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Next year the Paul Mellon Centre will hit the big 5-0, and as part of our anniversary celebrations we are digitising the entire photographic archive. That's right, all... well approximately 150,000 photographs. Of course by digitisation standards this number is not extreme. The Natural History Museum has set a target of 80 million specimens, albeit with no deadline in mind. But now that we are six months into our project we thought it was a good time to share what we've learnt so far.

You may be thinking why do you have a photographic archive and what are your photos of? Back in 1964 there was the Paul Mellon Foundation - its director employed an in-house photographer to provide a photographic service for scholars. When the PMC was established in 1979 the archive and its photographer were transferred. The focus was on making sure photos were taken of artworks in the salerooms, temporary exhibitions and private collections that might disappear from public view. So if there's an artwork you've never been able to find a photo of - you may find it in the PMC photographic archive.

It will be much easier to find what you are looking for once we've digitised it all! To make this happen as quickly as possible we are working with Picturae, a professional digitisation service based in the Netherlands, though our collection has been sent to their studio in New Jersey, USA.

Photo credit: Picturae, The Netherlands

We're not the only ones digitising our photo archive: we are part of a consortium of 14 other organisations with similar collections called PHAROS that are working towards creating a digital research platform to provide aggregated access to photo archive images and data. Picturae has been appointed to undertake the digitisation of several other PHAROS collections, including those held at the Yale Center for British Art, Frick Art Reference Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, and RKD.

Anyway, enough with the background... here are the questions you need to think about before undertaking a mass digitisation project in a relatively short amount of time.

Getting your equipment ready and set up is time consuming. Unlike the NHM, our collection is relatively simple to digitise. We are able to complete this project in one year in part due to the fact that we are digitising flat photographs that are generally no larger than A4 in size, some stuck to mounts with handwritten text, in folders clearly labeled. Consider the following:
Structure
What are your objects made from? How will they respond to flash? How old are they? How fragile are they? Are they ok to be moved?
Size
How large are your objects? Will they need to be photographed in parts? What will those parts be defined as? Will you require specialist equipment?
Exceptions
Make a list of exceptions with rules for the out of house digitisation team. For example - they find a folded photograph - should they unfold it? By putting this list of rules together you will optimise workflows.

We opted to capture the collection in its entirety, meaning that we will photograph the front and back of every photograph and every folder. This means we'll have almost 150,000 images of blank pieces of card, but we can work out what to do with those later with the assurance that we haven't missed anything in the process.

Photo credit: Picturae, The Netherlands

Let's face it unless you are a major museum or gallery you won't have the space to digitise a large volume of images in house in one year. Finding a digitisation partner that can meet your expected standard of care is complicated: you need to ensure objects will be packed, shipped, stored, insured, handled and digitised with the same high standards you would apply were you undertaking the work yourself.

We started by asking an independent archives consultant to take a look at our collection. She came on site to assess its value and reported:

"There are images of paintings and works of art held in private collections, clubs, livery companies or institutions not generally open to the public, images from the auction houses and from art dealers of of paintings being offered for sale which might disappear from view. In some cases there are multiple images of a single work; here it may be possible to see alterations to the work itself where it has been cut down, restored, touched up or reframed. [...] [It is] an historic research collection of outstanding importance. [...] Works that have disappeared into private collections and are not available through other sources can often be found here. "

Wow! We knew it was a special collection, but it was great to have that external corroboration, which helped us to justify the project (and the hundreds of hours we are going to spend on it) to ourselves and our management team.

Photo credit: Picturae, The Netherlands (That fifth label from the right on the top shelf annoys me as well)

We had anticipated that the collection would be going just a short ferry ride over the North Sea to the Netherlands for digitisation, but as our start date slipped later than expected, it made more sense to send the collection to Picturae's studio in New Jersey. The team there were very well acquainted with the type of material in our collection as they have been working on a similar job for the Frick Art Reference Library, so the time needed to become familiar with the materials and to establish workflows was dramatically reduced. However, this really complicated the transfer of custodianship.

Our collection documents not just works of art, but also of the people that owned them. Our mounts were updated with notes about the exhibition, publication, and sales history of works of art, which in some instances includes the names of buyers and sellers. As the GDPR legislation came in to effect in May 2018, new restrictions on how " personal data" could be transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) and processed by contractors was put in place, meaning that we needed to ensure that our digitisation partner recognised and respected this. We found that an existing legal gateway, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework could be used to enable the safe and judicious transfer of this data between the EEA and the US. Picturae came to the rescue here and made sure their certification came through before shipment to their studio in New Jersey, via a long journey across the North Atlantic!

A company across the water has your precious valuables. How are you going to check in with them that it's all still ok and that it's not being damaged? Weekly Skype calls and shared Google Drive files are a good option.

Picturae put together a weekly report that details the rate of imaging and identifies any issues that have popped up. This helps us keep track of progress, and for the team at the New Jersey studio to learn about how to deal with the idiosyncrasies of the collection as they appear.

Additionally, shared reports in Google Sheets have enabled us to visualise our progress in charts and tables, using Google Data Studio to create a dashboard of widgets using that live data.

Chart showing the rate of delivery week-by-week

Cataloguing and digitisation go hand-in-hand. It might be that you can use transcription tools to pick out all the relevant metadata.

We don't have any additional staff resource for this project, so we're trying to automate as much as possible by unlocking the valuable data that was catalogued in an analogue format by the Photo Librarian(s) of the past. As our collection has a hierarchical structure of boxes, folders, and prints, we started by transcribing the box and folder labels in to a structured format. The idea is that the prints will then inherit all of that data, including information such as the artist's name, dates, subject terms, and institutional context. This *should* mean that each photo's basic record will be partially complete from the off.

We're also considering how reliable OCR might be with this type of material. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini have been experimenting with page segmentation and OCR of historical documents, with very promising results that we hope to glean from.

Ahhh... copyright. The artwork has copyright, the photograph of the artwork has copyright, and the digitised image has copyright. There are consultants out there that can help you clarify these things, and we very much recommend that you do.

Even though we are outsourcing the digitisation of our photo archive we are still checking every single image that comes back to us.

The cropping and rotation is done automatically by Picturae's own software, so it is important each file gets a human error check. Together we developed guidelines for quality control that help to outline what is expected from either side of the process. The guidelines define what we each perceive as quality (the file formats, image specifications, standards, etc) and explain how quality will be achieved, maintained, and improved throughout the process.

