Digital Curation Technology: JHU Summit, October 2015
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The document discusses digital curation in art museums. It begins by defining digital curation as "the planning and management of digital assets over their full lifetime, from conceptualization through active use and presentation to long-term preservation in a repository for future re-use". It then discusses how curation involves acquisition, exhibition, and preservation of collections. It also notes that as digital curators, people take on roles like making collections available online, providing contextual information and tools to make collections useful, and improving methods for preserving and providing access to born-digital materials. The document emphasizes that digital curation requires both technological skills and an understanding of people and processes.
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Digital Curation Technology: JHU Summit, October 2015
- 1. Digital Curation in Art Museums Technology, People, Process Douglas Hegley Minneapolis Institute of Art dhegley@artsmia.org @dhegley www.slideshare.net/dhegley
- 3. technology … yawn or Image Source: http://www.christinecarter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bigstock-Yawning-7116292.jpg
- 4. Image Source: http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7kmenROzJ1qdjmmoo1_1280.gif Um, digital curation?
- 6. Digital Curation: “The planning and management of digital assets over their full lifetime, from conceptualization through active use and presentation to long-term preservation in a repository for future re-use”. - Phyllis Hecht
- 7. Digital Curation: The planning and management of digital assets over their full lifetime, from conceptualization through active use and presentation to long-term preservation in a repository for future re-use. - Phyllis Hecht “digital assets” – which ones? “full lifetime” – how to define? “active use” – by whom? for what? “long-term preservation” – how long? “repository” – what kind? which one? “future re-use” – wait, you can predict the future?!
- 8. But what is it we really mean when we say curation? Curation is Acquisition … an act of selection … selectively acquiring items to make the collection more comprehensive and/or focused … considering and appraising, researching, contextualizing and selecting, constantly searching and refining. Curation is Exhibition … conceptualization, interpretation and transformation of objects into an illustration, making the objects and the message accessible to a wide audience Curation is Preservation … the storage and care of collections, sometimes passive and sometimes active. Source: http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2014/03/what-could-curation-possibly-mean/ Image Source: http://ullushop.com/wp-content/uploads/Art-1.jpg Image Source: https://bethhellerconservation.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/img_1949.jpg
- 9. Traditionally, curators are responsible for acquiring material for a collection, preserving these materials for future generations, helping users locate items from the collection and providing contextual information so they can better understand them, and designing exhibits for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. As digital curator, I will do most of these things as well, but I have specifically made it my mission to: • make as much of our collection available online as copyright law, professional ethics, and our budget permits • provide both contextual information and software tools to make our digital collections as useful as possible • improve methods for preserving and providing access to the "born digital" materials (word processor files, digital musical scores, 3d set designs, etc.) that are now part of the creative history of most contemporary works of art Source: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/04/04/what-digital-curator
- 10. “Think, think, think” Image Source: http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/10/Winnie-the-Pooh-Thinking-Blustery-Day.jpeg
- 12. We are ALL digital publishing houses
- 13. Digital vs. Traditional Publishing pros • Faster time to publish new findings • No unit cost • Rich media • Showing rather than telling (e.g., conservation demonstrations) • Interactivity/dialogue • Highly scalable cons • Digital publishing workflows out of synch with conventions of scholarship • Perception of unlimited capacity – grey area around content length/balance • Scholarly publishing is an awkward fit for interactive dialogue • Technology changes fast (operating systems, media formats, etc) Thank you Amy Heibel (LACMA) for letting me steal this slide.
- 14. We Make We Publish We Store We Share Multiple channels We control output Open access or licensed We cede control of output Content Intellectual Production Content, Assets, Born-digital Text Media Etc. Data DAMs TMS RSS iCal XML API Services Apps Websites Aggregators Print ArtsConnectEd GoogleArt ArtSTOR Bridgeman 1000 Museums Art.sy + others Third Parties Print Web Mobile Onsite - TDX Apps ePubs – Verso Email … and more … Text Graphic MapWeb page Video/Film Image Design Logo/Icon Game Animation … more …Diagram Art? Display ©Douglas Hegley 2015
- 15. Artist: Jennifer Steinkamp Image Source: http://blog.archpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/02-jennifer-steinkamp-streetviews-stl-contemporary-art-archpaper-01.jpg
- 16. Art Objects (TMS) Digital Media Assets (DAMs) Website (CMS) Blogs MobileWeb Print (floorplans, brochures, etc.) Pubs (magazines, Catalogs, books) Press (PR, marketing, news, etc.) Documents (reports, plans, grant apps, policies) Archive (library, paper files) e.g., Social Media Content Created: Digital Stored: Analog Created: Analog Stored: Analog Created: Digital Stored: Digital Goal: Integrate/share all content using open APIs and/or web services Goal: Store in digital format, with appropriate access permissions in metadata Goal: Digitize as needed (no mass-digitization project); store digital versions in ECM ePubs Digital Art? Enterprise Content Management, Museum-style Other ©Douglas Hegley 2015
