Patricia Harpring
Series edited by Murtha Baca

This primer on the characteristics, scope, uses, and methods for building and maintaining controlled vocabularies for art and cultural materials explains how vocabularies should be integrated in cataloging systems; utilized for indexing and retrieval; and structured to group synonyms and arrange concepts into categories.

The updated edition reflects recent developments in the field, including new national and international standards, current trends such as Linked Open Data, and revisions to the Getty vocabularies. The glossary and bibliography have also been updated.

Patricia Harpring is managing editor of the Getty Vocabulary Program, where she supervises contributions and editorial work for the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), Union List of Artist Names (ULAN), Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), and Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA). Murtha Baca was formerly head of the Digital Art History program at the Getty Research Institute. She was the author of numerous articles in the field of art documentation and controlled vocabularies.