Attributes of Seals in Identity Documents and Presentation of a Suggested Pattern for Information Organization of Seals as Museum Object: A comparative study with MARC21 and Dublin Core

Abstract

The research was to study the attributes of seals in identity documents and to present a suggested pattern for information organization of seals.This was an applied study performed by using documentary study and descriptive survey.Data were gathered by analyzing 8 main works related to seals and identify documents of seals in 7 museums inside and 45 ones outside of Iran. The importance of each element was evaluated through implementation of Delphi technique. Based on the findings, a pattern was suggested for organization and documentation of seals and for preparing identity documents in museums. The proposed elements and standard bibliographic elements (MARC & DC) were studied comparatively.Findings showed there was no suitable pattern for organizing information of seals in the museums. Based on findings, 102 elements in 18 sub-groups and 2 main groups of “descriptive” and “management” were identified for organization and documentation of information of museum Seals .Comparison of 102 suggested elements with elements of MARC21 showed there were no definite fields for 33 proposed elements in MARC21 and no equivalents for 46 proposed elements in Dublin Core(DC). Therefore, the standards werenot suitable enough for organization and documentation of information of museum seals, The results can help in integrating and facilitating the organization of information and documentation of museum seal. Suggested pattern can be applied for codifying identity documents of seals. Elements can be used in extensive and accurate information retrieval, information validation, management and providing appropriate context for research in the fields of seals and information organization.

Keywords

• seal
• information organization
• identity document of museum objects
• documentation