New Version of the Minimum Record Recommendation for Museums and Collections

The Minimum Data Set Recommendation for Museums and Collections, Version 1.2, has been published:

Wiki: German, English

Zenodo (PDF): German, https://zenodo.org/records/23059485 English https://zenodo.org/records/23059685

The following new features have been added:

• Minor adjustments to the home page of the guidelines: names and logos of the participating institutions have been added
• Additions to the data entry guidelines on the data field pages:
• Object title or designation: Additional guidance on recording natural history objects
• Classification: Additional guidance on inventorying
• Material: Additional guidance on inventorying
• Technique:: Additional guidance on inventorying
• Dimensions: Additional information on inventorying
• Event type: Additional notes on the recording of natural history objects
• Person/Organisation: Additional notes on the recording of natural history objects
• Date: Additional notes on recording natural history objects
• Holding institution: Additional notes on inventorying
• Date of the data record:: Additional notes on inventorying
• The following standards have been included in the concordance tables on the data field pages:
  • Darwin Core
  • Linked.Art
  • Schema.org (v30.0, CreativeWork)
• A concordance table has been created on the Alternative text data field page.
• The cross-reference to the CCC data field catalogue has been updated with links, as it has now been published.

Strictly speaking, the following changes are not part of v1.2, as the pages outside the data field catalogue have been decoupled from the versioning. However, these were only added after the release of v1.1.

• The FAQ page has been updated and expanded: amongst other things, new FAQs regarding collection management, rights to cultural heritage objects and vocabulary recommendations have been added or updated.
• The Resources and Links section has been restructured. It now consists of several subpages and the content has been expanded. Some of the changes in this section:
  • The list of software providers has been updated: it now includes a detailed overview of the features of the software products in relation to the minimum data set recommendation. The overview will be expanded gradually as software providers inform the working group of any new developments.
• The Success Stories page has been updated. It features short interviews with various users of the minimum data set recommendation for museums and collections
• The Credits and Citation Guide page has been updated.
• The Acknowledgements page has been updated.

Consultation Hours

Are you interested in the minimum data set recommendation for museums and collections, but aren’t quite sure how best to incorporate it into your documentation work? Do you have questions about individual data fields, the data entry guidelines or the recommended vocabularies? The consultation session is aimed at museum staff, software providers, digital researchers and anyone who uses the recommendation in their work and has any unanswered questions. Do come along!

The next consultation session will take place on 25 November 2026 from 2 pm to 3 pm. We would appreciate it if you could register using the following form (please select ‘LIDO Service Centre’ from the drop-down menu): nfdi4culture.de/de/helpdesk.html

Dates

• 16–20 November 2026: ICOM Documentation 2026 (AfricaMuseum, Tervuren, Belgium), Frank von Hagel, Institute for Museum Research, Chiara Marchini, Institute for Museum Research (DDB Museum Unit) and Dr Domenic Schäfer, GBV Central Office (NFDI4Culture): Publishing FAIR and CARE object data using the Minimum Record Recommendation for Museums and Collections. https://nfdi4culture.de/de/helpdesk.html

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions:

Minimum Data Set Working Group info@minimaldatensatz.de www.minimaldatensatz.de