Surprisingly, we have found the most significant issues to be with the original objects. Glare, misalignment, odd cropping, degradation of early digital prints, and the inclusion of the odd 10p paperweight have complicated the review process, particularly as we don't have the original document to compare.

Joseph Farington. Sketch from Windsor Royal Library. PMC Neg. 74/0161. Spot the 10p!

We haven't found too many errors with the software - the main ones have been images rotated incorrectly or cropping errors.

Again there are companies out there that can help you with this, but do make sure to investigate prior to digitisation as they can be pretty expensive, so it's wise to factor this into your budgets early on. Digital preservation pops up in many fundraising applications.

In a world of mass digitisation the last thing you want is to not be able to find what you want. We're planning to catalogue the objects using a combination of approaches, as outlined previously. Finding these resources is going to be dependent on publishing our material in interoperable standards. We're planning to published our data in machine-readable XML conforming to the LIDO schema, and in RDF conforming to the linked.art recipe, which is built on CIDOC-CRM.

For us IIIF is going to be extremely important. IIIF is a series of conventions that allow for the exchange of images and their associated metadata using very neat software developed by other people. Great tools like Mirador and the Universal Viewer offer a super rich feature set that will enable our images to be turned, zoomed, layered, annotated, and compared. Even better, as long as we serve our images in this IIIF compliant format they can be dropped in to any compatible viewing tool, allowing our users to choose what best suits their needs.

Digitised front and back of a photo mount

Ultimately we want the photo archive to be accessible to all, easy to search, compare and share.
This article should have taken you nine minutes to read. In that time Picturae will have created 33 scans. (As you might have noticed we've set up an entirely new blog here on Medium as well, so this won't be the last of us gifting our knowledge to you all. If you'd like to know more about any digital projects PMC has done please let us know and we can craft a post especially for you.)

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Next year the Paul Mellon Centre will hit the big 5-0, and as part of our anniversary celebrations we are digitising the entire photographic archive. That's right, all... well approximately 150,000 photographs. Of course by digitisation standards this number is not extreme.

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Security Network

AAM Professional Networks

Leadership of Robert Carotenuto

Chris Provan - Chair, Security Network

Facilities and Security Manager

Longyear Museum of Anthropology & Picker Art Gallery, Hamilton, NY

Robert Carotenuto - Vice Chair, Security Network

Associate Vice President for Security

New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY

View All Leadership of Robert Carotenuto

Our mission is to serve the members and non-members of AAM by providing security expertise to the museum community.

We want the AAM security network to fulfill its distinct mission but to also serve as a supporting body for the ASIS Council on Museums, Libraries and Cultural Institutions and the NFPA's committees that keep our institutions safe from fires. We seek to be an information clearinghouse, where museums of all sizes can find free or inexpensive resources needed for success.

For more information, visit our website or contact us at security@aam-us.org.

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You come into your office, juggling your gym bag and a cup of hot coffee, and boot up your laptop to an ominous red and black screen that announces: "All your files and documents have been ...

TrendsWatch 2019 draws attention to the rising rates of homelessness across the world, including the U.S., and profiles the work of several museums working specifically with and for people ...

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Security Network - American Alliance of Museums

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AAM Professional Networks Chris Provan - Chair, Security Network Facilities and Security Manager Longyear Museum of Anthropology & Picker Art Gallery, Hamilton, NY Robert Carotenuto - Vice Chair, Security Network Associate Vice President for Security New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY View All Leadership of Robert Carotenuto Our mission is to serve the members and non-members of AAM by providing security expertise to the museum community.

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Image from Wikimedia Commons, by Motormille2

You come into your office, juggling your gym bag and a cup of hot coffee, and boot up your laptop to an ominous red and black screen that announces:

"All your files and documents have been encrypted!"

Congratulations, you've been hacked.

Last week the New York Times published an article highlighting the rise in ransomware attacks: incidents in which hackers lock down entire computer networks and demand payments to let users recover their data and regain control of their systems. The author cites data documenting a 41 percent increase in ransomware attacks from 2018 to 2019, for a total of over 205,000 reported attacks last year. The average ransom payment jumped to over $190 thousand. And, as the article notes, these numbers probably underrepresent the true costs of such attacks, as organization often don't want to publicize that they have been hacked.

To that point, I know of at least three museums that have been the targets of ransomware attacks, but so far none have been willing to go on the record about their experiences. Evidently ransomware is the digital equivalent of STDs-but the stigma of (unwarranted) shame attached being a victim is misplaced and counterproductive. By sharing information, museums can become better able to defend themselves and recover from such attacks.

Meanwhile, I've compiled some facts on ransomware drawing on free web resources for training and response. Each of the sources excerpted below provide a variety of advice and resources. Take the time to explore them and bookmark useful information-hopefully before an attack takes place!
What is ransomware?
"Ransomware is a type of malware that blocks access to a system, device, or file until a ransom is paid. This is achieved when the ransomware encrypts files on the infected system (crypto ransomware), threatens to erase files (wiper ransomware), or blocks system access (locker ransomware) for the victim. The ransom amount and contact information for the cyber threat actor (CTA) is typically included in a ransom note that appears on the victim's screen after their files are locked or encrypted. Sometimes the CTA only includes contact information in the note and will likely attempt to negotiate the ransom amount once they are contacted." (Source: A Security Primer-Ransomware, Cybersecurity.org)
How does ransomware infect computers?
"Here are some of the ways computers and mobile devices can be infected:

Links in emails or messages in social networks - In this type of attack, the victim clicks a malicious link in an email attachment or a message on a social networking site.

Pay per install - This popular method attacks computers that are already part of a botnet (a group of infected computers under the control of criminals called botmasters), further infecting them with additional malware. Bot herders, criminals who look for security vulnerabilities, are paid to find these opportunities.

Drive-by downloads - This form of ransomware is installed when a victim clicks on a compromised website. McAfee Labs researchers have seen an increase in drive-by downloads. In particular, users of some streaming video portals have been hit."

(Source: McAfee. See also their 2017 white paper Understanding Ransomware and Strategies to Defeat It.)
Is my museum at risk?
Yes. Hackers are targeting a wide variety of businesses, large and small, as well as individual users. Dozens of cities have been hit by ransomware attacks-and if your museum is part of a municipality, your data may be compromised as well. Keep in mind that university museums inherit the risk of their parent organizations, too. (Last year Regis and Stevens Universities suffered devastating attacks.)
How can I prevent ransomware attacks?

