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Chapter 7: Class
7.1.1 Discussion
The Class element is used to relate a specific work
to others with similar characteristics, often based
on the organizational scheme of a particular repository
or collection. The purpose is to place the work within
a broader context, categorizing it on the basis of similar
characteristics, including materials, form, shape, function,
region of origin, cultural context, or historical or
stylistic period. Class terms may represent a hierarchy,
a typology, or some other grouping of items, implying
similarities among works within the logic of the classification.
Assigning a Class Designation
Using Class to place the work within a broader context
and relate it to other works in a collection helps end
users browse groupings of works that are related or
share characteristics. The class scheme can be a useful
starting point in the discovery of works contained in
the collection. It introduces the collection and indicates
both its organizational structure and its general focus.
Terms entered in this element should be assigned based
on local guidelines pertinent for the individual collection.
For example, in museum collections, the class of an
object may correspond to the collection of a particular
curatorial department (for example, decorative arts,
furniture, paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings);
in visual resources collections, it may be based on
art historical periods or styles, such as Prehistoric,
Egyptian, Romanesque, Renaissance. A work may belong
simultaneously to different classes in different schemes,
depending on the scheme used or the point of view.
The Class element may refer to a category within the
collection arrangement of the owning institution as
described, or it may refer to organizational schemes
applied to visual resource collections, union catalogs,
and shared cataloging initiatives. For example, when
an image of a work of art from a museum is used in a
visual resources collection, it may be classified differently
from the museum's classification, depending on the scope
and use requirements of the visual resources collection.
In a shared cataloging initiative or union catalog,
yet another classification may be required. In such
situations, however, it is useful to end users to include
the original class designation of the art work's repository
as well.
Class carries no connotation of quality; it is not
a categorization of objects according to grade or value.
For a more complete discussion of class as a cataloging
element, see Categories for the Description of Works
of Art: Classification.
Specificity
The level of specificity to which a work is classified
(for example, in the case of a Brewster chair, whether
more broadly as decorative arts, or more specifically
as furniture or chairs) will depend on
the perspective of the cataloging institution and the
requirements of end users. More general terms than those
recorded in Work Type should be recorded in Class. For
example, if a work is identified as a carpet in Work
Type, it could be classified as decorative arts
in Class. Ideally, Class does not duplicate information
in the Work Type element, though such overlap may sometimes
be necessary or even inevitable.
Organization of the Data
Class should be recorded in a repeatable controlled
field. Terminology should be controlled by an authority
file or controlled list. Terms may be taken from published
or unpublished sources; they may derive from ordered
systems of categories or from published, hierarchically
structured thesauri. The scheme for Class should be
documented with a statement describing the purpose,
intended audience, and focus of the collection. Terms
should be defined so that it is clear which kinds of
works belong to a particular class.
Recommended Elements
This chapter discusses the display and indexing fields
for Class. Display may be a free-text field or concatenated
from controlled fields.
Class display
Class
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