The document discusses the Art Gallery of New South Wales' efforts over 14 years to improve the quality of its collection data and provide an effective online presence. It describes projects from 1998-2010 to standardize data fields, digitize collection images, address copyright issues, and record provenance data. The goal was to consolidate this work into a user-friendly website for browsing and searching the gallery's collection.

1. Data quality for an effective web presence Jesmond Calleja Collection Systems Manager Art Gallery of New South Wales [email_address] http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

2. Introduction Museums are established institutions existing in a changing world Earliest date back to the 15 th century Collecting data on old dusty cards in cabinets paved for the way for computerised access at one’s fingertips Today access is of paramount importance The nature of museum work itself needs to be examined Issues of management, quality of data and collection management affect outcomes These are the points we had to piece together over a 14 year period in order for the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ (AGNSW) online collection to have an effective and consistent web presence

3. This presentation will address: The history of data management at the AGNSW (from 1874) Data management and its importance The ‘Collection Project’ (1998) which served an the initial basis to accurately record the Gallery’s collection data in a standardised and consistent format on the Vernon collection management system The ‘Digitisation Project’ (2000) was established to provide a complete visual record of the Gallery’s collection Re-evaluation and implementation of copyright data as it contains information critical to the broad goals of the Digitisation Project (2000) Importance of recording Provenance data (2002) Consolidation of above points by providing a user friendly interactive experience where the public can browse and search the AGNSW collection online (2010) Note: this is the third iteration of the Gallery’s website

4. The Gallery’s data in 1997* Was in shambles Had missing data in many of the essential fields Could not be relied on Was inconsistent Had infrequent used of standards Made it extremely difficult to retrieve works and perform adequate reports Most curators were still using old catalogue cards as their primary tool for cataloguing the collection * Note: 1997 is the year that the author joined the Gallery

5. Plates showing old catalogue cards and cabinets widely used in the AGNSW for cataloguing collection data

6. Data management Steps taken preceding the data entry stage A list of data fields was compiled A short, working definition was assigned to each data field The need for syntax control was determined for each data field An inventory of existing documentation sources was undertaken A determination was made of which data fields are needed to fulfil the goals of the ‘Collection Project’ A determination was made of which documentation source is the best for the configuration of data fields satisfying the project A determination was made of which data fields need vocabulary control An estimated time frame for the conclusion of the project

7. Assistant Director - Collections Head curator of Australian art Head curator of Western art Head curator of Asian art Registrar of cataloguing and documentation Assistant curator/ registrar for Australian art Assistant curator/ registrar for Asia art Assistant curator/ registrar for Western art Flow chart showing distribution of positions involved in the Collection Project Collection Project

8. Commencement of Collection Project Bibliography Buck, Rebecca A. (1998). The New Museum Registration Methods. American Association of Museums, Washington D.C. Varveris, T. (1980). Cataloguer’s Manual for the Visual Arts. National Gallery of Victoria, Australia Resources and authorities The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a thesaurus of art historical and architectural terminology developed as a controlled indexing language for use by museums, libraries and archives in cataloguing book and periodical collections, image collections and museum objects, particularly art related works. http:// www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/index.html Object ID offers invaluable information on object data in order to facilitate the prevention of theft http://archives.icom.museum/object-id/checklist/english.pdf Thesaurus of Geographical Names (TGN) is a thesaurus of hierarchically arranged geographical terms to aid museums, libraries and archives that enter and index geography terms for object and people records. http:// www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/index.html Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) is a resource that was developed to serve as a terminology resource for cultural institutions that research and use artist names. It is neither an authority nor a thesaurus but a database of about 20,000 names that are linked to 100,000 individual artists. http:// www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/ulan/index.html

9. Digitisation Project To establish a phase of an important aspect of the Gallery’s future operation and relevance The project will position the Gallery to maintain: a permanent high quality image repository of the collection an enhanced collection database and be a primary source for educational and scholarly research appropriate internal and external access to the database Budget allocated for the project was set for a 3 year period Project was initially established to provide a complete visual record of the Gallery’s collection AND to set the wheels in motion to have a dynamic, database-driven website that presents a thematic route of entry for exploration of the collections

