Many-to-many. Usability challenges of entity reconciliation in art history and photographic studies

TL;DR

This paper explores the complex challenges of reconciling heterogeneous art historical and photographic records across institutions, emphasizing the importance of modeling uncertainty and understanding institutional practices for better cultural heritage data integration.

Contribution

It introduces a framework linking technical reconciliation methods with institutional cataloguing practices to address ambiguity and data variability in cultural heritage records.

Findings

Reconciliation often involves creating collective or anonymous entities.

Ambiguities and incomplete data significantly impact reconciliation outcomes.

Strategies include adding uncertainty qualifiers and using umbrella terms.

Abstract

This article investigates challenges in reconciling heterogeneous records across cultural institutions, focusing on art historical photo archives within the PHAROS consortium. Through case studies, the study analyses reconciliation workflows and cataloguing traditions, with attention to institutional contexts, data granularities, and modelling strategies. Reconciliation is seldom a one-to-one operation. Ambiguities, incomplete data, shifting attributions, and varying practices shape outcomes. Strategies observed include the creation of anonymous or collective entities, the use of umbrella terms, the addition of uncertainty qualifiers, and reticence when ambiguity cannot be resolved. The article highlights the need to model uncertainty explicitly, offering a framework that connects technical reconciliation methods with institutional practices. Insights from PHAROS provide guidance for designing more robust, interoperable, and sustainable cultural heritage infrastructures.