What a difference 10 years makes But where to from here? Adrian Kingston Digital Collections Senior Analyst Museum of New Zealand Te Global EMu User Conference Oct 2014 Washington, DC

Introduction: Te Papa Colonial Museum founded Renamed Dominion Museum National Museum National Art Gallery opened National Museum and National Art Gallery Merged 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 Nairn Oil on panel Gift of Miss Mary Newton, 1939

Milford Sound, 1883, Burton Brothers Black and white gelatin glass negative

Mere pounamu (greenstone hand club), Unknown maker kawakawa, inanga, muka

Cloak, Unknown maker, Circa 1870 wool, 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 People Physical 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 Conservation Deaccession Receipts, reports, agreements Physical 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 CRM Places Controlled Vocabulary People Locations Digital Media Acquisition LoansConservation Deaccession Movements Receipts, reports, agreements Alcohol Management Physical objects Taxon Exhibition management On floor interactives Exhibition sites Collections Online OAI-PMH Conceptual objects Indigenous description Publications Repatriation Narratives Digital 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 ModelCIDOC 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 create However: 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 & DIPsOAIS × 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

!

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.