Artefacts Canada is a database of the holdings of a wide variety of Canadian heritage institutions (museums, historical societies and any other heritage body). As of March 2011, it contained close to four million object records and close to eight hundred thousand images from Canadian museums. Artefacts Canada accesses records for art objects and social history artefacts among others.
Artefacts Canada provides access to object records and images highlighting treasures from disciplines such as archaeology, decorative arts, fine arts, ethnology and history. Searching Artefacts Canada can be done very easily. Simply enter the search term or terms and click on the Search button. The default search is set to search any word and to list all results regardless of location. However, at this stage, the researcher can limit the search of All Words (which provides a better search results when entering more than one term) and/or to limit the results to a specific territory or province. This permits the researcher to tailor the results as needed. One can also limit results to only those records with images. Depending on the search being conducted, this last limiter proves to be very useful.
An advanced search option permits the researcher to further refine the search strategy. One can refine by limiting to such fields as What (accession number, name of object, classification, title, description, history of use, subject/image, cultural context); Where (institution, place of origin, place of use); Who (artist, maker, manufacturer, merchant, cultural context); When (production date, school, style) and How (school, technique, medium, material and support). All of these possibilities give ultimate power to the researcher and therefore make this database and the search process extremely powerful. Furthermore, the results can be limited to specific provinces and territories as well as only showing results with images. Sorting can also be controlled by the researcher.
One can also search by subject terms. This could pose problems for the general searcher as we are not familiar with the subject terms used. However, as with all of the other options in this database, it is set up for the researcher in mind. One can simply click on an appropriate search options such as accession number, title, name of object, artist/maker, period, technique and medium among others. Beside each search option is a Select Terms box. Clicking on this box links the researcher to a thesaurus of possible terms. From here, one simply selects the term that is most applicable and then conducts the search. Another means of searching is by a Humanities Data Dictionary. This search field is solely based on the terms as established by Artefacts Canada. The possible terms to search can be browsed online or downloaded into Excel format. The last possible search strategy is to search by the institution contributing the data as well as the institution contributing pictures. The listing of institutions is arranged in alphabetical order. Simply click on the name of the institution to gain access to their individual website. All of these search possibilities are important and are directed to specific researchers. The end result is that this database can, and should, be used by a wide variety of researchers ranging from those in the field to general researchers.
Results are displayed as defined by the researcher. Basic information is presented such as Title or object name (e.g. cup, basket, etc. for artifacts; painting, drawing, sketchbook for art work), the artist or maker's name, the material or support (e.g. wood; canvas; paper) the accession number and the institution from which the record derives. The actual information presented will vary depending on the type of result. More information is generally available by clicking on a More Information link. The actual information available depends on the institution holding the item. In some cases, the information is extensive with many references. In others, the information is very scant. From the result listing, a link is provided that will take the researcher to the website of the actual institution holding the item. This permits the researcher to gain further information as needed. Generally, this is where a researcher would find any reference to use of the information or how to acquire further information, such as rights to using the image.
Overall, I was almost overwhelmed by this site. However, I did have some problems in searching. For the casual user or those who wish simply to browse (as did I), the options and the process of searching is almost too advanced. For example, if I want to see anything by Emily Carr, I can enter “Carr” in the beginning search box. Most of the entries were not related to Emily Carr but all did contain some reference to the word “carr”. There are 988 results (as of March 16, 2011). Most general searches resulted in the same massive results list. It is far better to do an advanced search entering “Emily Carr” as the “Artist/Maker” in the Who box. I also need to make sure that I note that all of the terms to be searched (otherwise I get results for “carr” or “emily” or “emily carr”). Then, if I want images only, I have to make sure that I mark the images box. It can be done but this is not a site for the casual visitor. Instead, for the casual visitor or those just browsing (and for most school aged students), it would be far better to visit a companion site, The Virtual Musuem (www.museevirtuel‐virtualmuseum.ca/index‐eng.jsp). In fact, Artefacts Canada notes this is the many directions on their home page to the Virtual Museum.
This site is recommended for those in the field – historians, archaeologists, researchers – wanting a Canadian perspective. It can be useful for the casual visitor or general researcher. However, the casual visitor may struggle with searching. For the casual user, I would recommend going directly to The Virtual Museum site.
