Part 2:

Chapter 5: Location and Geography (Current Location/Creation Location/Discovery Location/Former Location)

5.1.1 Discussion

This chapter deals with elements that record geographic or other location information. Location information will be pertinent for Current Location, Creation Location, Discovery Location, and other types of former locations.

Most cultural works have a variety of geographic associations. Examples include the nation where a pot was made, the city of the museum that currently houses a painting, or the village where an architectural work is located. Another aspect of location information is more specific, for example, the building inside which the work is located (for example, a fresco in a church), or the museum or other institution that owns or has control of the work. Works that can be moved (movable, for example, a sculpture or drawing in a museum or other institution) may have changing relationships to repositories and geography over time, whereas those that are monumental, architectural, or otherwise stationary (for example, a fresco attached to the wall of a church) may not, because they have remained in the same place since they were created. At least four questions about location are generally of interest when describing a cultural object or work:

•  Where is it now?
•  Where was it before?
•  Where was it made?
•  Where was it discovered?
  
  

Geographic Places and Repositories

Data values for Location elements can comprise two types of data: a geographic place (for example, Florence (Italy)) and a named repository or building (for example, Gallerie degli Uffizi). Geographic places may be administrative entities, such as a city or nation (for example, Tokyo (Japan)) or physical features (for example, Lascaux Cave (Dordogne, Aquitaine, France)). Deserted settlements (for example, Machu Picchu (Peru)) and former nations or empires (for example, Flanders) may be included. Repositories for museum objects are generally recorded by the name of the institution or organization that owns or has control of the object (for example, National Gallery of Art (London, England, United Kingdom)). For works not housed in a museum or other collecting institution, locations may also include the name of the building in which the work is located (for example, the church of Santa Croce (Florence, Italy)), which is not necessarily the same as the name of the institution that has control of the work (for example, for works in Santa Croce, Soprintendenza ai Beni artistici e storici per le province di Firenze, Prato e Pistoia). The issues are further complicated by the fact that buildings may also be cataloged as art works in their own right. For works owned by individuals, location may include the city or address of the home of the owner. For further discussion, see Part 3: Geographic Place, Personal and Corporate Name, and Subject Authorities.

Current Location

The Current Location element includes the geographic location of the work of art or architecture and the building or repository that currently houses the work, where applicable. The current location is important to researchers and most other users of art information. If catalog records are being created within a single owning institution, it may seem unnecessary to explicitly record repository and geographic place for every Work Record. However, this information should be included when data is exchanged between institutions or when data is available online in a larger context, such as a union catalog or federated database. If the current location is unknown, that fact should be indicated and the last known location should be included. The repository number is also typically a component of Current Location information, particularly for works in museums; this number or alphanumeric code uniquely identifies the work in the holding institution, and is critical for researchers wishing to find a particular work. For additional discussion, see Categories for the Description of Works of Art: Current Location.

Creation Location

Creation Location is where the work or its components was or were created, designed, or produced; it may also be the presumed original location of the work. It is usually a geographic place, but it may include the name of a corporate body or building. Creation Location is critical for retrieval, but is often not known. Therefore, geographic place information related to the creator (recorded in the Personal and Corporate Name Authority) is often substituted in queries. Location information about the creator includes the geographic place implicit in nationality or culture, and geographic places recorded as the creator's loci of activity, birth place, and death place. See Part 3: Personal and Corporate Name Authority for further discussion.

Discovery Location

Discovery Location is the geographic place where a work was excavated or discovered. This can be a general or a specific place, including the excavation site and the plot or section within the site. The Discovery Location becomes especially important when little else is known about a work or its creation; an example is the disposition of artifacts in the Sutton Hoo ship-burial hoard. For further discussion, see Categories for the Description of Works of Art: Context-Archaeological: Excavation Place.

Former Locations

Additional types of former location may be important for the Work Record, including locations related to the ownership or collecting history of the work. Places related to the exhibition, loan history, conservation, and historical context of the work may be included. A specific architectural work, building, or site within which the work of art or architecture was incorporated or displayed may be included. For elements related to these other types of former locations, see Categories for the Description of Works of Art.

