EGMUS Conference, 2nd and 3rd November 2015, The Hague. Aura Kivilaakso & Tapani Sainio, National Board of Antiquities, Finland.

1. Opening up
the Finnish museum statistics data
EGMUS Conference,
2nd & 3rd November 2015, The Hague
Aura Kivilaakso & Tapani Sainio

2. Scope of the Finnish museum statistics
Includes:
• 152 professional museums that are run on a full-time basis
Does not include:
• About 1000 local museums that are not considered
”professional” (statistical information collected approx.
every 5 years)
• World heritage sites (information collected in Cultural
statistics by Statistics Finland)
• Nature centres and Science centres

4. New online service
Launched in March 2015:
• The questionnaire, data, tables and publications at
https://www.museotilasto.fi/
Aims of the renewal project:
• More efficient data collecting process
• Better usability of the online service
• Increased use of statistics

5. New online service 2014
THE MUSEUM SUBMITS ITS ANNUAL INFORMATION

6. New online service 2014
WE CHECK THE ANSWERS SUBMITTED BY MUSEUMS

7. THE DATA CAN BE
SEARCHED BY MUSEUM,
PROVINCE, YEAR, TYPE OR
OWNERSHIP OF THE
MUSEUM ETC.

8. IN ADDITION TO SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY,
WE PROVIDE PRINTED AND PDF
PUBLICATIONS AND TABLES.

9. Publishing the statistics data as open data
• The need to boost the use of statistical data
• Juridical consultation (Act on the Openness of
Government Activities, Personal Data Act)
• Choosing the license: CC-BY 4.0 (promoted by Finnish
public administration)
• Consulting the museums and asking for permission
• Technical solution: freely downloadable xls and csv tables

10. Benefits of the open museum statistics data
• User-friendly way of providing data
• Increased interest from media, other public authorities and
open data community
• Transparency of governance and finance
• Possibility to combine and compare statistic information
with other information
• More independent use of data; no ‘vendor lock-in’
situations

11. Digitization and museum statistics
Problems/ unclarities:
• What is a digitized object?
• Measuring the web presence of museum and online
interaction with the users

12. Thank you!
aura.kivilaakso@nba.fi
tapani.sainio@nba.fi
@AuraKivilaakso
@TapSq