Discovering New Zealand Museums

Discovering New Zealand Museums New Zealand digital initiatives to create and share cultural content Paul Rowe, Vernon Systems Museums Association Conference London, Oct 6 th 2009

We are here

Only 4 million people http://www.flickr.com/photos/vtveen/1062621164/

... but a lot of digital initiatives Na tional Digital Forum Coalition of museums, archives, art galleries, libraries and government DigitalNZ Collaborative initiative led by the National Library of NZ

The Internet is a big place http://www.flickr.com/photos/djmccrady/806040268 226 million websites (Sep 2009 Netcraft Web Server Survey)

It can be hard to find what you’re looking for http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnny9s/2894855314

What you’re looking for isn’t always there http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/958035425

Filters help you get the layer you’re interested in http://www.flickr.com/photos/magslhalliday/4298869/

Launched Sep 2008
Represents 400 museums
Collection records and images from 60 museums (many volunteer run)

Website administered by: National Services Te Paerangi, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The team on the Our Space map at Te Papa www.nationalservices.tepapa.govt.nz

How they help He Rauemi Resource Guides 0508 freephone helpline

NZMuseums allows you to find our treasures

To talk about them

...and help others find them

How did the website come about? Redevelopment of an older directory site Vernon Systems were the successful tender for the new site New site to be based on eHive

Focal point for all New Zealand museums
Desired content was not in digital form
Most contributors had very limited resources

DigitalNZ: the digital life cycle

DigitalNZ helping with bottlenecks
Online guides through Make It Digital
Helpdesk for all aspects of digital lifecycle
Aggregated data for whole cultural sector
Forum to propose & vote for digital projects

2006: NZMuseums focus groups
Volunteers are key - keep in simple
Keep costs low
It should be possible to contribute without the Internet
Outline benefits and address concerns

2003: 85% wanted to contribute http://www.flickr.com/photos/mic_n_2_sugars/564570276/

Benefits for small museums
Reduces barriers to achieving a web presence
Unified approach across New Zealand
Entry point into simple collections management
Minimal funds and expertise required
Show it to the world!
Motueka Museum

Getting museums onboard
Electronic newsletters
Museum Development Officers in the field
Training workshops

Online forum – avoid answering the same question many times

Spreadsheet for data contributors
Could be used without an internet connection
Stepping stone between existing systems and eHive

eHive collection management system
Within eHive , each contributor has their own login to create and edit content and upload images

www.ehive.com

Each contributor has their own directory page

eHive web admin for collections management functions

Don’t reinvent the wheel
Used Open Source software

What’s an API and what’s it doing to my museum data?
Application Programmable Interface
The way two websites or applications talk to each other
Data created in one place can be repurposed
Share your stories
Website 1 Collection Records . . . . . Website 2 Collection Records Redisplayed with different presentation . . . . . API – “the telephone line”

Integration with NZLive
National cultural events website
Data shared with NZMuseums through RSS feeds for each museum

Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Harvesting Metadata – OAI-PHM
Create filters of information
DigitalNZ’s preferred method is OAI-PHM
OAI-PHM is in the Europeana roadmap
Data Harvesting

Sharing data
Copyright issues
Less control of where your data ends up
eHive - 3 rd party search “opt-out” option
Creative Commons licences
Copyright holders only
Other categories
No rights reserved, custom rights statements, all rights reserved

Summary
If the content isn’t on the web, expect handholding
Need filters for different audiences
APIs allow you to share your stories
Data harvesting can build a new view of data from scattered sources
Need to indicate the rights associated with records/images to allow legal re-use

Contact Info
Paul Rowe
Joint CEO
Vernon Systems
[email_address]
Twitter: www.twitter.com/armchair_caver

Discovering New Zealand Museums

by Paul Rowe on Oct 06, 2009

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