10. Image capture Images were created according to a priority list of approximately 7,600 works from a total collection of 26,000 objects (@ year 2000) = 29% of the collection Each image stored in 6 formats: Master Archive, Publishing, Multimedia, Screen, Web and Thumbnail Screen, web and thumbnail images planned for the web A numbering system was set up for documenting images that attempted to reflect the accession number of collection objects A new numbering system was implemented in 2004 that would offer flexibility and easy link of images to the Vernon database and website

11. Previous and current image numbering system Table showing the digital numbering systems adopted by the Gallery. The previous system proved to be incompatible with linking images to the web so all images were renamed with the current system around 2004. The file name consists of 4 parts: Accession number – exactly matched to the Vernon record Photography generated parts – view/detail/base – separated by # Archive initial eg. S=screen, M=master etc. File extension ie. jpg, tif, dng etc 4.1998#detail01#.jpg 4.1998#view03#S.jpg 4.1998#view02#S.jpg 4.1998##S.jpg (the primary image) 4.1998 Current – adopted 2004 4_1998_detail.S 4_1998_side.S 4_1998_view.S 4_1998.S 4.1998 Previous – started 2000 Digital image # Accession #

12. Plates showing the root where the digital images reside on the Gallery’s server. Top left: Images stored in respective folders according to the first digit of their accession numbers. Middle: Shows all the images in folder 4. Top right: easy retrieval of images

13. Table showing the % of digitised and non digitised works for the main curatorial collecting areas as at January 2010 AGNSW collection = 29530, 61% have been digitised

14. Copyright There are three key copyright concepts of which museum professionals should be aware: There is a difference between owning a physical work and owning rights associated with it There is an assortment of rights surrounding copyrighted works. This involves the right to exploit a work ie. to reproduce it, create derivatives works, to distribute the work, to perform the work publicly, to display the work, and to control he digital transmission of sound recordings Application of copyright law to any particular work is extremely date and fact sensitive

15. The copyright law in Australia is complex AGNSW Vernon database allows for flexibility in determining copyright status We can make it clear when a work is both in the public domain in Australia, yet in copyright overseas This allows us to record if we have rights for the internet but is clear that we do not need the obtain rights for print purposes in Australia Australian Copyright Act – Copyright extension 1.1.2005 Was passed in December to take affect on 1 January 2005 Essentially it will bring Australia in line with the US and Europe by extending copyright from life of the artist plus 50 years to life of the artist plus 70 years The changes are a little complicated given that it is not retrospective - hence photographs by Max Dupain or David Moore that were out of copyright as of the 31.12.2004 remain out of copyright whilst those that were in copyright as of 1.1.2005 are now in copyright for life plus 70 years International works that went out of copyright in Australia in 2004 remain out in Australia but may still be in overseas which of course we need to be aware of if reproducing the work on the internet or distributing catalogues etc overseas

16. The changes that will affect the Gallery include: Photographs by an Australian artist Any photograph taken (does not matter when it was printed) by an Australian photographer taken before the end of 1954 is out of copyright world wide Any photograph taken after the 1st of January 1955 will now remain in copyright for the life of the artist plus 70 years Photographs by an International artist Any photograph taken before the end of 1954 is out of copyright in Australia but still in copyright internationally For online use any photograph taken by an International photographer (except Canada, Japan, Russia and a couple of others) is in copyright for life plus 70 years

17. Upper left: Showing a historical record of how Matisse’s print has been photographed Left: Data on Vernon showing Matisse’s print is no longer in copyright in Australia but still in overseas. Obtaining a license allows AGNSW to publish on the web Right: Matisse’s print flagged ‘full public access’ to allow publication onto the web

18. Provenance Meaning of the word is origin Association of collections, provenance means the history of ownership The availability of records from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and publicly surrounding high-profile cases of Jewish-owned art stolen by Nazi officials Documenting the transfer of an artwork from one owner to another can establish the legal ownership of that work Provenance can also help determine the authorship of a work Knowing where a painting was at a given time also allows the art historian to trace its influence on other artists.

19. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Boy bitten by a lizard c1600, oil on canvas. Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi, Florence Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Boy bitten by a lizard c1595/1600, oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London These two identical paintings introduces many of the problems faced by scholars in attributing, dating and interpreting Caravaggio’s work from: Blunden, G. (ed.). (2004). Darkness & Light: Caravaggio & his world. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia

20. Provenance fulfils a fundamental mission of a museum to research its collection Prior to the late 1990s, it was uncommon for significant provenance information to be recorded in collection management systems Standards for provenance research were not defined by the museum community Provenance should be presented in a clear and organised fashion and be as complete as possible The order of ownership may be earliest to latest owner, or the reverse, as long as the chronology is obvious There should be some mechanism by which owners are distinguished from dealers or auctioneers The source of information about each owner or transaction should be documented References Yeide, Nancy H., K. Akinsha and A.L. Walsh (2001). The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. American Association of Museums, Washington DC Yiede, Nancy H. (2005). Vitalizing Memory – International Perspectives on Provenance Research. American Association of Museums, Washington DC

21. Recording and assembling provenance data The object itself is an important, if not the most important primary document It should be fully examined for clues tracing its history from the moment it left the hands of the artist until the present The work should be taken to a well-lit location and unframed so that it can be carefully studied front and back Recording provenance data aids the cataloguing process into gathering more data All data on the front and verso of the painting needs to be recorded: signature, date, inscriptions and labels

22. Internationally accepted location diagram and abbreviations. The AGNSW has used and adapted similar conventions from: Varveris, T. (1980). Cataloguer’s Manual for the Visual Arts. National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

23. Above: front of painting: Signed l.l. corner, red oil "Jean Appleton". Not dated. Right: verso of painting: Signed top c. verso on frame, pen and brown ink "Jean Appleton/ .../ .../ .../ ....". Purchase price of 25gns Jean Appleton, Red cannas (1948), oil on paperboard. Purchased 1948. © AGNSW

24. Inscriptions recorded for Braque’s Glass of absinthe on Vernon showing consistent and standardised data format

25. Vernon data for Braque’s Glass of absinthe , showing acquisition and provenance data. Note: for this presentation the valuation and purchase price have been purposely omitted

26. Moving towards a web presence A modest search the collection site was built and the collection went live in December 2002 First substantial re-design of the Gallery’s website took place in December 2005 This re-haul also coincided with the launch of myVirtualGallery Implementation of the Vernon Browser as the back-end operating system Results yielded from a curatorial search did not provide a true cross-reference to works that could possibly fit into more than one curatorial department. Because of this, major adjustments to previously entered data were performed onto the Vernon database User feasibility tests undertaken on 746 random individuals asking 4 collection related questions

27. Fig. 1 Is it easy to find works in the online collection? Fig. 2 Is the browse section well organised? Fig. 3 Does the on-line collection need a simpler ‘simple search’? Fig. 4 Does the on-line collection need a subject keyword search? Results from a 2005 survey of 746 random individuals

28. Graph showing the relationship of the number of hits for browse, simple and advanced search: May 2008 – June 2009

29. Moving towards web 2.0 The third iteration of the website went live in September 2009 A 5 person web team and 2 developers started the planning process in early 2008 Given the right publishing infrastructure would provide the Gallery with the opportunity to develop a number of fully integrated web 2.0 strategies, including: 1. Making the collection “machine readable” 2. Develop an online community 3. Support the mobile web

30. Accessibility All Australian websites are required by law to be accessible to users with disabilities Australia is one of the few countries where this requirement has been tested in law In the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) lawsuit of 2000, a visually impaired user successfully sued SOCOG over their website accessibility http://webaim.org/blog/target-lawsuit-settled Most government funded organisations that have not already complied are currently working towards compliance The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20 , describe levels of accessibility The Gallery’s website failed to meet even the lowest of these levels The redesign of our site was a good opportunity to address and fix the site’s accessibility issues

