Powerhouse Museum

The Is-Ness of Objects

November 2, 2010 by phmrego Leave a Comment

Lettering at Uncommon Objects Flickr: nicksherman CC by-nc-sa 2.0

Within the Powerhouse Museum we are very excited about the idea of the Museum Metadata Exchange using the Powerhouse Object Name Thesaurus as a vocabulary control for collection descriptions. The Museum Metadata Exchange is providing us with a great opportunity to make our thesaurus more widely available as well as developing the thesaurus even more, with the possibility of input from other institutions.

We have been using our object name thesaurus as a structured vocabulary control within our collection information system, since our first system back in 1993. The Thesaurus was published in 1995 as a hard copy and has been available on the Powerhouse Museum’s website for about a year now.

Powerhouse Museum Object Name Thesaurus

The purpose of the Powerhouse Museum Object Name Thesaurus is to provide object name terms within an Australian context, for indexing museum collections. The thesaurus also provides a controlled vocabulary that facilitates easier searching of collection databases for specific object types.

There are currently about 8,600 terms in the thesaurus that name or categorise object types. The level of specificity for object names varies amongst different collection areas. Some areas have more terms than others. This is because the thesaurus has developed as Powerhouse staff have documented objects within the collection database. Some areas such as social history and decorative arts are much better represented than other areas.

Aboriginal weapons | Abrading instruments

33mm cameras | 35mm film

Some areas, such as fine arts and natural history, have only minimal object name terms, as the Powerhouse does not actively collect in these areas. There is a great opportunity to get input from other institutions with varied collections to develop the thesaurus further.

The thesaurus can be used to make a semantic link from individual objects to collections included in the Museum Metadata Exchange. It will be interesting to see how the thesaurus develops.

Sue Davidson
Registrar, Documentation
Powerhouse Museum

Image Credit: Lettering at Uncommon Objects, Flickr: nicksherman, CC by-nc-sa 2.0

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: community of interest, Controlled vocabularies, domain of knowledge, museum documentation, ontologies, Powerhouse Museum, Powerhouse Museum Object Name Thesaurus, semantics, thesaurus

Using EMu Narratives for Collection Level Descriptions

November 1, 2010 by Lynne McNairn Leave a Comment

Tailor's button card with samples. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

At the Powerhouse we’ve been using the EMu Narratives module to manage collection based Web content for some time. We’ve also been discussing how to use the Narratives module for MME.

We need the EMu Narratives to serve two purposes (1) to store the data in a format we can manage and export to the MME and (2) to provide content to our own Website.

As with other sites I’ve visited, the Powerhouse would like to display the collection level descriptions we write for this project on our own Website and link any item level records currently available in our online catalogue to it’s collection description.

The Powerhouse modified it’s Narrative module in the last EMu release (before this project was on the horizon) and some of these changes are useful for MME, however there are not separate fields for everything and we will be adding all description fields to the main Narrative text field. Our screen shots are attached EMu_Screenshots. Also attached is an Excel export from EMu which shows the MME mapping PHM_mapping. This is a workaround solution and initially we’ll have to manually adjust some data particularly in people, organisation and subject elements.

I’d be interested in any comments/suggestions from other EMu users.

Image credit: Tailor’s button card with samples. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: collection description, collection level description, collection system, EMu database, EMu Narratives Module, Powerhouse Museum

Powerhouse Museum

September 27, 2010 by phmrego Leave a Comment

The a Mano / Dean wood type collection Flickr: nicksherman CC by-nc-sa 2.0

As Registrar, Documentation, one of my main priorities has always been the continual improvement of the information held in our collection database (we use EMu here). The purpose is to make our collection and our collection information more accessible. The Museum Metadata Exchange project is providing a new and interesting way for us to do this, and I’m excited to be involved in the project at this early stage.

We need to describe 50 collection descriptions and one of the first tasks we are undertaking is to work with curators to identify what these will be. There are all sorts of possibilities and it will be an interesting process. We already have a number of discrete collections within our collection that we can include, but there are many other possibilities such as relating to subjects or objects that are strengths of the Powerhouse’s collection. I don’t think we will have any trouble identifying 50 collections.

Sue Davidson and Karen Biddle | Powerhouse Museum Registration

Museum Metadata Exchange: Participants | Sue Davidson (left) and Karen Biddle (right) | Powerhouse Museum Registration

Judy Coombes | Manager, Registration | Powerhouse Museum

Image Credit: The a Mano / Dean wood type collection Flickr: nicksherman CC by-nc-sa 2.0

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: 50, collection description, collection strengths, collection system, Defining collections, Judy Coombes, Karen Biddle, Lynne McNairn, online access, Powerhouse Museum, Registration, site coordinator, Sue Davidson

Powerhouse Museum

September 27, 2010 by phmrego Leave a Comment

I’m Susan Davidson, the Registrar, Documentation at the Powerhouse Museum. Together with Judy Coombes, the Manager of Registration, I’ve recently become the Powerhouse’s Site Coordinator for our participation in the Museum Metadata Exchange project. We’re liaising with Lynne McNairn (MME Data Analyst) and will be supported in this task by Karen Biddle, our Registrar, Database Administration.

As Registrar, Documentation, one of my main priorities has always been the continual improvement of the information held in our collection database (we use EMu here). The purpose is to make our collection and our collection information more accessible. The Museum Metadata Exchange project is providing a new and interesting way for us to do this, and I’m excited to be involved in the project at this early stage.

