The CIDOC CRM is, first of all, an intellectual system for organizing and integrating cultural heritage data. This system is officially expressed in specification documents. These documents are available in the resource section of this website. These are the official reference documents for the CIDOC CRM and are actively maintained by the CIDOC CRM SIG and updated according to user needs and the organic growth of the standard.
Using CIDOC CRM in practical data integration scenarios can be achieved in a number of ways. In a common scenario it can be implemented in RDF or OWL based knowledge bases; alternatively, it can be used to enable the implementation of cross database query interpreters. It can also be used as an intellectual guide in order to build more effective traditional relational databases.
In order to begin the adoption of CIDOC CRM in different use scenarios, potential adopters are encouraged to consult the tutorials and information available in the teaching section of this website. There are also a series of FAQ documents designed to help answer common questions of CRM adopters. Potential users/members of the CRM community are also welcomed to contact the CIDOC CRM SIG for advice and information. If you are already using CIDOC CRM and have questions or issues that are not resolved by the documentation and tutorials, you may always join the CIDOC CRM SIG mailing list and post questions on specific topics there. The results of past questions and issues are collected on the website and form a useful archive to consult in order to answer previously asked questions.
As mentioned above, the CIDOC CRM now encompasses both the basic standard, CRMbase, as well as a family of modular extensions. Each of these extensions has its own specific website to support its use in the same manner as above. To see the present list of extensions, please click here.