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What a difference 10 years makesBut where to from here?
Adrian KingstonDigital Collections Senior Analyst
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa@adriankingston@tepapacolonline
Global EMu User Conference 15-17 Oct 2014 Washington, DC
Introduction: Te Papa
• 1865 - Colonial Museum founded
• 1907 - Renamed Dominion Museum
• 1972 - National Museum
• 1936 - National Art Gallery opened
• 1992 - National Museum and National Art Gallery Merged
• 1998 - Te Papa opened
• 1.3 million visitors a year
+ While not huge by international standards (2-3 million objects) we’re pretty diverse.
+ Art – Zoology
+ DNA analysis to repatriation of human remains
+ We are a team of three who work across the organisation
+ 120 users
Introduction: Te Papa
Wellington Harbour, 1894, James NairnOil on panelGift of Miss Mary Newton, 1939
Milford Sound, 1883, Burton BrothersBlack and white gelatin glass negative
Mere pounamu (greenstone hand club), Unknown makerkawakawa, inanga, muka
Cloak, Unknown maker, Circa 1870wool, plant fibre Gift of Te Aia Mataiapo, 1872
Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris)
land snail (Allodiscus kakano B. Marshall & Barker, 2008; holotype)collected by Alan Beu, 1957
Single crape fern (Leptopteris hymenophylloides (A.Rich.) C.Presl)Collected by Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander, 1769
The beginning
2005
What we had
• A mess
• A single Collection Management System, but obsolete, inadequate
• Poor data standards
• Fragmented processes
• Paper based, isolated processes
• No digital media management
• “Private” data sets
The plan
• Implemented KE EMu• Wanted all collection related information and processes in a single system• All collection related media managed, with long-term access and preservation in
mind• Digital collection items managed appropriately• Rights and licences managed in EMu• Where possible, consistent description across collections
Why centralise?
• No more lost/duplicated/out-of-synch data (well, less)• No data silos• Transparency & accountability• Improved standards, processes• Consistent collection management • Consistent collection information management• About collections, not format • Strong but simple content framework• Single focus for data preservation• One system to support, and sustain• One system to train in, learn to use• Efficient content creation, access & publication• Creates appropriate ownership of content creation
What does our EMu do: the usual, objects
Describe and manage physical Collections• Art• Photography• Archives• NZ History• Pacific Cultures• Taonga Maori
• Entomology• Marine mammals• Land Mammals• Birds• Fish• Insects• Plants• Etc
Places
Controlled Vocabulary
PeoplePhysical objectsPhysical objectsPhysical objects
Taxon
What does it do: the usual, processes
Manage and record collection processes• Acquisition• Deaccession• Lending & borrowing• Storage• Movements• Conservation• Damage• Tissue sampling• Authority control• Provenance• Taxonomic identification• Collection events• Species distribution• Record arguments
Places
Controlled Vocabulary
People
Locations
Acquisition
Loans ConservationDeaccession
Receipts, reports,
agreements
Physical objectsPhysical objectsPhysical objects
Taxon
But wait, there’s more
Alcohol management
Rights management & licencing
Born digital collections & digitised collections
Repatriation of koiwi tangata (human remains)
Simple framework & process for publishing online
Crates, forms, frames
Props
Ourspace
Digital Preservation
CIDOC CRMPlaces
Controlled Vocabulary
People
Locations
Digital Media
Acquisition
Loans ConservationDeaccession
Movements
Receipts, reports,
agreements
Alcohol Management
Physical objectsPhysical objectsPhysical objects
Taxon
Exhibition management
On floor interactives
Exhibition sites
Collections Online
OAI-PMH
Conceptual objects
Indigenous description
Publications
Repatriation
Narratives
Digital objectsDigital objects
Rights management
Research
Digital objects
*NOT EVEN REMOTELY TO SCALE, OR TO BE CONSIDERED ACCURATE OR USEFUL
Whoa. That looks complicated.
And kinda boring.
Lets do more!
2008
New conceptual framework
• Making EMu a Collection Information System, not just a Collection Management System
• Manages semantic, meaningful relationships across records from all modules• Based on ISO 21127:2006 CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model• Addition of relationship types, i.e., how is a concept, person or place related to an
object: e.g. “depicts”, “influenced”, “refers to” • Previously hidden relationships are now visible, and browseable• Significant conceptual change, but is now part of normal cataloguing processes
Cataloguing for access, not just collections
management
It isn’t just for us, it’s for them.