"Update and patch your computer. Ensure your applications and operating systems (OSs) have been updated with the latest patches. Vulnerable applications and OSs are the target of most ransomware attacks

Use caution with links and when entering website addresses. Be careful when clicking directly on links in emails, even if the sender appears to be someone you know. Attempt to independently verify website addresses (e.g., contact your organization's helpdesk, search the internet for the sender organization's website or the topic mentioned in the email). Pay attention to the website addresses you click on, as well as those you enter yourself. Malicious website addresses often appear almost identical to legitimate sites, often using a slight variation in spelling or a different domain (e.g., .com instead of .net).

Open email attachments with caution. Be wary of opening email attachments, even from senders you think you know, particularly when attachments are compressed files or ZIP files.

Keep your personal information safe. Check a website's security to ensure the information you submit is encrypted before you provide it.

Verify email senders. If you are unsure whether or not an email is legitimate, try to verify the email's legitimacy by contacting the sender directly. Do not click on any links in the email. If possible, use a previous (legitimate) email to ensure the contact information you have for the sender is authentic before you contact them.

Inform yourself. Keep yourself informed about recent cybersecurity threats and up to date on ransomware techniques. You can find information about known phishing attacks on the Anti-Phishing Working Group website. You may also want to sign up for CISA product notifications, which will alert you when a new Alert, Analysis Report, Bulletin, Current Activity, or Tip has been published.

Use and maintain preventative software programs. Install antivirus software, firewalls, and email filters-and keep them updated-to reduce malicious network traffic."

(Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, National Cyber Awareness System, Protecting Against Ransomware.)
Are there training programs that can help prevent successful attacks?
Yes. The Alliance uses KnowBe4 for its security awareness training. There are a number of similar programs like AwareGO and Mimecast. All programs follow a similar framework, reoccurring short video training sessions mixed in with periodic assessments. Administrators can use the results to gauge the organization's risk and impact of training program. Costs are based on the number of users enrolled in the program and start as low as a couple dollars per month. Since threats are evolving it is important to view this training as on-going and not a one-time rubber stamp.
I've been attacked by ransomware-what's the first thing I should do?
The BackBlaze Blog recommends that your first step should be to isolate the infection:

"The first thing to do when a computer is suspected of being infected is to isolate it from other computers and storage devices. Disconnect it from the network (both wired and Wi-Fi) and from any external storage devices. Cryptoworms actively seek out connections and other computers, so you want to prevent that happening. You also don't want the ransomware communicating across the network with its command and control center.

Be aware that there may be more than just one patient zero, meaning that the ransomware may have entered your organization or home through multiple computers, or may be dormant and not yet shown itself on some systems. Treat all connected and networked computers with suspicion and apply measures to ensure that all systems are not infected."
What's next?
Your museum's IT department or security office may have a procedure in place to respond to ransomware attacks. This may include shutting down and isolating other devices that may have been connected to the infected computer and ensuring that your backup data (you have backup data, right?) is offline and secured.
Where can we get help with responding to a ransomware attack?
Many firms offer to help with recovery of data after a ransomware attack. Be cautious if you decide to engage such a firm-an investigation by Pro Publica revealed that some companies that promise to recover encrypted data simply pay the hackers and pass the charge on to the victim. I have not found a credible, independent review of reputable recovery services. Let me know if you have any source to share.
Should we pay the ransom?
Opinions vary, but many cybersecurity experts (including Lee Mathews, writing for Forbes) argue that you should never pay a ransomware ransom. For one thing, as Mathews points out, only 19% of ransomware targets who pay the ransom actually get their data back. The NYT article I cite at the beginning of this article makes the case that paying ransoms will fuel more attacks, by "giving attackers more confidence that they will get paid."
Can we recover our data without paying a ransom?
Maybe. Even as hackers create new ransomware programs, programmers race to create encryption programs to free locked data. You can work with a forensics and data recovery program to try to recover what you can. That said, your best recovery strategy is to have a good backup system.
Should we report the attack?
The Department of Homeland Security asks that you report ransomware attacks immediately to CISA at www.us-cert.gov/report, a local FBI Field Office, or Secret Service Field Office.
Skip over related stories to continue reading article Related Stories

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You come into your office, juggling your gym bag and a cup of hot coffee, and boot up your laptop to an ominous red and black screen that announces: "All your files and documents have been encrypted!" Congratulations, you've been hacked.

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AAM Members get exclusive access to premium digital content including:

Featured articles from Museum magazine

Access to more than 1,500 resource listings from the Resource Center

Tools, reports, and templates for equipping your work in museums

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NHM reveals economic benefits of digitising 80 million objects

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AAM Members get exclusive access to premium digital content including: Featured articles from Museum magazine Access to more than 1,500 resource listings from the Resource Center Tools, reports, and templates for equipping your work in museums

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When disasters strike, local communities are the first to try to safeguard their cultural heritage; however, their ability to intervene is often greatly reduced during complex and multi-faceted humanitarian crises. At the same time, first responders may not always be aware of what is culturally important, and they often lack the training to handle heritage objects and structures, and meet the specific needs those who bear traditional knowledge.

First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis is a two-part publication created for the various actors involved in an emergency. It provides a practical method and a set of ready-to-use tools for securing endangered cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. The user-friendly workflows help readers to plan and implement coordinated cultural rescue and risk reduction operations that involve local communities, heritage custodians, emergency responders and humanitarians.

Written with the key guiding philosophy of ensuring an inclusive attitude and respect for diversity while at the same time interlocking humanitarian assistance with cultural heritage first aid, this resource provides an essential, ethical framework that will lead to successful outcomes.

The resource has multiple uses: it will help to improve emergency preparedness within cultural heritage institutions, serve as a reference to train others, and act as a guide for planning and implementing coordinated cultural heritage first aid.

Who will be interested in reading it?

Cultural heritage professionals and institutions that would like to develop coordinated emergency plans.

Community-based organizations and humanitarian aid professionals who are working to enhance disaster resilience in-risk prone regions of the world.

Civil protection, civil defence and military personnel, firefighters, and others in charge of protecting communities and their assets during disasters and conflicts.

Read also: First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis - Toolkit

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first aid to cultural heritage in times of crisis - toolkit

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disaster risk management of cultural heritage

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First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis - Handbook

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When disasters strike, local communities are the first to try to safeguard their cultural heritage; however, their ability to intervene is often greatly reduced during complex and multi-faceted humanitarian crises. At the same time, first responders may not always be aware of what is culturally important, and they often lack the training to handle heritage objects and structures, and meet the specific needs those who bear traditional knowledge.

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How can you save cultural heritage in an emergency?

