Getty Vocabulary Program

The Getty Vocabulary Program is a department within the Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California. It produces and maintains the Getty controlled vocabulary databases, Art and Architecture Thesaurus, Union List of Artist Names, and Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names. They are compliant with ISO and NISO standards for thesaurus construction. The Getty vocabularies are the premiere references for categorizing works of art, architecture, material culture, and the names of artists, architects, and geographic names. They have been the life work of many people and continue to be critical contributions to cultural heritage information management and documentation. They contain terms, names, and other information about people, places, things, and concepts relating to art, architecture, and material culture. They can be accessed online free of charge on the Getty website.

The Getty vocabularies can be used in three ways: at the data entry stage, by catalogers or indexers who are describing works of art, architecture, material culture, archival materials, visual surrogates, or bibliographic materials; as knowledge bases, providing information for researchers; and as search assistants to enhance end-user access to online resources. The Getty vocabularies are available in MARC format for easy mapping.

The Getty Vocabulary Program has been active within the library community, offering training on thesaurus construction and training on contributing via Getty online webforms. These opportunities are held during annual conferences of organizations such as Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS), Visual Resources Association (VRA), American Library Association (ALA), International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), NFAIS, Society of American Archivists (SAA), and Museum Computer Network (MCN).

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