We need to describe 50 collection descriptions and one of the first tasks we are undertaking is to work with curators to identify what these will be. There are all sorts of possibilities and it will be an interesting process. We already have a number of discrete collections within our collection that we can include, but there are many other possibilities such as relating to subjects or objects that are strengths of the Powerhouse’s collection. I don’t think we will have any trouble identifying 50 collections.

Museum Metadata Exchange: Participants | Sue Davidson (left) and Karen Biddle (right) | Powerhouse Museum Registration

Judy Coombes | Manager, Registration | Powerhouse Museum

Image Credit: The a Mano / Dean wood type collection Flickr: nicksherman CC by-nc-sa 2.0

Unpacking Collections

September 22, 2010 by Lynne McNairn Leave a Comment

Box of buttons. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Today we held our first meeting to discuss how the Powerhouse will approach grouping objects for the purpose of writing collection level descriptions. The meeting was attended by myself representing MME, Susan Davidson, Registrar, Documentation (Powerhouse Site Co-ordinator) and Curators Paul Donnelly and Sandra McEwen.

A question raised was how would the Research Data Commons be different to finding material on our own Website via a Google search. There are a number of points here.

The Data Commons is a resource discovery tool with multiple contributors including universities, CSIRO and other Government agencies. The Museum Metadata Exchange project will add the large collecting institutions to this mix providing Researchers with access to information across Institutions and disciplines.
The provision of collection level descriptions allows a collection to be documented in a way which may be understood at the Institution but which is not obvious or easy to find in item level catalogues. For example the Powerhouse has a good collection of ceramics and paintings featuring Australian flora by women artists but it would be a slow process discovering this on our current Website.
A collection level description does not need to be connected to beautiful digitised item level object records. One of our curators is aware of suitcase full barbed wire samples which may form part of an interesting research project. This type of information is also relevant to the MME.

In preparation for this meeting I had gone through our Web Site and listed our on-line exhibitions and themes. In addition our collection system has a field called “Named Collection” which groups objects in the catalogue. This search identified many “ready-made” collections which can be added to MME with little additional work. The list also provided a good starting point for discussions about other collection descriptions which could be of interest to the research community.

Lynne McNairn
Data Analyst
Image Credit: Collection Powerhouse Museum: Photographer Sotha Bourn

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: collection description, collection level description, collections, Defining collections, Lynne McNairn, Museum Metadata Exchange, Powerhouse Museum, project planning

Access to Historical and Cultural Collections

September 9, 2010 by Lynne McNairn 1 Comment

Colored pencil collection Flickr: nuanc CC by-nc-nd 2.0

Hi! My name is Lynne McNairn and I’ve just started with the Museum Metadata Exchange Project.

A lot of people have been asking me what this project is about so I’ll try and explain what I’ve learned so far…

The end result of this project will be a “research resource” aimed at the research community, particularly the humanities, to provide better knowledge of; and access to the fabulous historical and cultural collections held in our Museums. An example is the Southern Cross Resource Finder which locates material about Australia and New Zealand held in Europe.

Lynne McNairn | Data Analyst

My first task has been to dig through the Websites of the participating Museums to get an idea of their collections. Undertaking this task has given me a clear impression of how useful a centralised search tool will be. We all have different Website designs and levels of on-line material. Getting a good picture may involve trolling through on-line collections, exhibition microsites and opening up PDF documents – all very interesting and time consuming!

The Museum Metadata Exchange will provide a standard to both describe collection material held in Museums and enable it’s discovery by the research community.

Image Credit: Colored pencil collection Flickr: nuanc CC by-nc-nd 2.0

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: collection description, collection level description, collections, data analyst, HASS researchers, Lynne McNairn, Museum Metadata Exchange, Powerhouse Museum, project planning, Southern Cross Resource Finder

Planning planning

August 24, 2010 by Ingrid Mason Leave a Comment

Right now we’re at the tail end of the planning stage for the Museum Metadata Exchange project. The project plan is a monster 70 page document and teases out the stages and tasks etc for the project. More on that in a bit… from Meredith Foley (the Executive Officer for the project’s Steering Committee). We have the project team just about all on board. Lynne McNairn the Data Analyst based in Sydney started on Monday 16th September and the other Data Analyst Julie-Anne Carbon is going to start (based at Museum Victoria in Melbourne) on Monday 27th September. Julie-Anne and I are heading into Museum Victoria on the 27th September and aim to meet up with colleagues there in the curatorial, registration and IT areas and get Julie-Anne settled in. On Tuesday 28th September Julie-Anne and I will be heading to the Australian Digital Forum (Twitter tag #ADF2010) being held at the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI) to talk briefly about the Museum Metadata Exchange project and liaise with colleagues there.

Image Credit: BCK – social tagging Flickr: pulguita CC by-sa 2.0

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: ANDS, data, data analyst, Julie-Anne Carbon, Lynne McNairn, MME, Museum Metadata Exchange, Museum Victoria, Powerhouse Museum, project planning

The Is-Ness of Objects

Using EMu Narratives for Collection Level Descriptions

Powerhouse Museum

Powerhouse Museum

Unpacking Collections

Access to Historical and Cultural Collections

Planning planning

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

Secondary Sidebar Widget Area