MAO/TAO ontology updated

The MAO/TAO Ontology in the Finnish National Library's Finto service

The Finnish Terminology Centre and the Finnish Heritage Agency initiated an ontology project in 2019. The project aimed at expanding the Ontology for Museum Domain (MAO/TAO) with concepts related to archeological artefacts. An updated version of the ontology was published in late 2019, after which the project was continued.

During 2020–2021 MAO/TAO was updated with another 470 concepts related primarily to Bronze Age artefacts and historical artefacts. In 2021 the ontology's structure was updated to match the structure of the latest stable release of the General Finnish Ontology (YSO). In its current form the ontology contains approximately 14 000 concepts with Finnish terms; approximately 700 of the concepts contain equivalents.

The Finnish Terminology Centre and The Finnish Heritage Agency have co-developed the MAO/TAO ontology through various projects since 2015. In these projects the domain-specific source material is provided by the Finnish Heritage Agency, which is then incorporated into the ontology by a terminologist from the Finnish Terminology Centre. New concepts are validated in workshops between the terminologist and a range of domain experts.