monumentid

Monumentid is a term used in cultural heritage informatics to describe a system of persistent identifiers assigned to monuments, sites, artworks, and related heritage objects. The aim is to provide stable, unambiguous references that survive changes in catalogs, languages, or institutional ownership. Each monumentid is intended to be machine-readable and web-resolvable, allowing researchers and institutions to reference a single, enduring identifier across disparate data sources.

In practice, monumentid operates as a unique code or URI that identifies a single object. Examples might include short alphanumeric codes such as MNT-000123 or URLs like https://monumentid.org/MNT-000123. The identifiers are designed to be independent of local catalog numbers and to support linking between museum records, archive entries, scholarly articles, digital collections, and geographic data.

Monumentid is designed to interoperate with existing metadata and authority systems, including CIDOC CRM, Dublin Core, schema.org, Wikidata, and GeoNames. By providing a common reference point, it facilitates data integration, provenance tracking, and citable references for research, conservation planning, and education.

Governance models for monumentid range from open, community-driven initiatives to formal consortia within national or international heritage networks. Key considerations include persistence guarantees, versioning policies, deprecation rules, and access licenses to ensure long-term usability and interoperability.

Adoption barriers exist, such as coordinating across institutions with divergent cataloging practices and resource constraints. Critics warn of fragmentation if multiple competing identifiers arise and stress the need for clear governance, sustainability plans, and real-world incentives to participate.