What do we want from online collections?

Paul Rowe

CEO, Vernon SystemsUK Museums on the Web 2012

30th Nov 2012, London

What do we want from

online collections?

South Auckland c. 1870http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artwork/7268/south-auckland-landscape

My office

Content

Collections aren’t just objects, they represent knowledge

http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/media/

Catalogue records will never be perfect

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/103443

Share what you have

Owaka Museum in New Zealand publishes all of their 6,800 records and images online

Owaka Museum: 75,000 page views per year

http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3021

Channels

http://pinterest.com/aucklandmuseum

http://wellcomebrains.tumblr.com/

Engagement

Wow, the lady in the back row in the middle is my great, great, great grandma!! This is Jeremiah Callaghan from Boherbue,

Cork, Ireland. Buried in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin (Callahan). Married to Jemima McLeod from Wick, Scotland. Lived 4km south of Owaka on the lake with his son John and Jeremiah. Striatic on Flickr

Re-use

Consider licences which encourage re-usePowerhouse Museum: Creative Commons

licensed photo collection

http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2009/papers/bray/bray.html

Copyright is complex – publishing just the data is still worth it

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shapiro-woman-shielding-her-child-p06558

Sharing data through programming interfaces

Dire wolf skulls at George C. Page Museum © Pyry MatikainenWikimedia Commons / CC-By-SA 2.5

Transparency

Clear details about deaccessioning

http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/teapot--15

http://dmadashboard.org/

Metrics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikenan1/1992831000 By Mikenan1 - CC-By-NC-ND 2.0

Statistics to help us better direct our resources

Wonder

http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/

Make it, share it,learn from it, make it better

Thank you

Paul RoweVernon Systems@armchair_caver