For the first time, under the leadership of the Visual Resources Association, a cross section of five visual and cultural heritage experts, along with scores of reviewers from varied institutions, have created a new data content standard focused on cultural materials. This cutting-edge reference offers practical resources for cataloging and flexibility to meet the needs of a wide range of institutions - from libraries to museums to archives to visual collections. Consistently following these guidelines for selecting, ordering, and formatting data used to populate metadata elements in cultural materials' catalog records: promotes good descriptive cataloging and reduces redundancy; builds a foundation of shared documentation; creates data sharing opportunities; and, complements existing standards (AACR).