- 18. We need tools Image Source: http://rebeccalieb.com/sites/default/files/Toolbox.jpg
- 19. Digital Asset Management Systems - DAMs Key considerations: 1.Upload & download capabilities 2.Metadata – establish, add, edit, etc. 3.Storage 4.Search & browse - effective user interface 5.Share / publish – APIs & integration 6.Analytics Source: www.digitalassetmanagement.com/advanced-dam
- 21. Open Source DAMs
- 23. Content - Object records/metadata - Constituent records Potential Content Types - Maps, charts, diagrams - LI content - D& E content (e.g., Verso components - Etc. Content Types - Still images - Video - Audio DAMs (Open Source) (ResourceSpace) Mia ECM Concept June 2015 Web CMS (WordPress) DAMs (Commercial) (MediaBin) Collections Data (TMS) MetaMia – Search & Retreival tool ElasticSearch Index & access Search/Retreive Result set Filters/Facets Access: Internal External access: Later phase API API API API File Shares (Not in scope) Potential needs - Hot folders for auto-ingest NEW NEW NEW NEW Funding for the Mia ECM project provided by: https://www.elastic.co/ ©Douglas Hegley 2015
- 28. Source: Jeonghyun Kim, Edward Warga, William Moen. Competencies Required for Digital Curation: An Analysis of Job Advertisements, International Journal of Digital Curation, 2013, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 66-83 “ … digital curation jobs are characterized by a complex interplay of various skills and knowledge”
- 29. Source: Jeonghyun Kim, Edward Warga, William Moen. Competencies Required for Digital Curation: An Analysis of Job Advertisements, International Journal of Digital Curation, 2013, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 66-83
- 30. Source: Jeonghyun Kim, Edward Warga, William Moen. Competencies Required for Digital Curation: An Analysis of Job Advertisements, International Journal of Digital Curation, 2013, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 66-83
- 31. UNIX/Linux * Java, PHP, and Perl * HTML and other Web-related markup languages * XML and XSLT Relational databases including MySQL and Oracle Desktop productivity software Advanced graphics software Metadata standards: MARC * Dublin Core * METS * MODS * PREMIS Semantic web, linked data and other standards related to digital preservation, such as ISO 16363 Trusted Digital Repository Checklist DSpace * Fedora * CONTENTdm * Digital Commons * Archivists’ Toolkit Digital content creation/transformation tools Research data analysis tools, such as SPSS, SAS and Nvivo Voyager and Horizon Drupal, WordPress, Joomla Digitization, creating metadata, managing repositories and implementing preservation practices working knowledge of curation, including various media formats, curation workflows, data management principles, repository architecture, search and retrieval technology, preservation strategies, applicable provisions of copyright laws, and academic/research policies and procedures related to data management. Project management skills Source: Jeonghyun Kim, Edward Warga, William Moen. Competencies Required for Digital Curation: An Analysis of Job Advertisements, International Journal of Digital Curation, 2013, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 66-83 Oh, just a few simple skills …
- 32. Siri, can we do digital curation? Okay, let’s get started … A
- 37. Image Source: https://clintondentalcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/cleaning-your-toothbrush.jpg “Standards are like toothbrushes, everybody agrees you should have one, but no one wants to use yours” Attributed to Joe Croser (variations attributed to Connie Morella)
- 41. GETTING HERE Unrealistic expectations of digital technology to perform miracles – leads to: inability to harness potential benefits (wishful thinking) Benefits of digitcccccccccal technology have been demonstrated Benefits of digital technology have been demonstrated Forward-thinking organizations realize the difficulties and the complexities – use that understanding to develop practical approaches to implementation. The Hype Cycle
- 44. http://ignorethecode.net/blog_images/mess/messy_folder.png Persistent Archive Workflow Tools Usage
- 45. http://ignorethecode.net/blog_images/mess/messy_folder.png Artist: Marius Watz Persistent Archive Workflow Tools Usage Digital Art
Editor's Notes
- I’m here today tasked with talking about TECHNOLOGY (bum bum bum!)
- Of course, the risk is … yawn. I’ll do my best not to put you in this state.
- When Phyllis asked me to join this summit on digital curation, my first question to her was … what do you mean by that? A google search turns up several inconsistent answers.
- It does seem clear that we need grapple with the tons of digital content that we produce, as organizations and as individuals.
- I suppose all definitions lead to more questions, right?
- So I started digging deeper, using some of the resources that Phyllis shared. I found out a few more things.
- … and more … seemed to be getting closer to what I THINK she asked me to talk about.
- Is this the point in time for me to confess that I may be a bear of very little brain on this topic? I will at least say that I am nowhere near an expert, but I am grappling with not just understanding the scope of what we face but also getting tools in place to help us right now and going forward. I know that I will be learning from all of you over these two days. My goal this morning will be to illuminate some of the issues that face us, with a special focus on the technology and the technical skills needed in the people we are going to hire to help us solve these challenges.
- At this point in history, museums have “gone digital”. That ship has sailed and we are no longer debating the concept.
- In fact, it has been argued that any and all businesses in this day that interact with customers are digital publishing houses.
- And digital publishing comes with a set of advantages and disadvantages.
- As a field, we all make content, we store it, we publish it and share it as best as we can.
