DIGITIZATION OF MUSEUM COLLECTIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN: SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS AND INTEGRATED APPROACHES

Abstract

Abstract. The article examines the current state of digitization of museum collection data in Kazakhstan, the main systemic problems of this process, and ways to integrate such data into a unified scientific and information space. The purpose of the study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of domestic museum digitization practices in comparison with international experience and to substantiate scientific and methodological directions for developing a museum data space. Although current regulatory documents contain basic accounting and descriptive information about museum objects, they do not provide for a specific organization of museum information in the form of a complete semantic model. Specifically, the restoration history of a museum object, changes in its state of conservation over time, its relationship to scientific literature, typological or historical connections with other museum objects, and contextual relationships such as person, event, place, and period are not systematized as fully structured data. Furthermore, although a 300 dpi resolution requirement is specified for photographs, the procedure for multi-angle scientific photo documentation, background, lighting, scale bar, color scale, file name, metadata, and long-term digital storage are not clearly regulated.

In this regard, it is important to analyze the Kazakh regulatory framework in comparison with international standards for museum documentation and data modeling. In addition, the study found that systematic integration between existing information systems remains insufficient, while terminological consistency and semantic structuring have not yet been fully established. The study concludes that simply converting museum data into electronic format is not sufficient; such data should be organized through persistent identifiers, controlled vocabularies, semantic links, and mechanisms for intersystem data exchange. As an effective direction for addressing these issues, the article proposes a conceptual model of a centralized national museum data portal aligned with the CIDOC CRM standard and based on the principle of “single input – multiple use.”