Brown University

The Brown University Library, partnering with the Library and the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, plans to develop new database architecture for silverware collections that are held by museums around the world. Based on the Gorham Manufacturing Company’s catalog, the digital library will include archival drawings, sketches, and product descriptions that will enable users to identify their pieces and contribute to a union catalog of holdings. The product descriptions will also contribute to an authoritative thesaurus of descriptive terms (metadata) that can be used broadly for silver collections. The project is a model partnership that builds on the subject expertise of the museum curators and the digital library expertise of the Brown University Library Special Collections.