The Federico Zeri Foundation online database is the upshot of a cataloguing project sifting documentary evidence (photographs, paper documents, auction catalogues) that Federico Zeri donated to the University of Bologna, as well as other collections acquired since 2007.
The data from the integrated cataloguing project have been arranged according to a customized model designed, first, to describe materials and their aggregations through specific standards and languages (Scheda F and FF-ICCD, ISAD, ISBD) and second, to highlight the connections among them in order to support art historical research. The binding hub of the model is the Work of art Entry (scheda Opera) which pools information and images resulting from the filing of all types of resources possessed by the Foundation, including its various collections. An intuitive link system makes it possible to switch from one type of entry to another at any time.

The platform allows a two-way approach to materials and collections.

Via the integrated and the simple search masks (SEARCH PHOTOS, SEARCH WORKS, SEARCH ATTACHMENTS in the photo archive catalogue, and SEARCH CATALOGUE in the Auction catalogues database) it is possible to initiate a search from a single documentary item (photograph, attachment, catalogue), as well as from its subject (artwork).

Via EXPLORE THE COLLECTIONS information may be had about the upper levels of the archive (collections, series, subseries, folders), the creators and the historical contexts, while it is possible to expand the archive tree to the individual items.

Once a search is launched, results can be refined and managed through a system of filters and facets devised by the Foundation art historians considering the most significant entities found in each documentary type. Within each entry, underlined fields constitute as many links relaunching searches with that same value in all the databases.