CCO (Cataloging Cultural Objects) is a content standard that provides guidance for formatting and entering metadata values and terms to create shareable metadata for cultural heritage collections. It was developed in the late 1990s/early 2000s in response to questions from catalogers using the VRA Core standard and Getty vocabularies about how to properly format terms. While inspired by these standards, CCO can be used with any controlled vocabulary or data structure. It aims to improve discovery, retrieval, and access of cultural heritage collections through common practices and support for linked open data. The general guidelines also provide advice on structuring local databases and defining hierarchical relationships in controlled vocabularies.

1. Cataloging Cultural Objects
Cataloging Cultural Objects
Why CCO?
Overview: Purpose and History

2. Cataloging Cultural Objects
Cataloging Cultural Objects
Or, How to enter your data with Style

3. The 90’s
• The Art Information Task Force (AITF),
funded by the Getty Trust, CAA and
NEH develops CDWA (Core
Description of Works of Art)
• VRA (Visual Resources Association)
begins to develop VRA Core
• Both of these standards are meant to
describe works of cultural heritage
and their surrogate images

4. In 1999, when a working group for the Council on
Library and Information Resources (CLIR) began
implementing the new VRA Core element set for
cataloging visual information, they realized a
component was missing.
During training sessions about using the VRA Core
with the Getty Vocabularies, trainers kept getting
the same question…

5. We know where to put
specific cataloging
information (VRA Core
elements)
We know what terms are
preferred to describe the work
or image (Getty Vocabularies)

6. Should the creator’s preferred name be listed
last name first?
Should the descriptive title for a soup spoon be
capitalized?
We don’t know how to
format those terms when
they are entered into their
elements (fields).

7. What was needed
was a style guide.
Not only did catalogers, and those doing
data entry, need a guide for data content
and formatting (similar to the old Anglo-
American Cataloging Rules [AACR2])……
So did the builders of the multiple
thesauri at the Getty Vocabularies
program, all of which can be seen
used within CONA (Cultural
Objects Name Authority)

8. A content standard which guides the entry of data values
(words and terms) and formatting for the purpose of:
• Creating shareable metadata
• Building common practice across LAMs (libraries, archives
and museums)
• Improving discovery, retrieval and access
• Laying the groundwork for Linked Open Data (LOD) by
using controlled vocabularies
So, What Is CCO?

9. While the creation of CCO was inspired by the development of the VRA Core
elements and the Getty Vocabularies, it can also be used with any thesaurus, or
controlled vocabulary, like the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF),
VIAF, ICONCLASS, TGM, etc.

10. …And it can be used with any structural data standard deemed suitable
for a given collection, including VRA Core, CDWA (LIDO) and Dublin
Core

11. Content Standard vs. Structural Standard…
a Clarification
• CCO guides content and formatting (cataloging
rules), it is NOT a structural standard
• A structural standard has an element set (field
structure), normally to be used in a database
• The CCO publication (both print and online)
is organized around common elements (like
creator, location or title) for ease of look-up
and reference, NOT because it
recommends a specific element set

12. However, guidance for the generic structuring of databases which allow
relationships between works, and images, and for hierarchical
relationships in controlled vocabularies, was also needed at this point
in time:
• CDWA first published 1996
• AAT vocabulary first published
(print) 1990 and 1994; fully
online 1997
• VRA Core developed 1996;
(VRA Core 4 XML schema
published 2007)
• Digital museum and teaching
collections begin to be
developed
Hence the development of
Part One: General Guidelines
in the CCO publication
(pages 1-41)

13. • Structure local
relational databases
• Define the works and
images you are
cataloging and how to
relate them
The CCO General Guidelines give advice on how to:
• Create authority files to
use with controlled
vocabularies
• Define how you use
hierarchical (nested)
controlled terms

14. Watch Part 2,
Applying CCO
The Ten Key Principles
Interested in learning more?

15. Cataloging Cultural Objects
Cataloging Cultural Objects
This video series was developed by the
CCO Sub-committee of the
VRA Cataloging and Metadata Standards Committee
 Susan Jane Williams, sub-committee chair
 Jonathan Cartledge
 Arden Kirkland
For more information, visit
http://vraweb.org/resources/cataloging-cultural-objects/