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Jointly organized by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), this international conference will focus on the digitization of museum collections.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitization movement that has been carried out for several years within museums and which aims, among other things, to meet museums' objectives of research, conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible. The legal issues associated with this movement are complex, with a disparity of solutions available to museums and laws that are sometimes inadequate, inappropriate or insufficient. ln the long term, the acceleration of technologies also raises the question of the future of the museum experience.

The conference will explore theses topics on the basis of a study project which, since 2016, has brought together a group of experts from Swiss and foreign universities under the supervision of Dr. Yaniv Benhamou, Prof. Marc-André Renold and Ms Justine Ferland. The project led to the launch of the website Digitization of Museums Collections (www.digitizationpolicies.com) in 2020 which aims to clarify the current legal and political framework while formulating policies to facilitate the activities of museums in the digital environment. Museum professionals are strongly encouraged to provide feedback about the recommendations issued (pertaining copyright, database rights, dispute resolution and a museum code of conduct) in order to encourage a continuous dialogue and to shape policies adapted to the needs of cultural heritage institutions.

This conference will provide a discussion forum for the global museum community, other partners in the field of cultural heritage and stakeholders concerned with the legal and societal issues related to digitization.

organizer: Dr. Yaniv Benhamou (lecturer, University of Geneva), Morgane Fouquet-Lapar (Legal and Institutional Affairs Coordinator, ICOM), Prof. Marc-André Renold (Director of the Art Law Center, University of Geneva).
Team: Morgane Desboeufs (Research and teaching assistant, Art Law Center, University of Geneva), Marion Torterat (Legal assistant, ICOM)
Documents

Find the program and access to the broadcast here

BENHAMOU, Yaniv & World Intellectual Property Organization. WIPO Revised Report on Copyright Practices and Challenges of Museums, 28/5. World Intellectual Property Organization, 2019, 43p.

BENHAMOU, Yaniv. Copyright and Museum in the Digital Age. WIPO Magazine, 2016, no. 3, p.25-28.

Speakers documents When Copyright meets digital museums Digital Due Diligence - Museum Code of Conduct
Dispute Resolution

Beyond copyright - Impact of digital museums on people

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Jointly organized by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), this international conference will focus on the digitization of museum collections.

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You may have heard about IIIF (pronounced “triple eye eff”, which stands for the International Image Interoperability Framework) and you may have seen the IIIF logo on websites but did you know that you can take that IIIF resource and use it in another viewer or compatible tool? Different IIIF tools have different features, for example Mirador will allow annotation but the UniversalViewer supports Audio/Visual. This guide aims to show you the ways to find the IIIF Manifest and open it in a compatible IIIF tool.

What is a IIIF Manifest?

The prime unit in IIIF is something called a Manifest. You can think of this as the package or envelope which contains links to all of the resources that make up a IIIF item, just like a manifest that lists passengers or cargo – in this case, the cargo is the digital resource. This IIIF Manifest is what is shown in a Viewer and is usually the thing that can be imported into viewers and other tools. A IIIF Manifest usually represents a physical object such as a book, an artwork, a newspaper issue, etc., but it doesn’t have to.

This IIIF Manifest itself is accessible via a URL that points to a document online (in a format called JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation) which a IIIF tool can read and display.

Finding a Manifest URL

There are various ways to find a manifest URL, and this is easier on some websites than others. We’ve put together an entire guide to finding IIIF resources from a large number of sites, so that’s a great place to start. (And if you’d like to add an entry to our Guide to help future explorers, please help us out via our form about making contributions and corrections!)

Overall, the easiest method is to look for the IIIF logo on a content provider’s site:

Many institutions provide the IIIF logo which can be dragged into another viewer. See this example below where content is dragged from the Yale Centre for British Art and the Bodleian Library to an instance of the IIIF Mirador viewer.

(from a more detailed blog by Drew Winget on drag and drop).

This is also possible using the UniversalViewer which is another popular IIIF viewer:

The drag and drop functionality works relatively well but does have some issues particularly in regards to accessibility and with interfaces without a mouse. To address these concerns the IIIF community has been working on a new API called Content State which offers a number of different ways to transfer content between viewers. This API is still in development so the examples below mostly use the drag and drop method.

Many institutions that use IIIF will use one of the common IIIF Viewers and you may recognize either Mirador or the UniversalViewer in a page you are viewing. Here is a guide to importing and exporting from the different IIIF Viewers and tools.

Mirador

Mirador is an Open-source, web based, multi-window image viewing platform with the ability to zoom, display, compare and annotate images from around the world. It comes in two major versions. Version 2 has been around for a number of years and is in production in many institutions. Version 3 was released in 2020 and is under active development. A number of institutions are running version 3 in production.

A demo instance of Mirador can be found at https://projectmirador.org/.

Mirador 2

Export: In Mirador The Manifest URL can be found by clicking the info button in Mirador and scrolling to the bottom of the metadata window. This can be copied and pasted into another viewer or another instance of Mirador. In the example below the URL is copied and then pasted using the UV demo URL.

Import:

Method 1: Drag and drop

As seen earlier it is possible to drag a IIIF logo into a Mirador window to open up the IIIF Manifest.

Method 2: Paste URL

As well as the drag and drop method there is also a more reliable paste from URL option. To do this navigate to the ‘Replace options’ screen and paste the URL into the box at the top right labeled Add new object from URL. See the following video:

Mirador 3

Export

Exporting in Mirador 3 is similar to Mirador 2 in that the URL to the Manifest is in the metadata panel. To access this click the information button on the top left. You should find the manifest at the bottom of the panel.

Import: To add a manifest, click the big blue plus sign at the top right. This gives you a list of resources that are currently loaded into Mirador 3. To add another click the ‘Add resources’ button at the bottom and this will give you the option to add a URL to a manifest.

Universal Viewer (UV)

The Universal Viewer is a popular IIIF viewer particularly prevalent in National Cultural Heritage Institutions. It has more of a view-only feel compared to Mirador but can display a variety of different IIIF presentations (as well as many other kinds of media). For more details see UniversalViewer.io.

Export:

This is a similar example to the drag and drop but the IIIF logo is hidden in either the Embed or the Share button usually found at the bottom left of the UV. Note the UV can be themed so the text or location can be different.

Import:

Note this requires you to get the URL to the manifest and paste it into the following UniversalViewer demo site:

https://universalviewer.io/uv.html?manifest=[manifest url]

Tify

Tify has been developed by the University of Göttingen and is a good general purpose IIIF viewer. Source code and further details are available on: https://github.com/tify-iiif-viewer/tify

Export: The Tify viewer makes this easy by providing an export button at the top right of the viewer. Simply click this button and you should see the URL to the Manifest towards the bottom. Copy this and you can use it in another viewer.

