For many museums, undertaking digitization projects can be intimidating. What does it take to provide the widest possible access to works of art? This panel will discuss the conception, challenges, and outcomes of recent collections access initiatives at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

1. Collections Out
of the Bag
Digital Access at the
Detroit Institute of Arts

2. Detroit Institute of Arts Founded in 1885

3. Mission
Statement
To create experiences that help
visitorsfind personal meaning in art
individuallyand with each other.

4. The CollectionOver 60,000 worksof art

5. Access to our Collection
Gains Traction
• The picture five years ago
• Proposal to leadership
• Day of consultants
• Some magic behind the scenes
(Untitled, train tracks and industrial
buildings) ca. 1976,printed 2005
James Pearson Duffy
gelatin silver print
Gift of James Pearson Duffy
2006.97.50

6. The Collections Access
Team (CAT) was Born
• CollectionsDatabase Manager
• DigitalAsset Manager
• Two CollectionsInformation Specialists
• Three Photographers(one new position)
Sano di Pietro, Madonna and Child, 15th century, paint on wood panel.
Detroit Instituteof Arts, Bequest of Mrs. Lillian Henkel Haass, 61.347.

7. Collections
Access Project
logo
Cat with a Cap
Der Katz
DavinM. Brainard, American
digitalart
Courtesy Davin Brainard, Detroit
Institute of Arts.

8. Project Components
CATALOGUINGOBJECT
RECORDS
PHOTOGRAPHY DIGITAL ASSET
MANAGEMENT

9. Collections Information
Cataloguing Object Records

10. Cataloguing
• New data standards
• Pilot project
• Before and after
• The daily grind

11. Creating new
Standards
• DIA – Former standards
• CCO-Cataloging Cultural Objects: Visual
Resources Association (VRA)
• CDWA-Categories for the Description of Works
of Art, eds. Murtha Baca and Patricia Harping:
Getty electronic publications
• Other Institutions- esp. MFA Houston, TMS
listserv, museum websites
• “POUNCE” meetings

12. POUNCE MEETINGS
• TO SPRING OR SWOOP WITH INTENT TO SEIZE
SOMETHING [DATA STANDARDS]
• Involve TMS super users:
• 2 Collections Information Specialists
• TMS Database Manager
• Head of Publishing and Collections
Information
• 4 curators
• 2 registrars
• 1 Museum Technician
• Head Librarian

13. Decision
Making
Workflow

14. Pilot Project
• Tested standards in all collections
• Calculated approximate time to
catalogue records and made projections
• Showed us the importance of cataloguing
more fields than originally envisioned
• Workflow trial and error

15. Grants
The Henry Luce Foundation
• 2 years
• Focus: The Americas
Collections
• American before 1950
• African American
• Native American Art
• American Contemporary

16. Grants
Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS)
• 2 years
• Focus: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
• Extremely limiting the way the grant application
was written
• Did not allow for much work outside of the
grant, non-critical side projects were shelved

17. Required Fields
• Object Date
• Constituent(s): entire record
• Title
• Object Name
• Medium + indexed terms
• Dimension:index all
• Signed, mark(s) + inscription(s
• Provenance
• ExhibitionHistory
• Published References
• Geography Terms
• Object Level
• Attributes: subject, styles &
periods, work type(s)
• CataloguerName and Date
• Flex Fields: CAP Record Approvals

18. Before
• Empty fields
• Information entered
improperly or using old
standards
• Spelling and grammatical
errors
• Data in wrong fields
x

19. Before
No indexed terms or metadata

20. After
• Data has been
standardized
• Spelling and grammatical
errors fixed
• Data added
• Data moved

21. After
All terms and data are indexed

22. Cataloguing
Attributes
HierarchicalAuthority
Terms

23. Tracking
Progress

24. Troubleshooting
Issue Tracking: Shared Spreadsheets
• Further research
• Curatorial follow up
Kenro Izu, Preah Kahn, Angkor Wat, 1996, platinumprint.
Detroit Instituteof Arts, Gift of Saundra B. Lane, 2015.369

25. New photography with detailed
images improved cataloguing and
opportunities for expertise.
John Tanner, Sugar tongs, scissors type, between 1740 and 1750, silver, Detroit Institute of Arts. Gift
of Miss Margaret Gould. 2012.108

26. Digital Asset Management

29. The “Digital Flood”:
The Beginning
-Douglas Hegley, Chief Digital Officer at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Albert Bierstadt, Shore of the Turquoise Sea, 1878,
oil on canvas. DetroitInstituteof Arts, Manoogian
Collection, XX2007.11.

