1. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Museum Documentation Standards in the International Community Nick Poole, CEO, Collections Trust

2. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Introducing the Collections Trust Support museums, archives, libraries and galleries in unlocking the potential of their collections, by: – Providing know-how – Developing and promoting excellence – Challenging existing practices – Pioneering new ideas – Bringing experts together

3. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Our work 5 Programmes – OpenCulture – Collections Link – Culture Grid – Excellence in Collections – International

4. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Excellence in Collections A common framework to connect Collections standards to: – End-user value and impact – Organisational resilience – Cost-effectiveness – Sustainable collections development

5. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Key challenges for museums…

6. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 1. Maximising participation

7. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 2. Treating KNOWLEDGE as an asset…

8. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 3. Supporting collaboration & shared services…

9. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 4. Supporting long-term planning

10. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 5. Managing environmental impact…

11. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 6. Promoting greater mobility & use of collections

12. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 7. Supporting new forms of engagement

13. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 8. Delivering compelling narrative…

14. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 9. Developing sustainable approaches to risk

15. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license 10. Managing cost

16. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Key challenges for Museums Maximising user engagement Ensuring knowledge is managed and used as an asset Supporting collaboration and shared services Supporting long-term strategic development and planning Managing environmental impact Promoting greater use and mobility of collections Supporting new modes of user engagement (mobile, social) Delivering re-purposable content and narrative Developing sustainable approaches to risk Balancing costs and improving efficiency To be effective, and to deliver value, Documentation has to support and enable these organisational outcomes for your museum.

17. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license How can international Documentation standards support these organisational needs?

18. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license What have we got so far…?

19. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license CIDOC Statement of Principles Effective Documentation should facilitate – Collections Policies – Collections Care and Accountability – Collections Access, Interpretation and Use – Collections Research The Museum should employ staff with appropriate experience of Documentation procedures, and use appropriate standards The Museum systems should provide access to the Collections http://cidoc.mediahost.org/principles6.pdf

20. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license SPECTRUM 4.0 Industry standard for Documentation procedures & information Designed to support the rationalisation & improvement of Collections processes in your museum Developed via the Collections Link Standards Wiki – http://standards.collectionslink.org.uk & supported by CG Vocab Bank – http://www.vocman.com/culturegrid http://standards.collectionslink.org.uk http://www.vocman.com/culturegrid Developed in partnership with KE & other SPECTRUM Partners Emphasis on SPECTRUM as a procedural standard, supported by a framework of information/structural standards/protocols

21. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license

23. http://standards.collectionslink.org.uk

24. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license http://www.vocman.com/cultureGrid

25. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Description & Interchange CDWA-Lite CCO CIDOC Core Data Standard for Sites and Monuments CIDOC Core Data Standard for Archaeological Objects MIDAS Europeana Data Model DC.Culture Advantages: lightweight, portable Disadvantages: purpose-specific, niche limits critical-mass Perpetual issue of lossy conversion – you can go from a rich schema to a simple one, but not the other way

26. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Meta-standards for interoperability The challenge is to enable machine-to-machine processing of data so that it can flow seamlessly and incrementally between systems and contexts When my KE Emu museum loans an object to a non-KE user, the object may travel but the continuity of Documentation is broken Cross-mapping is labour-intensive and semantically and structurally inconsistent (preparing a data source for use over OAI PMH more art than science) CIDOC CRM provides a systematic approach to expressing different documentation systems in a semantically and structurally-consistent way – but does the effort justify the payoff, and is the payoff significantly better than delivering data as RDF.

27. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Linked Data Semantic data and open API seem to offer a solution to the delivery of machine-readable data Context-aware information, and self-documenting schemata for museum data offers the potential for dynamic and emergent Collections Management and Documentation systems BUT the openness of the technology invites non-standard implementation There is a risk that, without significant advances in the automated generation of metadata, ‘semantification’ will aggravate the resource challenge of Documentation.

28. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license SPECTRUM Local SPECTRUM is an international open standard, used in more than 7,500 museums and galleries and 40 countries worldwide Licensed to national partners to translate and to localise (to reflect local variations in policy, practice and law) Current translations in the Netherlands, Flanders and Germany Active communities in Sweden, Portugal, Greece, France, Switzerland Arabic & Chinese translations planned An international community of practitioners

29. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license SPECTRUM Partners 14 Partners worldwide representing an installed user base of some 30,000 institutions Working together to develop a common vision of International Documentation standards and practice A vision that is essentially focussed on delivering operational efficiency and user value Access Compliance Functional Compliance Informational Compliance Procedural Compliance

30. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Europeana INSIDE EU-funded project to integrate tools into your system to reduce the structural, financial, strategic, legal and operational barriers to participation in open content services. Need to change the balance from ‘it’s too hard’/’I’ll do it next year’/’I’ll do it when my Documentation is complete’ to ‘we’re doing it’ (and the sky hasn’t yet fallen on our heads…) – Drag and drop one-time-only data mapping – Granular access/use/rights management – Object/collection/institution level control (send it there, don’t send it there) – Tracking secondary & tertiary reuse – Re-ingesting enriched metadata into systems

31. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license SPECTRUM Roadmap Planning the 4-5 year Development Path for SPECTRUM Specific requirements include: – SPECTRUM RFID – SPECTRUM 4.0 Schema – Digitisation & Digital Photography – Digital Asset Management – Digital Rights Management – Digital Preservation – BPMN Workflows & automated systems – User-generated content – Narrative/re-use – Agile rights and usage metadata

32. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license What are we missing…?

33. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Missing elements Clear user-focussed value proposition for investment in Documentation Persistent Unique Identification for Digital artefacts Stable methodologies for capturing and managing UGC Lightweight standards/protocols for RFID & microformats Common application profiles for data exchange (eg. OAI PMH) Specifications for API for museum data

34. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Articulating the Value of Documentation We understand the value proposition, but many don’t Bringing together a consortium of international partners (CIDOC, Getty, CHIN, Collections Trust, National organisations) Showing that Documentation Delivers Supporting our case with clear evidence of economic Return on Investment and user impact/value

35. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license OpenCulture 2012 Annual Great Collections Management Exhibition and Conference June 26 th & 27 th 2012 At the Oval, London SPECTRUM Users/Roadmap meeting www.collectionslink.org.uk/openculture2012

36. Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license Contact Nick Poole Collections Trust nick@collectionstrust.org.uk @NickPoole1 http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk