Hull Museums - the story so far Simon Wilson Collections Project Manager tel

background… 2001 – external consultant report into documentation at Hull found a number of problems and issues: lack of consistency across the museums huge amount of information held in paper form only heavy reliance on staff knowledge of the collections collections management system purchased but not brought into use due to lack of resources estimated no of person days needed = 7009 (ie 31.8 years for 1 person) 2005 – Accreditation Scheme used to secure £1.4m from the City Council to create dedicated documentation team for 3 years

Ferens Art Gallery Guildhall Hull & East Riding Maritime inc 2 vessels Streetlife Wilberforce House Hands on History

documentation project… 2005 – documentation team of 9 staff in place (Sep) – documentation plan for Accreditation (Dec) – start inventory using MS Access (Dec) – team inherit just over 2000 records in electronic format 2006 – inventory continues – KE Emu selected (Jul) after thorough selection process – data cleaning prior to submission to KE (Dec) 2007 – inventory 63,000 records imported into CMS (Jan) – data cleaning continues – additional staff take team to 16 in total (Apr) – website goes live (Nov) 2008 – documentation project draws to close (Oct)

2 stage process… Stage 1: basic inventory into MS Access - easy to use, enabled quick start to project - update procedural manual - data easy to manipulate/export to chosen system Stage 2: KE installed and data transferred across - data cleaned, especially locations and parties - update procedural manual - inventory continues directly into KE - reconciliation with existing documentation (mda cards) - some data will be re-keyed (eg by volunteers) into Excel and then imported into KE

the benefits of this approach… - with no system in place were no real issues over legacy data - existing staff all recognise the need to change the way they work and the need for a single coherent system/strategy/policy – dedicated team means we can work on all fronts at the same time – dedicated project manager is a considerable advantage when dealing with ICT / system developers - single contact point etc – what we have now is already a significant improvement - a single system for searching all collections - creation of person “authorities”

the pitfalls of this approach… – with no system in place curatorial experience of using collection management systems is from previous posts – trying to blend different ways of working into a single coherent system/strategy/policy – necessary time spent on data cleaning means that some momentum of the inventory stage has been lost – documentation team don’t have the object knowledge that the Keepers have – trying to make a huge step in a very short period of time

lessons learnt … 1. put more effort into data cleaning at a much earlier stage (everybody in the team will spend 1 day a week on checking and cleaning the data rather than last minute panic before we go live!) 2. foster a culture of shared ownership with existing staff (created Collections Working Group to discuss KE issues & make collective decisions - is in the Keeper’s interests to participate) 3. start with accession register and then build on that (get basic records about everything …)

the next six months… Batch import of images – have thousands of images to import – look to automate the process as much as possible Object Locator – gallery plans used across many sites already – link to current location will be used (hopefully) to turn “virtual” visitors into real ones

the next six months… Natural History – start documenting this collection DCF Decorative Arts project – dedicated mini-site to promote this collection – looking to develop content for touch-screen / kiosks

the next six months… Website – collections site designed and launched with 2 levels of use: “narratives” for browsers & database search for researchers - thousands of images / hundreds of stories about the objects -cross-links between related stories / themes -people, places and events from the city and region with clear and explicit links to items in our collections -links to fact sheets, teachers resource packs & online learning resources – also keen to investigate quizzes / object feedback forms (moderated) and other methods of interacting with users – inc users creating their own “virtual gallery” of our objects

partner(s) wanted… Museum just installed KE and looking to promote its collections online, would like to meet similar, with keen interest in developing new features and sharing costs. Also looking for a relationship with an institution experienced in cataloguing natural history collections. (East Yorks but willing to travel) Call or