Information Architecture and Multi-lingual Collections Access

The Este Court Archives project was a ‘proof of concept’ that tested the idea of a virtual reunion of the collections of art and artifacts commissioned by and created for the Este Family of Ferrara, Italy during the Renaissance. Working with a small team of art scholars, I designed the database schema and cataloguing guidelines; recommended vocabulary standards for classification terms, descriptive techniques and bibliographic citations. In addition, I advised the technical team in its development of a search and retrieval strategy. The repository was developed to accommodate five languages: Italian, German, Czech, French, and English. The variety of collections was extensive and included painting, works on paper, musical instruments, jewelry, sculpture, and much more. Participating museum included the Musée du Louvre, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Národní Galerí Prahae, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Museo del Castello di Ferrara, and the archives of the Castello Estensi. CINECA provided programming and technical support. Funding was provided by the European Commission’s Culture 2000 Program.