1. The narrative of objects: conservation, capture and collaboration
Speakers: Arielle Juler and Paul McNulty, National Galleries of Scotland
The history of an object within a collection is constantly being updated as it passes day to
day through the functions of the host institution. Examination, movement, treatment and
myriad other operations all add to the cumulative history of the work. It is desirable, vital
even, that this narrative be captured so that members of the institution can interrogate and
interact with all these aspects of the object in a meaningful way.
In 2011 the National Galleries of Scotland embarked on a new initiative - DAMS - to
combine our holdings of digital assets into one unifying management system and reform
the methodology by which they are utilized in our working practices. The advent of
DAMS allowed a formal structure for sharing to be put in place, opening up this wealth
of information to all departments. An added benefit of this centralization of our digital
assets is to reduce the holdings of digital media on the institutional servers and transform
the established procedures for storing and sharing digital media. This provided an
opportunity to link up all of the existing assets and metadata and embed their unique
history, as well as lay the groundwork for the meaningful capture of future data. It was a
key objective that this process open up the history of the object across the institution, so
that all departments could have access to information that was hitherto the domain of a
single department.
This type of access to the full grain of information available on an object makes for more
efficient collaboration between departments, as users may examine the whole trajectory
of a specific artefact, from its acquisition to the present, filtering out the information they
don’t immediately require. The key is that DAMS allows images, multimedia, data and
assets to be considered simultaneously, as the complete context of any object is always
available.
For the Conservation department the history of an object is augmented through our
processes and procedures: for example, the completion of a condition report when an
object goes out on/returns from loan; varying levels of treatment; technical examination
utilizing different lighting types and material analysis; packing, crating and storage. An
integral part of these processes is capturing them as a record of the event for the object
file and to provide context to the continuing narrative of the object within the collection.
The conservation department therefore set out to solidify our technical knowledge in a
way that allowed non-specialists to fully engage with the assets we created, their
meaning, and their relation to an object’s history. This resulted in a set of definitions,
conventions and practices which has imbued each object with a multifaceted account of
its history within the collection. DAMS users from all departments can examine a record
of an object’s dimensions and movements, but they can also look at the trajectory of the
object from pre-acquisition to the present. One potential use is looking at and sharing
packing and installation images for a particular well-travelled object, another might be
calling up marked-up condition check images for an outgoing or returning loan.

2. This paper will examine the process involved in implementing DAMS, looking at the
preplanning, population, implementation and results of the project. This will be of
particular interest to registrars, as the speakers will examine ways in which the system
meshes with the interests and operations of the Registrar’s department at NGS.