- And of course there are born-digital works of art to contend with as well – “objects” that we acquire, but they don’t come in crates - they come in code.
- I realize this is a pretty dense slide for a short presentation. I promise that I will share this deck on slideshare if you want to dive into it in more detail, but we’ve got to move fast today. Here I’m just illustrating that we have an array of content types, storage needs, and digitization workflows.
- Here’s and even-more-complex diagram that I found from the Univ of Miami, looking at the ebb and flow of digital content and the practice of data curation to add value, security, and sustainability.
- Clearly, we need some effective tools, and more than likely Grandpa’s old tool box isn’t likely to do the job.
- Because I think all of you are well-aware of the essential functionalities of DAMs, I’ll linger on this slide for only a moment.
- One of our challenges when it comes to tools is that the industry itself is fractured (probably because DAMs evolved in so many different verticals), and even so-called industry experts (and I do think that the RealStory Group is very capable) can’t seem to decide how to group, classify, sort all of the options. Believe it or not, and powerful tools or not, it remains my contention that the DAMs field is not yet fully mature.
- Even if we limit ourselves to Open Source DAMs: There are literally hundreds on the market; and relevant to us: most are not focused on a cultural heritage end user.
- Back to the RealStory Group – they’ve even tried to apply a sort of London Underground Map visualization in order to capture the multiple vendors, systems and capabilities. Where do we even start?
- To rein this in a bit, I’m throwing up a schematic of how we are approaching our needs at Mia. I’m not recommending this by any means, please see it as an illustration.
- MediaBin has been our commercial DAMs for several years.
- We are completing our IMLS-funded project to implement ResourceSpace and tie all of our digital content repositories together using Redis and Elastic Search. Gettin’ there!
- And I think we’ll be hearing from Ben next on the agenda, which I’m definitely looking forward to. The tools are coming along, and the more we work together like this, the better for all of us.
- So let’s shift our attention to people.
- Okay, fair enough, it’s not an easy task to get the wide set of skills needed to be great at digital curation. But there must be some common threads. I’ll be borrowing some content from this interesting study listed below.
- What do you call this kind of job? Does that influence who will apply?
- And whomever you hire is going to have to know a whole hell of a lot, apparently.
- I mean, just look at this list! Even a genius devoted entirely to this pursuit is going to take years to master all of this! Begs the question: is it really necessary??
- Ultimately I am a firm believer that the best thing to do is to get started. Work iteratively, learn as you go, share widely. We can do this!
- And of course attitude and character are traits; skills can be learned. This is forgotten so often that it’s absurd.
- And what about workflows? Often convoluted, tangled, left in the pot too long …
- In these few minutes I just don’t have time to break workflows down effectively. Even with more time it would be a real challenge. The caveat I’ll leave you with today: be careful about software tools that force you to adopt non-standard workflows or that are not able to adapt to changing workflows over time. Good luck.
- We could certainly use a simplified metadata model, to cover a core set of file formats. And to ensure that the assets and the metadata travel well
- Of course we all probably know this one …
- Still, we needed SOMETHING! At Mia, we went panning for metadata properties – metadata gold, if you will. Sifting though the flood of standards and specifications, sticking largely to the ISO standards along the way. With MiaCore, we are capturing the basics including: With xmpBasicJob, we’re capturing Project Names, Project References; With xmpRights, Creative Commons, and PLUS, Basic Rights Management, Including Embargo and Constraints Information; With VRA Core, we’re capturing tombstone information about works of art; With MiaCore fields, we’re capturing quality control tags, and a range of sync keys for our API. For example, ObjectID, or EventID for sync with TMS, our Collections Information System
- Sigh. Are we guilty of proliferation? Probably. Double sigh. But we simply had to cut down on what we were keeping and establish a set of metadata fields that would really work for us. Would we love it if all art museums adopted this model? Absolutely. So, anyone want to use my toothbrush?
- We’ve still got plenty of challenges on the horizon, here are just a few:
- In the cultural heritage sector, we are on the cusp of really understanding and utilizing digital curation/DAMs technology for our benefit. We’ve moved past the days of dreamy uptopianism, and we are working our way up to productivity.
- Long-term preservation & archival practices still need to be dealt with – how do we sustain our digital assets over very long periods of time? Most commercial DAMs are built to get the latest merchandise published, then to move on to the next season’s stuff. Preservation is not first and foremost across the industry.
- 2. Workflow management tools still need improving and a bit of standardization, most at present represent custom-made and system-specific internal code. After all, process matters just as much as product in any organization that strives for efficiency.
- 3. Deployment + usage tracking + external access … We’d like to know what our assets are up to out there, without onerous manual tracking.
- 4. Born-digital works of art represent the 800 lb gorilla in the room – is it the responsibility of the DAMs and its manager(s)? Art acquisition is very, very expensive. Museums know how to tend to sculpture and paintings over time, but we are still novices at really coping with conservation and preservation of born-digital works.
- I remain optimistic. Technology changes so rapidly, and the need for longer-term preservation of our collective creative output is recognized widely. Our job is to keep demanding excellent tools and to use them to their fullest extent.