Artifactsobjects

Artifactsobjects is a term used in information science and museology to describe a formal class of digital representations that model physical artifacts and their related objects within cataloging and archival systems. The term emphasizes the linkage between material culture and the digital records that document it.

An artifactsobjects item typically includes descriptive metadata such as title, material, dimensions, dating, culture, and provenance, as well as links to digital surrogates like photographs, 3D scans, or video. It may also carry preservation status, rights information, and contextual notes about how the object was produced, used, or collected.

Interoperability and reuse are key goals. Metadata for artifactsobjects is often modeled with CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) and complemented by Dublin Core for basic properties. Preservation metadata may use METS or PREMIS, while controlled vocabularies and authority files support consistent terminology.

Records of artifactsobjects are usually interconnected within a repository's graph: they point to collections, place and period records, creators, donors, and related objects. Persistent identifiers and URI-based linking support discovery across systems and facilitate scholarly analysis, provenance tracking, and digital curation.

Applications appear across museums, libraries, archives, and archaeology projects, especially in digital collections that house high-resolution images, 3D models, and archival documentation. While artifactsobjects is a coined term, it serves as a functional model for organizing culturally significant items in mixed media.