Import:

Like the Universal Viewer, Tify also has a demo page where you can pass a manifest in the URL:

https://demo.tify.rocks/demo.html?manifest=[manifest url]

IIIF Curation Viewer

This is a powerful IIIF Viewer that was developed in Japan and in addition to the general viewer functions such as page movement and zooming, it also cuts and collects parts of images from multiple items.

Export: To export a manifest from the IIIF Curation Viewer click the information button on the top right. This shows the URL to the manifest but with chrome there was some issue with copying the URL.

Import:

If you navigate to:

http://codh.rois.ac.jp/software/iiif-curation-viewer/demo/

You can drop the IIIF logo on to the viewer and it will load the content. It also supports loading by passing the manifest through the URL:

http://codh.rois.ac.jp/software/iiif-curation-viewer/demo/?manifest=[manifest url]

Diva.js

Diva.js is a fast lightweight IIIF viewer and is available from the Diva.js website.

Export: Similar to Mirador, Diva.js makes the IIIF Manifest available through the metadata panel. Simply click the luggage tag icon on the top right to open the Metadata panel and the IIIF Manifest link should be at the bottom of the screen. See the video below:

Import: The demo instance of Diva.js available below helpfully provides a text box where you can paste a URL to a IIIF Manifest. Once you have the URL in the box click ‘Load IIIF Manifest’ to see it in Diva. Demo site:

https://ddmal.music.mcgill.ca/diva.js/try/iiif-external.html

Quick links

Below are list of links to viewers including links where you can add your own manifests:

Mirador 2 - http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/static/viewers/mirador/?manifest=

Mirador 3

UniversalViewer - https://universalviewer.io/uv.html?manifest=

Tify - https://demo.tify.rocks/demo.html?manifest=

IIIF Curation Viewer - http://codh.rois.ac.jp/software/iiif-curation-viewer/demo/?manifest=

Diva.js

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How to use IIIF resources and image viewers

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IIIF is a set of open standards for delivering high-quality digital objects online at scale. It’s also the international community that makes it all work.

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IIIF Week 2020: Introduction to IIIF (A)

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JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.

The protection and security of cultural properties is of primary concern to the thousands of federal, state, county, city, and private institutions entrusted with housing and displaying our national heritage and history of our society. Cultural property security is of global importance as well with tens of thousands of institutions internationally tasked with protecting and maintaining relics and artifacts of social cultural and historical significance.Cultural Property Security offers powerful protection guidelines to security departments tasked with safeguarding popular historical sites, museums, and libraries and the historical artifacts they house. Presenting practical ready-to-implement solutions in a clear writing style, the book:

Provides a working definition of cultural properties

Identifies the threats against cultural properties from crime and terrorism particularly in regions with political or civil unrest

Offers guidance in threat assessment Identifies the physical security measures and technology that can be used to protect such institutions

Presents guidelines for establishing a protective service department for cultural properties

Describes proper arrest and post-arrest protocols Includes a list of online resources for further information related to the protection of cultural properties

Complete with dozens of photos the book establishes leading industry best practices to identify the various threats to cultural properties and protect them.

Reviewed in Security Management 11/13.

The protection and security of cultural properties is of primary concern to the thousands of federal, state, county, city, and private institutions entrusted with housing and displaying our national heritage and history of our society. Cultural property security is of global importance as well with tens of thousands of institutions internationally tasked with protecting and maintaining relics and artifacts of social cultural and historical significance.Cultural Property Security offers powerful protection guidelines to security departments tasked with safeguarding popular historical sites, museums, and libraries and the historical artifacts they house. Presenting practical ready-to-implement solutions in a clear writing style, the book:

Provides a working definition of cultural properties

Identifies the threats against cultural properties from crime and terrorism particularly in regions with political or civil unrest

Offers guidance in threat assessment Identifies the physical security measures and technology that can be used to protect such institutions

Presents guidelines for establishing a protective service department for cultural properties

Describes proper arrest and post-arrest protocols Includes a list of online resources for further information related to the protection of cultural properties

Complete with dozens of photos the book establishes leading industry best practices to identify the various threats to cultural properties and protect them.

Reviewed in Security Management 11/13.

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Cultural Property Security: Protecting Museums, Historic Sites, Archives, and Libraries (Hardcover)

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The protection and security of cultural properties is of primary concern to the thousands of federal, state, county, city, and private institutions entrusted with housing and displaying our national heritage and history of our society.

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The role of the Hague Convention in today's world revisited.

Significant attention today focusses on heritage destruction, but the key international laws prohibiting it - the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its First and Second Protocols (1954/1999) - lay out two core strands to limit the damage: the measures of respect for armed forces, and the safeguarding measures states parties should put in place in peacetime. This volume incorporates wide-ranging international perspectives from those in the academy, together with practitioner insights from the armed forces and heritage professionals, to explore the safeguarding regime. Its contributors consider such questions as whether state parties have truly taken "all possible steps", as the Convention tasks them; what we can learn from past practice, and how the Convention is implemented today; the implications of new trends in heritage law and management - such as the rise of the World Heritage Convention, and in the increasing focus on safe havens rather than refuges; whether new methods of heritage management such as Risk Assessment theory can be applied; and, in a Convention specifically focussed on state parties, what of their opponents, armed non-state actors. Topics range from leadership and the role of the State Party Representative, to the responsibilities of armed non-state groups in safeguarding, to explorations of past and current practice in different countries. Using a mix of case studies and theoretical explorations of new and existing methodologies, the contributions cover a broad timespan from World War II to today, with examples from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Overall, the volume's purpose is to promote wider understanding of the practical effectiveness of the Convention in the contemporary world, by investigating the perceived opportunities and constraints the Convention offers today to protect cultural property in armed conflict, and firmly establishing that such protection must begin in peace.

CONTRIBUTORS: Maamoun Abdulkarim, Laura Albisetti, Pascal Bongard, Brittni Bradford, Rino Büchel, Emma Cunliffe, Philip Deans, Joanne Dingwall McCafferty, Paul Fox, Kristin Hausler, Stavros-Evdokimos Pantazopoulos, Nikolaus Paumgartner, Nigel Pollard, Lee Rotherham, Valentina Sabucco, Peter Stone, Raphael Zingg.

