Navigating through archives, libraries and museums: topic maps as a harmonizing instrument Salvatore Vassallo University of Pavia, Corso Strada Nuova 65, 27100 Pavia, Italy, salvatore_vassallo@tin.it Abstract. The paper deals with the possibility of creating a topic map based system where different sectors of cultural heritage would interact with users, by monitoring the navigation histories of users and the statistics on the searches, in order to authorize variant form of names. The problem of managing different sectors and harmonizing them both from a structural and a semantic view point, by using topic maps, is also discussed. With regards to this, we are introducing two projects, which are largely based on the above mention use of topic maps. 1 Introduction The paper considers use of topic maps in the area of cultural heritage from three view points: • to manage the variant forms of a name, caused by the users’ search itself. According to this, we carried out an analysis through questionnaires in order to test a hypothetical system built on this logics; • to allow the management and the navigation through an archive: we will present a model finalized to the production of a guide for the exploitation of the archival fonds as well as the reorganization of the library, both owned by the “Archivio di Stato di Pavia”; • to navigate through archives, libraries and museums: using topic maps as a harmonizing instrument in conformity with the specific descriptive standards, but at the same time creating a logical framework enabling the interactions of various objects. This idea is at the basis of the CeDECA 1 project: a census about cultural heritage in the Oltrepò pavese. 1 Centro di Documentazione Etnografica e di Cultura Appenninica, developed on behalf of Pavia University by Maria Antonietta Arrigoni, Federica Biava, Ester Bucchi de Giuli, Marina Chiogna, Paola Ciandrini, Elettra de Lorenzo, Elena Giavari, Flavia Giudice, Marco Savini and Salvatore Vassallo with the coordination of professors Pierangelo Lombardi and Paul Gabriele Weston.