitly, an E19 Physical Object? This seems like a bug in the class hierarchy? And regardless of the hierarchy, if there is a set of objects that are not “physically bound together or […] kept together for their functionality” (hence not E19), but do not have a “particular collection development plan” (hence not E78 either) … how should they be modeled? Examples include auction lots, the set of objects that are looked after by an art dealer (but without a development plan), and similar. Many thanks! Rob _______________________________________________ Crm-sig mailing list Crm-sig@ics.forth.gr http://lists.ics.forth.gr/mailman/listinfo/crm-sig
