New concept descriptions in MAO/TAO ontology

The Finnish Heritage Agency, the Church Council and the Finnish Terminology Centre carried out a joint terminology project at the end of 2022 and early 2023. In the project, around 100 concepts related to ecclesiastical built heritage were given concept descriptions. In 2023, the Finnish Heritage Agency commissioned the Finnish Terminology Centre for another project with the aim of providing concept descriptions for around 20 concepts related to archaeological heritage. The terminology was prepared in collaboration with experts from the Finnish Heritage Agency, the Tampere City Historical Museums and the Museum of Central Finland.

The concept descriptions from both projects were published in December 2023 as part of the Ontology for Museum Domain and Applied Arts (MAO/TAO) on the National Library of Finland’s Finto service. Terms and definitions are given in Finnish and the concepts of archaeological heritage are additionally given equivalents in Swedish and English. The concepts related to archaeological heritage have also been published in the Terminologies tool on the Interoperability Platform as part of the Glossary of Cultural Environment.

The structure of the General Finnish Ontology YSO, which is included in the MAO/TAO ontology, was also updated to a newer version (2023.6.Hypatia) by the Finnish Terminology Centre’s terminologists. The MAO/TAO ontology comprises almost
14 000 concepts, all of which have terms in Finnish. 700 of them also have equivalents in English and 70 of them have equivalents in Swedish.