STANDARDIZATION: 
A NECESSITY FOR THE DOCUMENTATION & ARCHIVING 
IN CULTURAL HERITAGE 
M. loannides a , G. Hadzilacos b 
Higher Technical Institute, P.O. Box 20423 CY-1521, Nicosia, Cyprus - gammat@cytanet.com.cy 
b Computer Technology Institute, Aktaiou str. 11, GR-11851, Athens, Greece - Giorgis@cti.gr 
KEY WORDS: Databases, Standards, Specification, Data Structure, Documentation, Archiving 
ABSTRACT: 
The authors will give an overview of the State of the Art in the field of Standardization in the area of Cultural Heritage worldwide. 
This is especially important due to the fact that Cultural Heritage is currently being influenced by computer technology and utilizing 
the advantages of digital documentation along with the reconstruction of the past taking on a 3D form. 
Focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of the modern Information Technology (IT) tools, it will be demonstrated how user 
dependent data can cause many critical situations. The revolution of IT and the continuous expansion of this technology has set the 
experts of Cultural Heritage under massive pressure to become familiar with and use the computer technology available. Cultural 
Heritage data and information has to be reliably read, sorted, indexed, manipulated, retrieved, and communicated between systems 
nationally and internationally. The use of IT is highly encouraged and has proven itself a vital tool. However, at its present state, 
“island solutions” have emerged limiting the study area of the researcher which leads to the incompatibility of cataloguing, 
archiving, presenting and conserving archaeological artefacts, monuments and sites in a unified worldwide format. 
A ’’standard”, in Information Technology can be defined as a set of regulations for the guarantee of the protection of the long-term 
value of digital data for the storage, exchange, sharing, searching and retrieval of information between different users / professionals 
around the world using the global computer network (Internet) and different Hardware and Software structures. 
Based on specific examples, the advantages of standardization and dangers of non-standardization of the globalization of e- 
documentation and e-archiving in Cultural Heritage in the areas of e-libraries and e-museums will be demonstrated and discussed. 
I. INTRODUCTION 
In contrast to most disciplines where repetition is a basic 
presumption of the scientific approach, in the area of cultural 
heritage, we have to face the uniqueness of the subject matter 
(e.g. archaeological finding, folklore element, museum exhibit, 
etc). Thus, the record constitutes itself the major source to 
describe events, research results, findings, since the subject 
matter can never be restored to its previous condition, once it 
has been disturbed (Hadzilacos et al. 2002; Dekoli et al. 1997). 
Recording has used many different technologies that vary along 
a wide spectrum starting from paper and progress to more state- 
of-the-art digital technologies (Hodder, 1999). 
The exponential growth of Information Technologies in the last 
decades has permitted easier and less costly applications in 
many scientific domains, resulting into a creation of numerous 
projects with respect to the area of cultural heritage (Custer, 
1999). However, at its present state, the user dependent 
utilization of IT has resulted into the creation of “island 
solutions” that limit the study area of the researcher which leads 
to the incompatibility of cataloguing, archiving, presenting and 
conserving archaeological artefacts, monuments and sites in a 
unified worldwide format (Barcelo et al., 1999; Llobera, 2001). 
This practice results into a disparate, localized information 
sources that lack a coherent and valuable global resource 
(Doher, 2000) 
This problem is not new in modern science (Richards, 1998). It 
has been faced by many disciplines and solved successfully by 
internationally accepting a set of regulations for the guarantee 
of the protection of the long -term value of digital data for the 
storage, exchange, sharing, searching and retrieval of 
information between different users. 
In other words, different parties have agreed upon a standard 
way of handling data. Voluntary consensus standards for 
products, processes, services are at the foundation of the world 
economy and society. Several countries and professional 
societies, like USA, European Union, IEEE and VDI, have a 
proud tradition to support the needs of the consumer and the 
competitiveness of industry. 
Standards make an enormous contribution to most aspects of 
our lives - although very often, that contribution is invisible. It 
is when there is an absence of standards that their importance is 
brought home. For example, as purchasers or users of products, 
we soon notice when they turn out to be of poor quality, do not 
fit, are incompatible with equipment we already have, are 
unreliable or dangerous. When products meet our expectations, 
we tend to take this for granted. We are usually unaware of the 
role played by standards in raising levels of quality, safety, 
reliability, efficiency and interchangability - as well as in 
providing such benefits at an economical cost. Consequently, 
we can easily deduct that standards are a public good. They 
shape innovation and patterns of technological change (Wilson, 
1996). 
The basic characteristics of standards are that: