Cornucopia: the UK database of museum collections Peter Winsor Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries CD Focus - 14 May 2002

Introduction Background Building Cornucopia –Pilot, Evaluation, Relaunch Where we are now Developments over the coming year –Completing the data for museums –Interoperability –A cross-sectoral Cornucopia Vision Contact details

Background ‘…a means of celebrating the richness and diversity of UK museum collections..’ –Treasures in Trust, DCMS, 1998 An online, fully-searchable database of UK museums and their collections Focus shifted from a management tool to a public information resource 2 levels of information: –Quick, accessible information –In-depth data in support of research/academia

Building Cornucopia - pilot Pilot ‘concept’ website developed 1998 Data from 50 Designated museum collections Information organised/searchable by: –Geographical location –Associated people –Subject area Designated museums used because they had identifiable collections Simple text descriptions written specifically for each museum

Building Cornucopia - evaluation Pilot website evaluated by Soloman Business Research Several approaches to evaluation: –assisted sessions –school/teacher groups –online questionnaire Evaluation report produced Key points used to develop project proposal Full brief & specification drawn up

Building Cornucopia - relaunch Consultant recruited to develop technical specification 2 consultants recruited to create text entries for museums Co-ordinator recruited at Resource to manage project Database constructed by System Simulation Ltd. Website built by Co-ordinator Website & database integrated & launched 2001

Where we are now Fully-searchable online database Index+ database & website hosted by Rutherford Appleton Laboratories Populated with basic information for Registered museums in the UK Data derived from DOMUS & Registration files Includes detailed information from collections mapping projects in the South West & West Midlands Area Museum Council regions Additional detailed descriptions for each museum

Data structure Institutional information –Address/contact details –Overview of collections/display/building Individual collections –Description –Access information/documentation –Significance of collections Strengths of individual collections –‘Star objects’ –Associated people

Terminology Subject & object type terminologies developed from SPECTRUM standard 17 top-level terms Geographical terminology from the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Significance terms from West Midlands ‘First Principles’ mapping report Temporal coverage terms developed in consultation with teachers/ school groups Tried and tested approach Documented on website

Browsing Cornucopia 2 approaches to browsing: full keyword search of all text in the database advanced search by combinations of criteria: –Geographical coverage –World Culture –Geographical location –Temporal coverage –Subject of collection Current work includes refining keywording in database to improve accuracy of search results

Complete records for all remaining museums Keywording for all records Additional functionality - ‘My Cornucopia’, pages for children, details of a museum to a friend etc... Building on links with the 24 Hour Museum –already links dynamically to the relevant 24HM record using the DOMUS no. as an identifier –displaying Cornucopia collections descriptions as part of 24 HM records Future development...

Recruiting full-time co-ordinator to manage development work Building links with related collections description projects, incl: –Agricultural collections –Natural History collections –Music collections Exporting Dublin Core metadata from the database Interoperable data shared through XML or Z39.50 protocol

Future development... A cross-sectoral Cornucopia…? Several issues to be resolved: –a cross-sectoral definition of ‘collection’ –a terminological standard for collection types –how to present the information in a meaningful way Already have a stable & scalable data structure Learning the lessons for current cross-sectoral projects eg. Crossroads (West Midlands) and Cecelia (music collections in museums, archives and libraries)

Vision for Cornucopia Completed records for all UK museums, libraries & archives Fully searchable online database ‘Trails’ through collections by subject type, temporal coverage, world event etc Dynamic information resource providing descriptions to other databases Sustainable, up-to-date information verified by institutions Promoting public access to UK cultural collections

Contact Peter Winsor Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries 16 Queen Anne’s Gate London SW1H 9AA Telephone: Full documentation of the development of Cornucopia, including data structure, terminology and ongoing work are available from the Cornucopia website at: