Development of base ontology for a digital library of the Bulgarian museums' collections

This paper gives a further look into the process of ontology engineering for the needs of the Bulgarian museums' digital collections. The representation of the data model and a skeleton for a digital library offers a universal solution that can be used for the digitalization of movable cultural heritage ensuring its compatibility with the existing legislation in the domain. The main purpose of the base ontology is to unify and extend the usability of accumulated knowledge stored in the museum collection as well as information retrieval and query processing. The development of its structure has been proceeded following the bottom-up model due to the requirements of the front and backend users forming an important step for the standardization of I.T. solutions in the work of Bulgarian museums.