The Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) convened a joint task force in April of 2025 to undertake a second revision cycle of the BIBFRAME-ARM ontology extension for the description of special collections materials.
BIBFRAME-ARM underwent a revision cycle led by a joint Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), RBMS, and SAA task force in 2019-2021, which culminated in the publication of
BIBFRAME-ARM v1.0.
RBMS and SAA are currently seeking additional volunteers with expertise in either archival or art materials to join this task force for a term beginning March 2026 and ending June 30, 2027. We encourage volunteers who are members of any of the aforementioned professional organizations, as well as colleagues from outside of these organizations. You do not have to be a member of either RBMS or SAA to volunteer. However, to be officially appointed by RBMS, volunteers must be current ACRL/RBMS members and must remain so for the duration of their appointment. To be appointed by SAA, volunteers must be current SAA members.
The focus of the task force is to:
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Review modeling of the Art and Rare Materials BIBFRAME Ontology Extension (ARM) and identify areas needing further development
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Extend and refine the ARM ontology as appropriate based on the identified areas
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Work with the Library of Congress and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) to align ARM with the core BIBFRAME ontology and PCC application profiles
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Identify long-term strategies for the ongoing maintenance and development of ARM
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Publish the revision of the ARM ontology extension
We held an information session in January 2025 to introduce prospective members to the task force. Here are links to the
slides and
recording of that session.
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Regine Heberlein
Library IT Data Analyst
Princeton University Library
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