EMMA CUNLIFFE is a Research Associate in the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University, UK, the Secretariat for the international NGO the Blue Shield, and the Secretary for UK Blue Shield.

PAUL FOX served in the British Army for 27 years before obtaining his PhD from UCL, and working as the Principal Research Associate in the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University, UK, and as the Secretariat for the international NGO the Blue Shield. He retired in 2020.

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Safeguarding Cultural Property and the 1954 Hague Convention

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The role of the Hague Convention in today's world revisited. Significant attention today focusses on heritage destruction, but the key international laws prohibiting it - the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its First and Second Protocols (1954/1999) - lay out two core strands to limit the damage: the measures of respect for armed forces, and the safeguarding measures states parties should put in place in peacetime.

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Picturae digitizes everything from books, maps and photo archives, to fragile herbarium specimens, brittle negatives, microforms and glass slides. From natural history collections to municipal archives, large scale or small, we will digitize your items at our headquarters in the Netherlands or New Jersey, or set up on location anywhere in the world - from Paris to Sydney!

Scroll naar de content

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Picturae digitizes everything from books, maps and photo archives, to fragile herbarium specimens, brittle negatives, microforms and glass slides. From natural history collections to municipal archives, large scale or small, we will digitize your items at our headquarters in the Netherlands or New Jersey, or set up on location anywhere in the world - from Paris to Sydney!

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Drupal - the leading open-source CMS for ambitious digital experiences that reach your audience across multiple channels. Because we all have different needs, Drupal allows you to create a unique space in a world of cookie-cutter solutions.

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Digitizing Private Collections to Promote Public Accessibility

Democratization through Technology.

Private collections across the country house incredible works of art which have been inaccessible to the public for centuries.

Global Art Access digitizes private collections for educational purposes and establishes access partnerships to make the artwork in these collections available to both the scholarly community and the public completely free of charge.

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Digitization — Global Art Access Corporation

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Digitization of private collections for educational and access purposes.

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The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930

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The Renaissance Restored

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Resources - Research, Conservation, Teaching | Getty

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Art history tools and downloads. Library collections, research databases, lesson plans, internships, grants, publications, and more.

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Arches Project Open Source Data Management Platform

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Arches is a comprehensive open source data management platform suitable for many uses, including cultural heritage, developed by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund.

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Arches is an open-source software platform developed jointly by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund for cultural heritage data management. This enterprise-level system is freely available for organizations worldwide to install, configure, and extend in accordance with their individual needs and without restrictions. Because of the robustness of the Arches platform, it is also well suited to other non-cultural heritage purposes, such as asset management. The Arches Project has a growing open source community including institutions and individuals representing the government sector, NGOs and philanthropy, academia, as well as commercial entities.

Core Arches Platform Capabilities

The Arches Platform is a comprehensive solution for data management, data discovery and visualization, and project/task management. The platform is fully integrated: it includes a data management system to manage, define and structure data; discovery and visualization tools to search, report and visualize data (e.g. geospatial data); and project/task management tools (e.g. workflows) to manage sophisticated data editing procedures.

Arches Collector, the mobile data collection app, is a companion app ideally suited for field data collection. The mobile app includes online and offline access, data synchronization, data input/editing, GIS capabilities, and more.

Primary Uses

Arches is an open, flexible, customizable platform, providing a wide range of uses based on individual requirements. At its inception, Arches was specifically designed for the international cultural heritage field as a heritage inventory management system. In recent years, the core capabilities and underlying technologies of Arches have been further developed to support a broad range of use cases (see examples below).

Arches for Inventory

Cultural heritage organizations around the world use Arches to inventory, survey, and help manage a variety of heritage resource types, both immovable and intangible. Organizations that deploy Arches can create digital inventories that describe types, locations, cultural periods, materials and conditions of heritage resources and establish the numerous and complex relationships between those resources.

Arches for Science

Arches for Science will extend the Arches Platform to provide a comprehensive system to help conservation scientists, other heritage professionals, and heritage organizations secure, retrieve, visualize, compare, and share heritage science data, and manage tasks in the lab. Arches for Science will be implemented at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), where it will be known as DISCO (Data Integration for Conservation Science). Arches for Science is currently in development and will be ready for internal testing at the GCI towards the end of 2021.

Other Uses of Arches

Arches is being deployed by cultural organizations for a range of other uses, including for heritage risk mapping including monitoring the effects of sea level rise to coastal resources, heritage site resource management, archaeological research, to manage and disseminate digital files from 3D recording of heritage sites and objects, and to manage and publish information on the provenance of art objects. Arches has also been implemented for a number of non-heritage uses, such as for facility asset management, oil spill response, monitoring groundwater quality, and tracking highway infrastructure projects.Organizations deploying Arches can configure, customize, and extend the platform through the appropriate expertise in its various open source technologies.

Open Source Community and Benefits

Following an open-source approach, the Arches Project functions through a collaborative international community organized around the software. The community is composed of implementers, users, software developers, and technical service providers, who collectively represent various professional sectors including heritage management, archaeology, research, and information technology. Benefits of an open source approach include: no licensing fees; flexibility to extend and customize the open software code, with adopters able to pool resources to extend or customize the software. Cost savings from implementing Arches can free up limited resources for meeting essential requirements, such as documenting and protecting cultural heritage.

Interested in learning more about Arches and the Arches Project?

Sign-up to receive announcements.

Interact with an online demo (Version 5).

Watch recorded webinar videos.

Review the software roadmap and releases.

Learn about Arches implementation considerations.

Consult the Getting Started with Arches resource.

Arches Open Source Project Background

Arches grew out of a collaboration between the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund to address the widespread need within the international heritage field for low-cost digital inventories that are on the one hand, easy to use and are customizable and, on the other, take advantage of the latest technologies to allow for creating and managing heritage information in all its richness and diversity. The GCI and WMF jointly developed Arches through version 3.0 and laid the groundwork to create infrastructure for its open source community. Since then, the GCI has continued to spearhead successive software development efforts, including releasing Arches Collector, a mobile data collection app, expanding the capabilities of Arches to support management of heritage conservation scientific data, and further build resources for the Arches community.

Learn about the strategic aims of the Arches project and read a joint statement from the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund, the organizations that partnered to lead the development of Arches, from when Version 1.0 of Arches was released in October 2013.

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Arches is an open-source software platform developed jointly by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund for cultural heritage data management. This enterprise-level system is freely available for organizations worldwide to install, configure, and extend in accordance with their individual needs and without restrictions.

