Guides and databases: Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies : Specialist databases and resources

Museums & Cultural Heritage World Wide

© Ellora Caves, India, The Vishvakarma Buddhist Cave. Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Global Heritage Fund
Through creative collaborations and grassroots partnerships, we initiate and support projects that adapt cultural heritage to address contemporary needs.
IIC - International Association for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
Brings together conservation professionals from around the world, educating, enabling and recognising excellence.
Museums of the World
Museums of the World website is accompanied with a suite of mobile applications, providing users with up-to-date information about museums and galleries worldwide in one place – including visitor information, exhibitions, events, collections, interactive audio guides and more.
Museums World Wide
Statistics and facts about world museums
The Blue Shield International
Protecting cultural property in crisis or conflict.
UNESCO Culture
Protecting and safeguarding the world’s cultural and natural heritage. Includes the World Heritage List.
UNESCO Intangible Heritage
International Protection of Intangible Heritage.
World Heritage List
Major cultural heritage monuments and sites of the world.
World Intellectual Property Organization
Protection of intellectual property, including intangible heritage, worldwide.

Advice & Standards

Collections Trust
Collections Trust helps museums work with the information that connects collections and audiences. Our standards and advice are used around the world to make museum collections accessible.
ICCOM (International Council of Museums)
The International Council of Museums is an international organisation of museums and museum professionals which is committed to the research, conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible.

Inventories, Terminologies & Vocabularies for Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies

Art Information Commons: Environmental Scan
Helps practitioners remain aware of the information, projects, people, tools and resources that reflect explorations and innovations throughout the cultural heritage community as well as in other commercial sectors.
FISH Vocabularies
The FISH vocabularies consist of a number of structured terminologies for recording heritage assets such as monuments, buildings, maritime craft, historic aeroplanes, archaeological objects, components and landscapes. They also cover professional management and archaeological event terms (interventions), types of evidence and archaeological sciences (samples, ecofacts).
Getty Vocabularies
The Getty Vocabularies contain structured terminology for art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, visual surrogates, art conservation, and bibliographic materials.
HEREIN
HEREIN is a European Cultural Heritage Information Network developed within the Council of Europe which brings together European public administrations in charge of national cultural heritage policies and strategies to form a unique co-operation network in the domain of Cultural Heritage. A database, with input from the national coordinators, which provides:
an inventory of European heritage policies in 38 Council of Europe Member States;
a terminology concerning cultural and natural heritage in 14 European languages.
MICHAEL: Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe
Through the multilingual MICHAEL service you can find and explore digital collections from museums, archives, libraries and other cultural institutions from across Europe.
UNESCO Thesaurus
The UNESCO Thesaurus is a controlled and structured list of terms used in subject analysis and retrieval of documents and publications in the fields of education, culture, natural sciences, social and human sciences, communication and information.

How to Search Online Museum Collections

Useful online blog and video providing advice on how to search online museum collections effectively from the Alexandria Archive Institute.

How to Search Online Museum Catalogues

UCL Culture

UCL Culture

UCL Culture teams manage museums, theatres, collections and facilitate engagement. They bring diverse performers and audiences into the heart of UCL to energise the student experience and fuel UCL’s creative culture with cutting edge cultural experiences.

Guide to UCL Culture for Students and Staff

Guide to UCL Culture for Students and Staff