Whoever they are.
Collections Online
• We’ve had collections available online now for a number of years, all data and media coming from EMu
• 500,000 collection items 12,000 people, 5000 places, subjects etc
• Ability to browse through related items, people, taxonomy, subjects etc, because that structure and data exists in EMu
• *NEW* Responsive website
• Highlighted problems with being able to show such rich data on all types of device
• More to do
• Co screen shots
Narratives
• Museums aren’t just a repository of objects, we’re a generator of knowledge, stories etc.
• Our stories and theirs
• Research and stories are managed in relation to the other information
× Online, the more we use it, the more we want it to do
× Very template driven
× Not very flexible in terms of layout
× Need to learn from other forms of tech
× Their stories - need ingest from web
• Narrative example
Thesaurus
We use:• Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic names• Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials, Subjects Because:• They already exist and used all over the world• Excellent partnerships, we are on the GRI ITWG• Provides hierarchical browsing, “alternates” and “used for” terms, scope notes,
and lots of other content we didn’t have to createHowever:• Thesaurus management in EMu not perfect, took development, needs a lot more• Has taken six years of cataloguing to get content to the richness it currently has,
but a long way to go
Local thesauri
• Māori and Pacific terms not covered well in AAT, yet• Sometimes the western understanding of a concept is different to that under
Mātauranga Māori• Need to catalogue in English and indigenous languages for appropriate description,
and make access and understanding easier• Hope to contribute back to AAT, improving the description of Tāonga Māori in
collections around the world• Need systems to exchange data between EMu and the GRI
• Maori term page, pounamu
Exhibitions
• All in-house exhibitions have branded Minisites delivered from EMu
• Some on floor interactives delivered via EMu
• Exhibition development and management using exhibition items
• Now working on text and label development in EMu
• Add arts te papa screen shot
Getting out there
• Collections Online is a great base for exploring and learning about Te Papa’s collections, however
• Te Papa doesn’t hold all knowledge• Partnerships make our collections available from other places, and also allow the
public to find information from across institutions• Not all are directly connected to EMu, but all content comes from there• We track what’s been used where in EMu• We link to other sources as much as possible
2013
Adkin diary transcription
• Crowdsourcing diary transcriptions
• Using existing tech as much as possible as no budget
• Just testing the waters
• Using narratives, collections online, Google Docs and Forms.
• Need to look at crowdsourcing, or student sourcing for image preparation
• It’s a hack, but we’ve got a lot of transcription done
If you love something, let it free
• Open access image release
• 30,000 high resolution images available via No Known Copyright Restrictions or CC BY-NC-ND
• Downloadable content identified via Rights module info
• Images accessed via Imu
• Strict security
• Up to 45,000 images available now
• 6000 downloads in 4 months
“Images of what our cities used to be like are always useful in
the discussions about urban form and current change”
“Great image! Will probably put it on a
canvas bag for myself. Thank you!”
“To send to my boss. She loves cats.”
“Sharing image on facebook with a friend who likes
penguins”
“Background image for twitter profile”
“Kia ora! I might use it in a presentation in Kopenhagen on Polynesian Voyaging this year
and possibly in my dissertation/an article as well.
Great to have access to historic images like this online!!!”
“Show it to my editor in chief. If she agrees
we will ask for the licence to use it in our
general interest magazine.”
“a class project”
“This will be used to create tasteful photo
art”
“will use for a gif :)”
“Favourite tree, and I like herbarium
collections”
“I am a composition instructor at Kent State University (in
Ohio/USA)-I use multi-modality constantly & find images such as
these layer a depth not often found elsewhere. Further, my courses are always centered
around social issues-and thus, history, from many perspectives,
comes into play.”
“Lecture at Tate Britain”
“Article in monthly Member journal about addition of
Trans-Tasman cable 1 & 2 to the IPENZ Engineering
Heritage Register”
“I'm writing about tongan tapa, I'm an Auckland university student and
would like to use this image to illustrate my academic project online. Thanks”
“to use in creating 3D objects for virtual art
collection”
“Comparison with other Nassaria species and
figuring in publication of new species from New
Caledonia for comparative reasons.”
