Category Archives: Documentation

EODEM update 9

This is a very short post, to give a bit more information about release dates for EODEM importers and exporters in collections management systems.

  • EODEM will be included in the next release of Modes, version 1.6, due before the end of 2023.
  • Gallery Systems anticipate including EODEM in TMS Collections version 2024 (9.95), scheduled for release in May 2024.

I also gather that Axiell will be working on incorporating EODEM into Axiell Collections in 2024. And of course EODEM is already available in the current releases of MuseumPlus and musdb.

EODEM update 8 – launch

It’s been a while coming but … today, 1 September 2023, the CIDOC Documentation Standards Working Group (DSWG) announced the launch of its Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model (EODEM) as a live, finalised standard. Specification files can be accessed via the project’s pages on the CIDOC website, and developers can obtain support via email.

The aim of EODEM is to save people working in museums from wasting their time continually cutting and pasting (or even worse, retyping) information between different collections management systems (CMSs) when they’re borrowing objects for exhibitions.

Continue reading EODEM update 8 – launch

EODEM update 7 – public beta

I’m delighted to announce that the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model (EODEM) public beta was released today, 22 May 2022, with an announcement made during a workshop for software vendors at the 2021 [sic] CIDOC conference. Specification files can be accessed via the project’s pages on the CIDOC website.

We now hope that vendors and suppliers of museum collections management systems and related software will help us test the model by starting to implement EODEM exporters and importers in their software. As well as the resources available form the specification page, you can obtain support via email, and we have a (currently very quiet) Slack workspace. And if you wish to get more involved in the finalisation of the standard by joining our monthly meetings, please get in touch with me via the contacts page on this site.

EODEM update 6

Work on the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model, EODEM, continues, and we’ll be hosting two workshops during the CIDOC annual conference, in a few days’ time.

We invite developers and suppliers of museum collections management systems to a vendors’ workshop at 14:00-17:30 EEST on Sunday 22 May 2022. The workshop will be hybrid: both online, and in Tallinn, Estonia. It will introduce the EODEM standard, mark its formal release as a public beta, discuss the challenges likely to be met in its implementation – and hopefully identify some solutions to those challenges.

If you develop or supply collections management software for museums, we hope to see you at the workshop; if you know someone who develops or supplies such systems, please pass this information on to them. Attendance is free of charge, and is independent of attendance at the rest of the conference. To reserve a place, please contact me.

If you’re attending the conference, and would simply like to learn more about EODEM, then please come to the CIDOC Documentation Standards Working Group’s session at 16:00 EEST on Tuesday 24 May; again, this will be hybrid, both online and in Tallinn.

EODEM update 5

Development of the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model (EODEM) reached an important milestone yesterday with the formal release of version 1.1 of the LIDO data-sharing standard. This is significant because EODEM is defined as a profile of LIDO – that is, an EODEM record comprises a fixed sub-set of LIDO data elements and values. And this in turn means that, if a collections management system vendor implements a LIDO 1.1 importer or exporter, they will have done the bulk of the work required to produce an EODEM importer or exporter.

Continue reading EODEM update 5

EODEM update 3

It’s a couple of months now since my last update on progress with EODEM (the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model) – so what have we been doing? The short answer is: issued a further draft of the standard; and drawn up a stylesheet which demonstrates how XSLT can be used to transform a heavily-nested EODEM LIDO XML document into a flatter structure (actually CSV, as flat as they come), closer to many that used by many collections management systems.

Continue reading EODEM update 3

EODEM update 2

Since I last wrote about EODEM (the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model), three months ago, we have been busy. The net result is a new draft of the standard (now available via CIDOC’s new document repository, by the way.) Whilst this is not yet final, it marks a significant evolution of the draft, and we don’t expect to make too many more changes.

Continue reading EODEM update 2

Towards a national collection

And no, I don’t mean TaNC …. I’ve been interested in Collection Trust’s plans in this area for some time; these are brought into sharper relief by their recent announcement that they’ll be turning Culture Grid off soon. This post is as much for my use as anything else: I’m using it to pull together resources related to Collections Trust’s work related to museum data aggregation. I expect I’ll keep it updated as I find more.

Continue reading Towards a national collection

EODEM update 1

I was very pleased to hear EODEM referred to last week,1 during the third Balboa Park Online Collaborative webinar on Dreaming of a New Collections Management System (a really interesting series, well worth watching if you haven’t already, and have the time). But then, as it was Richard Light speaking, and he’s been hard at work recently on building an EODEM importer / exporter for MODES, perhaps it wasn’t so surprising – but this made we realise it’s time to share where we are with the EODEM project.

Continue reading EODEM update 1
  1. EODEM is the CIDOC Documentation Standards Working Group’s project to create an Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model, and see it implemented in collections management systems worldwide – but then, you knew that. []