31. Redesign and implementation A recent redesign of the website was initially carried from the perspective of user stories A user story is basically a narrative that a user tells from their perspective This story typically describes some kind of scenario or situation that the user finds themselves in Keep the user stories as simple and short as possible to allow the developers to make a reasonably low risk estimate of how long the story will take to develop Once the design templates were executed, the developers built a beta-site and from this site acceptance tests were carried out These were crucial as we randomly selected a cross range of people from the public to test the site 13 institutions were surveyed on the basis of their web interfaces and fuctionality

32. Table showing results from 13 institutions surveyed AND yes no yes yes no backdoor Powerhouse Museum AND yes no yes no no interface Art Institute of Chicago yes no no no yes yes no no no no no no Browse by filter yes yes no no yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes Showing location AND no yes yes Interface AGNSW after 20 Sept. 2009 AND yes yes yes interface V&A Museum AND No yes no interface Museum of Fine Arts Boston AND no yes no no browse options National Gallery of Australia AND or OR yes yes no interface Museum of Modern Art AND yes no no interface Walker Art Center AND no yes no no browse options Fine Arts Museum SF Cannot search n/a yes no interface National Gallery – London AND no yes no backdoor Tate Gallery AND or OR no yes no No browse options Art Gallery of Western Aust. Cannot search no yes no interface National Gallery of Victoria AND yes yes no interface National Gallery Art - DC Multi-word query operator Stemming Results with no images Display multiple images Browse options Institution

33. The new collection interface was built with the goal of both exposing the breadth of the collection and encouraging deeper exploration User studies have recently shown that if a user does not know precisely what objects s/he is looking for, then the multi-facet search method with its browsing the shelves sensation is clearly preferred over keyword search or using only a single facet If the user is capable of expressing an information need straightforwardly in terms of keywords, then a Google-like keyword search interface is usually faster and preferable Early discussions considered building one interface that would accommodate a simple search together with a browse Large percentage of our public comprise of educators, researchers and scholars who know precisely what they are looking for in our collection Browse interface, and including our object metadata as facets with counts gives users two immediate benefits: i. it exposes the collection since they can see at a glance how many paintings, sculptures, etc. ii. it gives a key way to differentiate between words and meaning

34. Collection landing page at top level showing all collection areas the public can browse through At top level, the public are able to filter browses and perform basic searches Advanced search option also available at top level The public are invited to explore and browse through the collection Options available to view all highlights and to see what is on display

35. Having authority controlled fields in the Vernon database allows for hyperlinks Provenance data from current to earliest date Provenance, Bibliography and Exhibition History are all collapsible fields. Data in Bibliography and Exhibition History contain hyperlinks (see next slide) Object web record for Georges Braque, Glass of absinthe 1911, oil on canvas. © Georges Braque/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy

36. Data in Bibliography and Exhibition History contain hyperlinks. Object web record for Georges Braque, Glass of absinthe 1911, oil on canvas. © Georges Braque/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy

37. Object web record for the Nepalese sculpture Padmapani c13th century, gilt copper, lapis lazuli, gems and stones. Purchased 2010 Each detailed image is 155 pixels wide Primary image is max 505 pixels wide

38. Conclusion Accurate, consistent and standardised data is imperative for any collection management system The Collection, Digitisation, Provenance and Copyright projects were of paramount importance in setting a precedence for quality of data Good quality data creates a path for putting collections online Browsing and navigating are two main interactions users currently have with our site We have allowed our users to deconstruct a large set of results by peeling back the layers into bite-size pieces and navigate based on what’s important to them Faceted search can just add more complexity and frustrate users if not considered from the user perspective and carefully thought through with sound usability principles in mind Faceted search is giving our public a unique way for them to interact with the collection in a way that was not possible in previous iterations The journey toward a perfect collection interface is ongoing and a project that is forever evolving

39. THE END THANK YOU ZHANG Xiaogong The boy who sticks out his tongue 2001, oil on canvas © ZHANG Xiaogong