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2. A multi-package repository for the Quire multiformat publishing framework

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A multi-package repository for the Quire multiformat publishing framework

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Documentation for Quire, a multiformat publishing framework

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Python library to make creation of CIDOC CRM easier by mapping classes/predicates to python objects

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Ancient Lamps in the J. Paul Getty Museum, by Jean Bussière and Birgitta Lindros Wohl

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Most used topics

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The J Paul Getty Trust is a cultural and philanthropic institution dedicated to the presentation, conservation and interpretation of the world’s artistic legacy - Getty

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The IIIF is driven by a community of research, national and state libraries, museums, companies and image repositories committed to providing access to high quality image resources.

The IIIF is anchored by well defined Application Programming Interfaces developed and vetted by an open and rigorous community process.

The IIIF community encourages and supports the development of compatible image serving and viewing software that is easy to install and provides a dazzling user experience.

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Home - IIIF | International Image Interoperability Framework

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The IIIF is driven by a community of research, national and state libraries, museums, companies and image repositories committed to providing access to high quality image resources. The IIIF is anchored by well defined Application Programming Interfaces developed and vetted by an open and rigorous community process.

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The IIIF Image API makes requests to images using a specified URI syntax which changes what image is requested. The syntax consists of a way to identify the image to be requested, as well as additional parameters that can be used to modify the way the image comes back. These request parameters can modify the region of the image, its size, rotation, quality, and the image format. See the API documentation for parameter options you can use.

In the form below, try changing some of the parameters around to see what happens. First perhaps try changing size to pct:10. Then change region to full. Hopefully you will start to see how the IIIF Image API can be used to make image requests.

Above is the Image Information response from the IIIF Image server. This response is used by IIIF Image API clients to determine what types of image requests it can make.

Now that we have learned the basics of requesting images, we need to figure out how to request images that are grouped together.

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The IIIF Image API makes requests to images using a specified URI syntax which changes what image is requested. The syntax consists of a way to identify the ...

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Prophet Jonah’s Grave Destroyed, Iraq

Earthquake damages landmark in Kathmandu, Nepal

ISIS Uses Church as Training Center, Iraq

Fire at Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace, St. Petersburg

Flooding in St. Marcus Square, Venice

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What is the Blue Shield? Who is in it? How does it protect cultural property in crisis and conflict? Read why the Blue Shield is needed.

Blue Shield has sent missions into countries in conflict, or experiencing disasters, to conduct damage assessments and offer assistance.

See where Blue Shield has already a local committee or be invited to establish your own local committee together with Blue Shield International.

Latest Blue Shield International News

Activities

23 May 2022

Activities

10 May 2022

BS International News

25 April 2022

BS International News

10 April 2022

Latest News from National Committees

National Committee News

30 May 2022

Activities

23 May 2022

Activities

26 April 2022

National Committee News

25 April 2022

SUPPORT THE BLUE SHIELD

Help protect the world’s cultural heritage

Your support is vital in enabling us to fulfill our mission to safeguard cultural heritage throughout the world in peacetime, during conflict and natural disasters.

CREATE A NATIONAL COMMITTEE

Are you considering creating a national committee? The Application Pack explains the roles and responsibilities of national committees, the rights of each committee, and the process that must be followed, as well as links to all the documents needed.

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Prophet Jonah's Grave Destroyed, Iraq Earthquake damages landmark in Kathmandu, NepalISIS Uses Church as Training Center, Iraq Fire at Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace, St. ... Home Read More "

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Smartify is a free app that allows you to scan and identify artworks, access rich interpretation and build a personal art collection in some of the world's best museums and galleries.

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We have been working with many popular content management and blogging systems like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Ghost. We are also familiar with systems for online collection/exhibition management, such as Omeka. Or we can build something especially for you.

Whatever you require, we can offer the complete solution for your needs, from installation, design, to content population, training, and maintenance. Good communication is key, and we will always explain technologies and options in plain English.

We will also soon launch our own web tool for data and collection management.

As we produce tens of thousands of photographs we are very familiar with photo archiving. We have been using open source platforms like ResourceSpace for file management and IIPImage server for serving huge gigapixel images. We also work very closely with developers working with their image archive products.

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We have been working with many popular content management and blogging systems like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Ghost. We are also familiar with systems for online collection/exhibition management, such as Omeka. Or we can build something especially for you. Whatever you require, we can offer the…

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Losing our Heads: Leveraging Headless Content Management Systems to Bridge Dynamic Web Interfaces and Backend Content

Radha Nagaraja, National September 11 Memorial and Museum, USA

Abstract
While modern-day content management systems (CMSs) provide very easy-to-use interfaces for managing content as well as functionalities to build web interfaces, the front-end development functionalities in CMSs are often optimized for specific structures of web interfaces (e.g., built-in themes). On the other hand, modern web development frameworks enable rapid development of dynamic, responsive, and accessible interfaces. The natural question is whether it would be possible to bridge the best of both worlds (i.e., easy content maintainability of CMSs and rapid and flexible implementation using web development frameworks). A strategy that has been gaining popularity is to leverage the content management functionalities of CMSs via a headless mode and couple the headless CMS with a front-end rich web interface that is separately developed and communicates with the headless CMS via an API, thus decoupling the presentation from the back-end data. In this paper, we will outline the general architectural principles of this hybrid methodology and the various technology ingredients that enable this approach. We will also take a detailed look at one particular recent example in which we have employed this hybrid strategy, namely our "Timeline" website that renders an interactive timeline of the events of 9/11 along with various media content within a rich and responsive user interface. This website was developed using headless Drupal as the back-end CMS and JavaScript libraries for the front-end. We will also outline various aspects of general applicability including integration strategies, overhead, and performance implications of decoupled implementations, strategies such as prerendering and caching to achieve higher overall performance, and automated testing methodologies for dynamic websites.
Keywords: content management system (CMS), headless Drupal, dynamic websites, APIs, front-end, back-end

Introduction

Modern-day content management systems (CMSs) such as Drupal and Joomla provide very easy-to-use interfaces for managing content of different types (text, media, etc.) and associated taxonomies and interrelationships. In addition, most CMSs provide functionalities to build front-end web interfaces for rendering static and dynamic content for both anonymous and authenticated user sessions. However, the front-end development functionalities in CMSs are often optimized for specific structures of these web interfaces (e.g., using built-in themes). When a particular site's intended design fits within the scope of the off-the-shelf themes in a CMS (e.g., stores, blogs), then the CMS-provided front-end website development tools provide essentially a one-stop shop for implementing a website and managing the back-end content. On the other hand, when developing a website with a richer web interface, other frameworks (e.g., React and Angular JavaScript frameworks) are often more suitable and enable rapid development of a wide variety of dynamic, responsive, and accessible interfaces. However, directly managing content within the context of these frameworks (e.g., using a custom back-end CMS) is not a particularly attractive option and might not even be feasible when the content is to be managed by a diverse set of people.

