Canadian Heritage Information Network facts for kids
| Réseau canadien d'information sur le patrimoine | |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceding |
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| Type | Special operating agency |
| Headquarters | 1030 Innes Road Ottawa, Ontario |
| Annual budget | $2.76 m CAD (2017-18) |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent department | Department of Canadian Heritage |
The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) is a special agency that helps Canada's museums. It is part of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, which looks after Canada's history and culture. CHIN helps museums share information about their collections online.
CHIN is located in Gatineau, Quebec. It works closely with the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI). Both are special agencies of Canadian Heritage.
CHIN provides online access to millions of museum records. It also offers tools and advice to museums. This helps museums organize and share information about their collections. This way, everyone can easily find information about Canada's amazing heritage. All of CHIN's information is available in both English and French.
What CHIN Does
CHIN focuses on three main activities:
- It helps create and keep up online places where you can explore Canadian museum collections.
- It researches and creates tools to help museums organize and describe their collections.
- It teaches museums how to manage information about their collections.
CHIN was the first national group to join the Virtual Library museums pages (VLmp). This is an online directory of museums. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) later supported this directory.
Exploring Canada's Collections Online
CHIN also manages Artefacts Canada. This is a huge online list of museum items. It has millions of records and pictures from museums across Canada. Experts and the public use it to learn about Canadian cultural collections.
CHIN also runs the online database for Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging. Think of it as a special dictionary for museum objects. It helps museums describe and organize their collections in a standard way. This makes it easier to find and understand information about human-made objects. This system was first published in 1978 and became available online in 2018. It is the most used system in North America for historical and cultural collections.
History of CHIN
The Canadian Heritage Information Network started in 1972. It was first called Canada's National Inventory Programme. Its goal was to create a central data bank for museums. This data bank would be accessed through a computer network. It also helped museums create computer lists of their collections.
In the 1990s, CHIN began creating a website. This website helped Canadian museums make their collections more visible online.
In the 2010s, a company called Rowman & Littlefield agreed to let CHIN create an online version of Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging 4.0. This online site was launched in 2018.
See also
- Virtual Museum of Canada
