VRA 2023 Beyond the Classroom: Developing Image Databases for Research session. Presenter: Mark Pompelia Material Order is an academic consortium of material sample collections (including wood, metal, glass, ceramic, polymers, plastics, textiles, bio-materials, etc.—any material that might be used in or considered for art, architecture, and design disciplines) founded by the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design and now comprising several more institutions in the US. It provides a community-based approach to management and access to material collections utilizing and developing standards and best practices. Material Order created the Materials Profile that serves as a shared cataloging tool on the LYRASIS CollectionSpace platform and can be further developed as the different needs of consortium members are identified. Open Web searching across all collections occurs via a front-end discovery portal built with Wordpress at materialorder.org. The Material Order project was born from the acknowledgment that resource sharing and collaborative catalogs are the most promising approach to exploration and implementation. It was always the intent, now actualized, for partner institutions with different mission and scope to compel the project to consider and accommodate criteria such as material health ecologies, fabrication possibilities, and overlap into adjacent fields such as engineering and archeology. Thus, Material Order represents not just items on a shelf but a knowledge-base of compositions, uses, forms, and properties. No longer in its infancy, Material Order provides a shared and adaptable framework for managing collections across the consortium and optimal facilitation of materials-based research and exploration for art, architecture, and design applications.

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A DISCOVERY GROUP, SHARED CATALOG, AND RESEARCH
PLATFORM FOR MATERIALS COLLECTIONS
www.materialorder.org
Material Order
Mark Pompelia, Visual + Material Resource Librarian
Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design
Visual Resources Association
2023 Annual Conference

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Founding members
● Harvard University Graduate School of Design
● Rhode Island School of Design
Previous member
● Parsons, Healthy Materials Library
Later additions
● Columbia University
● University of Michigan
● University of Pennsylvania —new!
In conversation
● Ontario College of Art and Design University
● University of Connecticut
Material Order Consortium

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“With respect to materials
and design, it is the
combination of elements
of art and science that
make it work.”
- MIKE ASHBY AND KARA JOHNSON, “MATERIALS AND DESIGN”
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“It is through playing
with the materials
that you truly come
up with something
new.”
- ANAIS MISSAKIAN, PROFESSOR, TEXTILES, RISD
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• Film & Video: 11,000 DVDs
• Historic Posters: 1,750 posters
• Picture Collection: 500,000 clippings
• Image Collections:
1,500 35mm slides
40,000 digital images locally produced
4.25m digital images via subscription
• Materials Collection:
~ 40,000 material samples
VMRC Visual (or “non-text”) Collections
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Material ConneXion: innovative materials
database + (Active) Matter subscription

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Federally funded symposium
100+ attendees
librarians workshop to identify needs

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Why?
Collection
Management
&
Collection
Development

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CollectionSpace
• LYRASIS umbrella of library platforms, inc. ArchiveSpace
• Management of object-based collections
• Approx. 85% of existing architecture to be redeployed for
Material Order project
Process
• Enhanced schema from earlier experience
• Drafted function specifications
• Iterative approach to build and rollout
• Member-conducted Quality Assurance
Material Order Catalog
• Shared authority for materials records
• Local materials instance for each member collection
CollectionSpace = Sustainability, Scalability

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Shared Authority: Concepts

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Shared Authority: Materials

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Local Materials Instance: Object Records

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Local Materials Instance: Object Records

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“There have been more
materials created in the
last fifty years than in all
of human history.”
- NORTH AMERICAN MATERIALS EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM
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materialorder.org
Mark Pompelia
mpompeli@risd.edu
Thank you!
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