30. What are we
trying to do?
Improve and Promote:
• Accessibility
• Discoverability
• Integrity
• Reliability
• Searchability
• Shareability
• Usability

31. Piction & the Collections Access Project
• 90,000+ image files representing around 55,000 objects (including
accessioned objects, loans, objects for exhibitions, etc.).
• Photography Studio, Collections Management, Registrar’s Office
• JPEGs and TIFFs; earliest file is from 1998
• 29,000+ objects have been photographed since January 2014.
• Image metadata created and managed in Piction and pushed to TMS.
• Images that we have rights to are pushed to the website. Objects in
the public domain available for download (JPEGs).
• Establish – and periodically refine – workflows.

32. Metadata Is Magical*
(*if you put in the work)
• File-naming conventions for legacy
and new data
• Descriptive metadata (VRA, IPTC)
• Descriptive filenames
• Rights management
• Security
Ascian, Unicorn, 1972, screenprint. DetroitInstituteof Arts, Founders
Society Purchase, HalH. Smith Fund, 73.178.

33. TMS

34. Piction

35. Website

36. TMS Media Record
AUTO-GENERATED
New Fields
(managed by
Piction)

37. The “Digital Flood”:
Present Day
Ralph Steiner, Two Little Men and Big Ocean, ca. 1921, gelatin silver
print. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Warren and Margot Coville,
F1986.93.
HK CG

38. Moving Beyond
“Project”
• Meet with content creators and users across the
museum: “hey, I can help!”
• Work for buy-in from executive level; tied to Strategic
Plan.
• Broaden definition of “collections” and move away
from thinking of this as just a “project.”
• Work towards long-term preservation and protection
of information and assets.

39. Intellectual
Property &
Rights
Management
• AAM Rights & Reproductions: The Handbook for
Cultural Institutions
• ARS (now includes VAGA) website
• Harry Ransom Center WATCH List
• Research "Fair Use" and develop policy and/or
guidelines for your institution.
• USPTO workshop at the DIA, February 2019!

40. Rescue Mission
Engage stakeholders and contentcreators, conduct
asset audits, identify “high-risk” assets, define
environment, migrate assets, and develop plans for
appraisal and metadata.
• Institutional archives
• Architectural drawings and building plans
• Conservation images
• Interpretive labels
• Time-Based Media (collections and non-
collections)
Martin Lewis, Tugboatin the Rain, ca. 1916, etching printed in black ink on
wovepaper. DIA, Giftof Mr. RobertM. Katzman and Mrs. Lisa Katzman,
1999.1627.

41. • Reviewing proposals for a new Digital
Asset Management System.
• Revise and codify Digital Preservation
Policy.
• Finalize Fair Use Policy.
• Create DIA Metadata & Database
Standards Committee and DIA Digital
Asset Management Governance
Committee... and start meeting!

42. The “Digital Flood”:
Oh We’ll Get Here
HiroshiSugimoto, Sea of Japan, Hokkaido II,
1986, gelatin silver print. Detroit Institute of
Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Albertand
Peggy de Salle Charitable Trust, 1992.222.

43. So where are we
now?

44. PICTION
IPA App
Museum
Visitor Services
Web ServerTMS
STAFF
Online Visitors
Visitors
Collection Information Specialists
Photographers
Registrars
Collections Management
Exhibitions
Curators
Research Library & Archives
Conservators (coming soon)
Publishing
Learning & Interpretation
People drive
the systems

45. Stats
Approximately 50% of
the collection has been
catalogued
Over 31,000 records

46. Cataloguing Stats
19,181
Relationships Added
173,670
Subject & Geography Terms Added
These links help to facilitate discovery on
the collection pages.
These links are also used on the website
object detail pages in related works.

47. On Launch of NewWebsite
The entire collection was
published in July 2017. This
event increased the number of
records available online by
1034%(previous: 5,380 | on launch: 61,018)

48. Continue to Publish & Share

49. Rights &
Reproductions
• We completed almost 500
requests and shared 5600+ image files
this calendar year.
• Continue to work with Bridgeman
Images.
• New Digital Asset Specialist!

50. Lessons Learned
Documentation
Revisit standards on a regular basis
Centralize Resources
Flexibility is key

51. Lessons Learned
• Metadatais a love letterto the future...so is
documentation.
• Create how-to-guides documenting procedures and
workflows.
• Create formatting guidelines.
• Create a space to share tips to future cataloguers.
• Living documents that can be adjusted as time
passes, best practices change, and technologies
improve.

52. New TMS landing page and
O365 resource portal

53. Lessons Learned:
Flexibility is key.
• Planning is importantbut…
• Unscheduled projects arise
• Timing can be a problem
• Hard to estimate time scopes
• Staff turnover
• Just start somewhere!
Vernon HoweBailey, Hull Construction, ca. 1919, lithograph printed in black
ink on japan paper. Detroit Instituteof Arts, Gift of John Russell, 19.13

54. So, how many
cats are out of
the bag?

55. 98 and counting!

56. Questions?
Contact Us!
• Christina Gibbs, Collections Database Manager
cgibbs@dia.org
• Jessica Herczeg-Konecny, Digital Asset Manager
jhkonecny@dia.org