Museum data
The sources, the opportunities and what's on the horizon...
Florence Okoye | Codebar Unconference 2024
I am a UX/Service designer, with a lot of experience in the culture and heritage sector working as an in-house UX designer, as well as on a consultancy basis.
I am also a digital trustee and volunteer at my local Museum!
My goal is for everyone to be able to use data for themselves and their communities.
A bit about me
Why this talk?
For decades, Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (often referred to as GLAMs for short) in the UK have been trying to make their collections more accessible to the public that ultimately pays for them.
I think it's important that those of us working in tech normalise the use of this incredible wealth of data in our everyday work. This might range from when we teach the next generation of technologists how to use APIs, to including as requirements into the products we make.
〞
Unfortunately, even though we the UK public are primary stakeholders whether as the funders or as users, our lack of awareness often means we're not in a position to advocate for how these public resources should be made and maintained.
Can we change this?
I think we might just be able to...
First, get to know what's out there
There are lots of organisations that might have collections online. Some might even already have APIs!
These include...
OK, SO WHERE ARE THEY?
A lot of the major national museums will have digitised and/or online collections that might be accessible through an API...
A lot of the major national museums will have digitised and/or online collections that might be accessible through an API...
...but that doesn't mean you should discount smaller or regional institutions!
There are other online collections which are accessible in different ways:
This aims to connect collection records from every GLAM organisation in the UK.
One of the biggest projects on the horizon is the museum data service
The API is due to be released in October.
As you can see, it's still in early days, but this is a fantastic opportunity to start exploring, seeing what's needed and letting the team know!
SOME initial thoughts from the unconference discussion...
Could the Museum Data Service platform better contribute to the proliferation of open data standards?
Better explaining which standards are used for which collections e.g. IIIF is the Wellcome standard but not for MDS
"As a developer I'd never think of this resource to begin with!" - can MDS be more intentional about Developer Relations?
SECOND, USe THEM TO teach
If you are a Codebar mentor, looking for things to encourage people learning about data connections, why not introduce GLAM sources as a training resource.
Don't forget to inform the museum if the coders find something is missing! Knowing more people use them helps internal teams prioritise updates and requirements.
THIRD, join the museum tech community
The following organisations are recommended to follow, join or sign up to their slack/discord channels:
If you really want a challenge, perhaps join as a digital volunteer at your local museum/gallery. Perhaps you could help them make their collections open source*.
*I cannot emphasise enough that this will be harder than you might imagine. All I will say is, security first!
FINALLY, start using the data!
Does your team have a 'data sources' file? Why not make one! You can include other public data sets as well as those from GLAM orgs.
GLAM collections data might have special relevance for EdTech and local history projects but there could well be other use cases.
〞
This is just a very quick introduction to what's out there.
But hopefully that's inspired you to take a look and get involved!
Thank you :)
I love problem solving about how different communities can access open source data, especially from Museums. At the moment I'm working on a project to improve access to African/Black diaspora paleontology.
get in touch