Location as Subject

The subject depicted in or on a work of art may be a geographic place (see Chapter 6: Subject).

Specificity

The level of specificity applied in recording location information will depend upon the requirements of the cataloging institution and the available information. Location may be recorded at the most general level, such as the continent (for example, Europe), or at the most specific level, such as a street address (for example, 13 Coventry Street (London, England, United Kingdom)). The most common location designation will include city, administrative subdivision (if applicable), and nation (for example, London (England, United Kingdom)), preceded by the name of the repository, when applicable.

Ambiguity and Uncertainty

The data structure and cataloging rules should allow for uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in certain works to be noted in the record; for example, a work may have been discovered near Peking, China, or was probably originally located in the Collegiata (San Gimignano, Italy). This is most easily achieved by combining a free-text field with controlled fields. In some cases (for example, created at La Cruz, Costa Rica or Peñas Blancas, Nicaragua), it may be necessary to index multiple possibilities in repeatable fields controlled by a list or authority file.

Organization of the Data

Cataloging institutions must make decisions regarding the level of complexity and granularity necessary for recording and controlling location information. Location information should be controlled, ideally in authorities.

One important issue involves how location information is categorized and controlled. If a simple approach is adequate, all location terminology may be stored together in a controlled list or a single authority file. Some institutions will require more granular data. They may need to make distinctions between buildings and administrative repositories because their users need to know the physical location of the work in the present or past and what entity has or has had control of the work. If such distinctions are necessary to facilitate research or retrieval, the data model must be able to separate different types of entities into different authorities, because the characteristics and therefore the fields of these authorities will differ. Some institutions will also need to record repository buildings as architectural works in their own right. If so, records for these buildings as architectural works should be recorded separately with other Work Records. For further discussion of these issues, see Part 3: Geographic Place Authority and Personal and Corporate Name Authority.

Another important issue concerns how many fields are considered necessary for location information in a Work Record. Several areas of a museum Work Record will have a geographic component. Visual resource collections may require fewer location fields than museums or research databases. In VRA Core Categories, each location term is qualified with a type attribute that specifies what kind of location is being recorded. The VRA Core 4.0 XML schema's controlled list of data values for this type of attribute currently include creation, site (used for current locations for architecture and archaeology), formerSite, discovery, repository, former- Repository, owner, formerOwner, installation, exhibition, performance, context (used for related works cited as a location), publication, and other. Individual cataloging agencies may choose to record fewer or more location types, but it is recommended that any additional terms be derived from a controlled list. Categories for the Description of Works of Art is tailored more to museums and researchers. It lays out a thorough set of categories, with separate location fields clustered with related fields. For example, former ownership locations are clustered with the personal names, dates, method of acquisition, and other information related to the provenance for the work.

Authorities

Names used to describe locations should be drawn from one or more authority files, depending on the needs of the cataloging institution. The pertinent authorities are the Geographic Place Authority (for names of cities, nations, and physical features), the Personal and Corporate Name Authority (for names of repositories, libraries, other institutions or agencies, or private collectors), and the Subject Authority (for buildings). Names should be taken from standard controlled vocabularies. Ideally, the authority files should be based on hierarchical structures that include narrower and broader terms.

Location information may require fields that are indexed and controlled as well as fields that permit a free-text description that will be more meaningful for display and will allow the expression of ambiguity, nuance, and context. Multiple location terms may apply to each work or image, so the authority-controlled location fields should be repeatable.

See further discussion of authorities and vocabularies in Part 3: Geographic Place, Personal and Corporate Name, and Subject Authorities and in Categories for the Description of Works of Art.

Recommended Elements

A list of elements in this chapter appears below. Required elements are noted. Display may be a free-text field or concatenated from controlled fields.

Other Location Information

A repository or owner may assign a unique identifier to a work; this information may be recorded as a separate element within the location area of the record. Some institutions may require location associated with elements other than those discussed in this chapter. For further discussion, see the place-location fields in Categories for the Description of Works of Art: Ownership/Collecting History, Copyright/Restrictions, Exhibition/Loan History, Condition/Examination History, Conservation/Treatment History, Context: Historical, and Context: Architectural.