ONE COLLECTION: BUILDING AN INTEGRATED INVENTORY & DIGITISATION WORKFLOW ADRIAN HINE, DIGITISATION MANAGER SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP
ONE COLLECTION PROGRAMME • In 2015 the UK Government announced SMG would leave Blythe House in London. • It provided partial funding to build and move to a new National Collections Centre at Wroughton by 2023. • Immediate objective to move 300,000 objects to the National Collections Centre. • However, opportunity to re-imagine how the collection is cared for, managed and accessed: • Improve collections care for this world-class collection. • Make the collection more accessible than ever before (public & researchers). • Engage new and existing audiences. • Radically expand our digital offer.
BLYTHE HOUSE • Holds majority of SCM collection • Small & medium object store • Labyrinth of rooms: 5 floors >100 rooms • >18km of racking
EXISTING DRAWBACKS PHYSICAL • Labyrinth of rooms: 6 floors, >100 rooms • Non-ideal environmental conditions • Poor access • Degrading building infrastructure (hangers) • Overcrowded collections • No standardisation of storage DIGITAL • Incomplete catalogue (100,000 uncatalogued) • Only c. 5% of objects have images • Incomplete & inconsistent catalogue records • Inconsistent location control • Incomplete hazard assessment
CATALYST FOR DIGITISATION • We wanted to make it much more than just a storage move. • An opportunity to make our collection truly digital. • Todays online audience have limited interest unless there is a rich digital offer. • Only 5% of records on Collections Online had an image in 2018 (ca. 260,000 records). • We made a choice of producing quantity rather than highest quality. • Main aim to make these objects discoverable In the first instance. • Aimed at the broadest audience possible but with emphasise on the public.
INTEGRATED WORKFLOW HAZARD CHECK CONDITION CHECK INVENTORY DIGITISATION PACKING PRE-INVENTORY REMEDIATION CONSERVATION
PRE-INVENTORY CURATION/DOCUMENTATION Resolving issues that would otherwise disrupt the workflow: • Poor part numbering • Parts lacking numbers and/or records • Uncertainty over parts belonging to objects • Status uncertain • Mystery objects • Historic loans • Objects for acquiring • Objects for deaccessioning • Auxiliary items
HAZARD CHECK • All object have to be hazard assessed • Survey suggests ca. 20% of collection has a hazard • Only 17% of Blythe House has been hazard surveyed
INVENTORY • Working systematically work through collection • 4 minutes per object for inventory • Adds new Tyvek label with barcode & object number • Condition rating (Good, Fair, Poor, Unacceptable) • Uses Wireless barcode scanners to update object location in Mimsy • If record exists: verify record & add barcode • If record does not exist: add new record
ACCELERATING DIGITSATION • Existing Photo Studio practice • Each object takes 3 hours, often with multiple shots. • This includes photography, manual post-processing, metadata capture and upload. • At that rate it would take a team of 7 photographers 64 years to Digitise 75% of the Blythe Collection (300,000 objects) • Had to radically rethink approach to deliver mass Digitisation for these collections • One Collection approach • Each object takes 5 minutes, with a single shot. • Includes rapid photography using barcodes, batch post-processing & automatic upload into Media Library. • This rate would take a team of 7 photographers 2 years to Digitise 75% of the Blythe Collection.
DIGITISATION Photography • Good quality documentation image • 5 minutes per object • Mobile photography workstations • Good quality DSLR cameras & lighting • Scanners capture barcode directly into image metadata • Script renames filename with barcode Post-processing & Upload • Batch post-production • Automated ingest pipeline of images into Media Library
TECHNOLOGY FOR MASS DIGITISATION Rapid Data App (Asset Panda & SnapLogic) • Used by hazards, condition, inventory and packing teams • Works on laptops, tablets & phones using WiFi • Location updates using barcodes • Tracks object status through workflow • Ability to take quick ‘ad hoc’ images using phones Automated Image Ingest Pipeline (SnapLogic) • Watches for approved image • Embeds object metadata • Creates record in Media Library • Uses barcode to link Media Library and Mimsy records
RAPID DATA CAPTURE SYSTEM
DIGITISED EXAMPLES
PUBLICATION TO COLLECTIONS ONLINE
CATALOGUING • Catalogue record should be rich enough to make it discoverable through searching. • Aim for new records reach the SMG Cataloguing standard, depending upon resources available. • Cataloguing separated from the main workflow as it would slow it down. • Mostly done from the digitised record *after* inventory and imaging completed. • Undertaken by collection specialists in curatorial. • Does not include: • Weight • Measurements
NCC INTERNAL MOVES • Additionally One Collection includes the internal moves sub-project at NCC • Involves the relocation of collections from life-expired hangers (ca. 15,000 objects). • Some collections to move into Building One, other collections to other hangers. • Similar aims to Blythe workflow; inventory of all objects, including hazard checks, conditions rating, barcoding and location capture. Digitisation will likely be a lower standard than at Blythe • Modified workflow due to very different working environment. • Running in parallel with Collections Review project, using same approach for inventory process.
TIMELINE Workstream 2018 2019 2020 J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D Hazards & Inventory Photography Packing
PROGRESS TO DATE
COLLECTIONS BENEFITS • A comprehensive inventory, hazard check and digitisation leads to powerful benefits to the collection: • Accurate location for all items. • Complete hazard assessment and condition check of collection. • Consistent labelling of items and opportunity to rehouse material. • Reliable and unique identifier for all items (barcode). • Opportunity to resolve objects for transfer, acquisition cases and mystery objects. • Barcodes allow for automated location updates in the future using barcode scanners. • Creates a truly Digital Collection to a diverse audience making the collections discoverable . • Blythe is a one-off project large-scale project but approach is entirely applicable for smaller scale projects. • SEG decant at SIM has used same approach directly into Mimsy with great success.
VOLUNTEERING • Significant volunteering programme. • Volunteers sign up for a 12 week block for one day a week. • 6 weeks with inventory & 6 weeks with photography. • Each volunteer buddies up with a member of the inventory or photography team and works in a pair. • Adds genuine value for museum and volunteer. • To be successful needs: • Skillset of volunteer appropriate for task. • Adequate resourcing of supervisors
TEAM STRUCTURE Biggest challenge & success: integrating a large and diverse project team with SMG core teams Dedicated Project Team SMG Core Teams • Programme managers and support • Conservation & Hazards • Hazards • Digitisation (Photography & Documentation) • Conservation • Curatorial • Inventory • Archives • Photography • Registration • Assistant curators • ICT • Registration • Digital • Documentation • Collections Logistics & Access • Object handlers • P&C • Packing • Comms • Volunteers • Finance • Development
NATIONAL COLLECTIONS CENTRE Building One has a footprint of 20,000 m 2 (four football pitches). • • Holds 340,000 objects (80% of SMG object collection by number and over 50% by volume). • Balancing conservation requirements and accessibility. • Construction began Feb 2019. Completion in 2020.
COLLECTIONS ENGAGEMENT OUTCOMES • Random Object Generator • http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/random • Museum in a Tab • https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/museum-in-a-tab • Stories from the Stores video series • https://www.youtube.com/user/sciencemuseum
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