“Not sure”
TODAY
Sector changes
• Museums increasingly acknowledging importance of opening up & letting go, sharing authority, encouraging re-use
• Alignment of content creation processes, multiple channels
• New forms of publishing
• Linked data
• New forms of collecting
• Changing perspectives on what a collection is
• Stories more important than ever
• Need to be available where people are, on whatever device they want
• All great stuff, but it means there is more to manage
• Our team is actually smaller, but we are doing more
New-ish things we’re looking at
(and would like help with)
Digital Asset Management & Preservation
• Museums have to work with software designed for other sectors• Preservation not yet a big consideration for DAMS• Digital collection items should be managed by the collection system• In some cases digitised collections may become collection items Basic DAM functionality, item description Single authoritative source, clear relationships Object info is kept on object, image info kept with image Repositories, layers of access Conservation module for preservation actions etc× Open Archival Information System OAIS model- SIPs, AIPs & DIPs × Integrated tools for fixity, format validation and analysis× More efficient workflows× The dreaded “non-collection” media
Collecting Intangible Heritage
• No longer just about collecting static, physical objects
• Similar issues with “collecting contemporary”
• Most will probably be digital
• Games, ideas, dance, language, stories, rituals…
“Conceptual” description model in place Not separate systems for separate formats Rights management includes indigenous rights Digital description and management Similar to born digital art works? Similar to
analogue media?
× Is lacking existing process, rather than tech× Future representation?
User generated/contributed content
• Co-created, user generated, user contributed, I see it as a spectrum
• Comments, downloads, stories, dis/likes, new works, images, video
• Could be used to collect low- or high-tech interaction
• Users expect to interact more, shouldn’t we put effort into preserving that?
× Ingest from web× User expectation and museum literacy× Our expectation, what is useful/important?
Object “use”
• Already record that collections have been used in exhibitions, loans etc., but what about all the other uses?
• Need to surface this to management, but I think more importantly, to the rest of staff, particularly curators
• Digital life of an object, more significant than physical?
What does the system need next?
• All interaction with a collection item
• Likes, comments, tweets, stories, experiences
• Reuse of items
• Google analytics, Addthis, social media tools
• Tracking downloads and use of images
• Need to pull it all together, and keep a history
• Use as targets, need to change how/what we measure to be useful
Record “Quality”
• We need smarter ways of seeing the collection as a whole, and looking for patterns
• Automated measure of record quality based on smart indicators
• Accessibility as a measure, e.g. rights cleared?
• Put it right up front, in front of the staff, and the public
• Would allow us to plan digitisation programmes, at risk items, help with auditing
• Compare against Object use
The intertubes
The intertubes
Crates, forms, frames
Props
Ourspace
Digital Preservation
CIDOC CRMPlaces
Controlled Vocabulary
People
Locations
Digital Media
Acquisition
Loans ConservationDeaccession
Movements
Receipts, reports, agreements
Alcohol Management
Physical objectsPhysical objectsPhysical objects
Taxon
Exhibition management
On floor interactives
Exhibition sites
OAI-PMH
Conceptual objects
Indigenous description
Publications
Repatriation
Narratives
Digital objectsDigital objects
Rights management
Research
Digital objects
*NOT EVEN REMOTELY TO SCALE, OR TO BE CONSIDERED ACCURATE OR USEFUL
Wikipedia
Wikimedia
AppsTe Papa App Ingress Field NotesReddit
Google form
Google Sheets
Analytics
Collections Online
Arts Te PapaArts Te PapaArts Te PapaArts Te PapaArts Te Papa
Minisite
Google Analytics
AddThisAddThis
!
So
• We’ve done a lot, and it’s been great
• But there are a lot of hacks, and workarounds, particularly as budgets have decreased
• We are constantly having to defend EMu limitations against increased digital expectations
• We’ve pushed EMu a lot
• We’re starting to get worried about complexity and sustainability
• We have a very large mobile project coming up which is going to push us even further
Technology, society and public
expectation is changing faster than
the organisation, staff, and EMu
Are we expecting too much from a single
system?
Dunno.
