CIDOC 2015 “Documenting Diversity – Collections, Catalogues & Context” begins at the National Museum in New Delhi

The first ever annual conference of CIDOC to be held in the Indian subcontinent will have more than 200 participants from 42 countries

The Secretary of Ministry of Culture, Shri N K Sinha inaugurated CIDOC 2015 on the theme “Documenting Diversity– Collections Catalogues & Context” at the National Museum in New Delhi today. The Annual Conference has been organized by the International Committee for Documentation of ICOM in collaboration with National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology from 7th to 9th September. With more than 230 participants from 42 countries across the globe, presenting 124 papers over 25 sessions, this conference is focusing on documenting diversity that is intended to facilitate the integration, mediation and interchange of heterogeneous cultural heritage information. The participants include CIDOC members, CIDOC community, International scholars from all over the world, heads of various cultural institutions in India like ASI, NGMA, IGNCA, NMML, NRM and Indian scholars from all over India. 

Inaugurating the conference, Shri N. K. Sinha said, “With its multitude of languages, ethnic groups and traditions, its long history, its variety of geography and ecosystems, India is undoubtedly one of the most richly diverse countries in the world. In today’s world, management of information has to go hand in hand to provide swift access of information to users. Documentation is the main tool through which the cultural heritage can be preserved and accessed by public.” 

India’s Museums and cultural heritage institutions assume the daunting task of recording, preserving and celebrating this heritage. CIDOC 2015 conference focuses on the problems of documenting this diversity: the collecting practices, cataloguing methods, and contextual information that are required to deal with such varied collections, and the growing need for museums to work closely with archives, libraries and other cultural heritage institutions to achieve common goals. 

Speaking about the conference Dr. Nicholas Crofts, Chairman CIDOC said “This is the first time that CIDOC is meeting in the Indian subcontinent. I hope it will give us the opportunity to foster a real sense of international community, bringing documentation professionals’ together from around the world. We can all benefit from sharing our knowledge and experience. I am looking forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues from India to understand their work, concern and solutions.” 

The aim of CIDOC 2015 annual conference is to enable and encourage dialogue about information management between professionals working in different roles in museums: documentation, development, design, mediation or management. In addition to scientific and theoretical contributions, the conference also aims to function as a forum where participants can exchange practical experiences, share problems, search for solutions and find new inspiration. 

“At a time when technology is constantly pushing boundaries in the field of archives, I am sure that the conference would be a landmark in setting India’s role in archiving and stocktaking. This conference will be a platform to work towards finding more suitable techniques to document and preserve India’s rich and diverse culture and heritage” said Shri Sanjiv Mittal, Vice Chancellor, National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology. 

The conference aims at providing the semantic definitions and clarifications needed to transform disparate, localized information sources into a coherent global resource, be it within a larger institution, in intranets or on the Internet. 

CIDOC is the international committee for Documentation for ICOM. ICOM, the International Council of Museums, is a unique network of more than 35,000 members and museum professionals who represent the global museum community. ICOM has 30 international Committees dedicated to various museum specializations. CIDOC is one of the oldest and largest committees of ICOM. It is dedicated to the documentation of museum collections. The CIDOC committee gathers curators, librarians and information specialists interested in documentation, registration, collections management and computerisation. CIDOC provides the museum community with advice on good practice and developments in museum documentation