kulturid

KulturID is a term used in cultural heritage and related fields to denote a unique, persistent identifier assigned to cultural objects, entities, or activities to support cataloging, discovery, and data interoperability. The term is commonly encountered in German-speaking cultural heritage communities.

In practice, KulturID projects vary by institution, country, and project. A KulturID typically corresponds to a stable code or URL that is attached to items such as artworks, collections, exhibitions, people (creators, curators), or events. The identifier is intended to remain valid even when other metadata changes.

Metadata associated with a KulturID often follows established schemas (for example Dublin Core, FRBR, or CIDOC CRM) and may include title, creator, date, medium, provenance, rights, and relationships to related records. The goal is to enable cross-institution linking, data integration, and improved search across catalogs and portals.

Interoperability is a common motivation; KulturID enables linking to external data sources, such as national catalogs, institutional databases, and international aggregators. Practitioners emphasize persistent identifiers and open data principles to facilitate reuse and long-term accessibility.

Because there is no universal governing body for KulturID, implementations differ; governance may be at the national, regional, or institutional level. Challenges include data quality, rights management, multilingual metadata, and ensuring the persistence of identifiers over time.

See also: CIDOC CRM, Dublin Core, Europeana, persistent identifiers.