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Integrating museum systems: Accessing collections information at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Integrating museum systems: Accessing collections information at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Christopher Marsden Sarah Winmill, Frances Lloyd-Baynes 17 September 2007. This presentation. Describes the V&A’s Core Systems Integration Project (CSIP)

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Integrating museum systems: Accessing collections information at the Victoria and Albert Museum

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  1. Integrating museum systems: Accessing collections information at the Victoria and Albert Museum Christopher Marsden Sarah Winmill, Frances Lloyd-Baynes 17 September 2007

  2. This presentation • Describes the V&A’s Core Systems Integration Project (CSIP) • Looks at the challenges the project has presented • Explores the technical and content-related issues of delivering collections data taken from a variety of sources and generated using varied approaches via a single interface • Offers some lessons from the V&A’s work for others undertaking similar initiatives

  3. The Victoria and Albert Museum: Background • One of the world’s largest museums of art and design Victoria and Albert Museum, front façade

  4. V&A Collections Approximately 1.5 million objects; object data is held electronically in the Collections Information System (MUSIMS) and in paper-based documentation Approximately 1.5 million items are held; most Bibliographic material held by the National Art Library. The NAL is also the curatorial department for the art, craft and design of the book. Items are documented in the Horizon database and available both on site and online V&A archives comprise the Archive of Art & Design, the V&A Archive and the Theatre Collections Archive; data available via XML files and the Horizon database (at collections level) and in paper-based documents Over 160,000 digital and analogue images, documented in the Digital Asset Management database and available for purchase online Objects Bibliographic and Archival material Images

  5. The challenge • Large, mature cataloguing solutions following diverse standards • A growing number of record ‘copies’ and ‘harvests’ • Systems linked in a complex mesh • Poor (if existent!) system inter-dependency documentation • Growing technological aspirations • Poor customer data access

  6. Existing V&A systems

  7. CSIP Aims & Objectives • to develop system architecture whereby applications can access object information via a Virtual Repository rather than mastering object data locally. • to integrate the Museum's core systems and remove the dependencies on manual data manipulation tasks inherent in current practice, thus improving efficiency and accuracy of data delivery.

  8. CSIP project deliverables • Gallery Services application • Image linking to NAL system • PROMIS project management system • Publishing Process • 'Virtual Repository' • Data Mastering Protocol

  9. Existing V&A systems

  10. Core Systems Integration Project: phase 1 System Simulation Ltd.

  11. Gallery Services Application V&A, South Kensington, Information Desk

  12. Gallery Services: key requirements • The provision of access to information on objects (i.e. 'non- bibliographic' material) • Access to the objects' current location • Access object details through 'surrounding information' such as peoples' names (e.g. artist/maker; people depicted), periods, places, dates, materials, etc. • Quick access to data • Concise results • Illustrative images

  13. NAL bibliographic record NAL web catalogue entry: MARC and public output

  14. Object records Object records from CIS and V&A Access to Images web site

  15. Archival records V&A Archive records: public output and XML mark-up

  16. Issues • The hierarchical nature of the archival findings aids • Item level vs. collection-level descriptions • Authority-use variation and granularity • System structure vs. user expectations • Appropriate mapping model for CSIP • Harvesting vs. Z39.50 retrieval

  17. Archival material

  18. Issues • The hierarchical nature of the archival findings aids • Item level vs. collection-level descriptions • Authority-use variation and granularity • System structure vs. user expectations • Appropriate mapping model for CSIP • Harvesting vs. Z39.50 retrieval

  19. Common Data Model: Dublin Core Dublin Core draft map

  20. Common Data Model: CIDOC CRM CIDOC CRM map for Sculpteur project

  21. Common Data Model: Sculpteur project Www.sculpteurweb.org

  22. Issues • The hierarchical nature of the archival findings aids • Item level vs. collection-level descriptions • Authority-use variation and granularity • System structure vs. user expectations • Appropriate mapping model for CSIP • Harvesting vs. Z39.50 retrieval

  23. Gallery services application V&A Gallery Services application mock-ups

  24. Lessons so far • It is possible to integrate your data without putting it in one system • High-level buy-in for the project is essential • Market your project carefully – talk about benefits and deliverables, not technology • The major challenge is no longer the technology, but the underlying understanding of our data • Don’t wait for perfection

  25. Integrating museum systems: Accessing collections information at the Victoria and Albert Museum Christopher Marsden Victoria and Albert Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL United Kingdom www.vam.ac.uk c.marsden@vam.ac.uk

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