ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the categories of data which might be required to support applications in each of the two broad categories of purposes that have identified: documentation and analysis, and dissemination to the public. The objective of documentation is clear: it is to catalogue and record the evidence of a site or the contents of a collection. The chapter considers how to record the shape, size and position of cultural objects is clearly crucial to their digitization; but it is easy to overlook the complexity of the issues that need consideration. Artefacts of historic or cultural significance have knowledge and information associated with them that complete the picture of their significance. Given the costs of developing collections of digital artefacts, and the need for the results to remain usable over the long term, it is important to consider both the logical and physical formats in which the artefacts will be documented and stored.