The natural question therefore is whether it would be possible to somehow bridge the best of both worlds (i.e., the easy content maintainability of CMSs and the rapid and flexible implementation capabilities of dynamic web development frameworks). Such a hybrid decoupled methodology would indeed provide an ideal solution. To this end, an elegant strategy that has been gaining popularity in recent years (Schadler & Grannan, 2017; Heslop, 2018) is to leverage the content management functionalities of CMSs via a headless mode and combine the headless CMS with a front-end rich web interface that is separately developed and communicates with the headless CMS via an Application Programming Interface (API). With this strategy (illustrated in Figure 1), the front-end web interface uses CMS APIs to query for data that is required for rendering the web pages. All the templates/styles for the actual rendering are implemented within the front-end layer while the content is managed from within the CMS. This decouples the presentation from the back-end data in the CMS and enables a modular solution wherein the front-end interface and the content are each managed using the most conducive tools for the purpose. This is essentially the headless CMS approach in a nutshell.

In this paper, we will outline the broad architectural principles and implementation strategies of this hybrid methodology and specific details of a particular recently developed website, namely our "Timeline" website (developed as a replacement for https://timeline.911memorial.org) that presents an interactive timeline of the events of 9/11 along with various media content within an interactive user interface. This paper is organized as follows. We will first discuss the current trend of dynamic websites and more broadly rich user interfaces which bring together multiple aspects including interactivity, incremental updates, responsive interfaces, accessibility, and multi-modal/multi-platform interfaces to enable a seamless and rich user experience. We will then discuss the content management capabilities of current-day CMSs and the functionalities they provide for facilitating storage, administration, and retrieval of structured content of various types. We will then describe strategies for interfacing a headless CMS back-end to a separately developed front-end. We will then take a closer look at the technical details involved in development of the Timeline website, which provides an illustrative example of this hybrid methodology. Finally, we provide concluding remarks, acknowledgments, and references.

Figure 1: Coupled and decoupled design architectures.

Dynamic Websites and Rich User Interfaces

Over recent years, dynamic and rich user interfaces are becoming more prevalent to enable seamless user experiences. This ongoing trend of user interface evolution involves two primary overarching facets: interactivity and adaptability. These two facets can be seen to be the key motivating factors from multiple viewpoints. Firstly, unlike the static web pages of the 90s, current-day websites provide rich interactivity, which is progressively becoming more seamless by enabling fast interactive updates of elements in a web page without visible reloads or indeed without even making it apparent to the user that any additional data was fetched from the server or that any code was run to update the page display. This is particularly seen in the evolution from web sites to web applications wherein a browser-hosted web page provides the visual interactive feel of a native (e.g., desktop or mobile) application. Secondly, the trend of increasing adaptability is evident in multiple directions including to the device platform (e.g., mobile, audio, augmented and virtual reality), situational context (e.g., location-dependent), and specific user needs (e.g., accessibility).

Modern user interfaces have evolved significantly beyond browser-based interfaces and now encompass a wide range of modalities (i.e., user interaction methods and presentation formats) such as audio (e.g., conversational interfaces such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home), augmented reality and virtual reality systems such as Google Glass and Oculus Quest, smart watches and other gadgets, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, in addition to computer and mobile/handheld platforms. While these user interfaces are extremely varied in their "form factors" and the types of technology stacks used to develop and deploy these interfaces, a requirement essentially common to all interface modalities is to be able to configure the underlying content to be "displayed" via these interfaces. Furthermore, since it is becoming increasingly common for businesses (specifically museums) to provide apps via multiple interface modalities (e.g., mobile and desktop apps, web app, and an Alexa app, as well as via business calendar and social media platforms), it would be highly desirable to be able to configure the underlying content in a single back-end system. This would enable scalability in terms of front-ends (Figure 1) while retaining ease of content administration via a single back-end so that the underlying content can be reflected onto multiple front-end interfaces. A headless CMS therefore provides a very attractive solution by enabling leveraging the ease-of-use content administration functionalities of a CMS (as discussed further in the next section below) while being able to integrate the content into different technology "stacks" for various front-end interfaces.

While a headless CMS provides an attractive solution approach for a variety of front-end interfaces as discussed above, we focus below on dynamic websites in particular with the Timeline website being one representative recent example. A key part of the "dynamic" nature of modern websites is seamless interactivity wherein the user can interact with a page and load desired content with minimal delays. Another key part is the ability of the web page to adapt itself to the device (e.g., responsive to the device form factor and resolution) and user needs (e.g., accessibility for visually impaired users). This dynamism relies upon context-aware code execution both on the server-side and the client-side and includes, in general, the following components:

On an initial request to the server by the web browser (optionally along with information regarding the device/browser using, for example, the User-Agent request header), the server-side code (e.g., PHP code implemented as a custom module integrated with a CMS) assembles a web page and returns it to the web browser and also indicates additional files that would be required for the display of the web page (e.g., JavaScript, CSS, and additional HTML files).

On the client-side, the web browser executes JavaScript code on-demand (e.g., based on user actions, other events such as elapsing of a specific amount of time, etc.). The JavaScript code can then modify the page content. If the modification requires retrieving of additional data from the server, the JavaScript code sends a request to the server with the parameters for the request (e.g., specifying what data is to be retrieved) typically encoded as a query string appended to the URL (e.g., ?id=1234).

On receiving a request from the JavaScript code, the server executes the appropriate code for the query (e.g., based on a routing table mapping queries to functions in the code) and encodes the result of running this server-side code in a form that can be transmitted back to the client-side JavaScript code. This encoding, which essentially entails a serialization (i.e., mapping the data structure resulting from running the server-side code into a "serialized" sequence of bytes) that typically utilizes the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. An XML format used to be commonly utilized in earlier years instead of JSON as reflected by the acronym AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) for this approach for dynamic webpage updates.

On receiving the serialized response from the server, the client-side JavaScript code executes a callback function (that is identified based on, for example, either the contents of the response or a routing callback table that is set up prior to the request to the server) that then updates the actual page contents. To efficiently identify the elements/components on a page, the Document Object Model (DOM) is most commonly used, which represents a web page as a tree structure wherein the nodes hierarchically represent parts of a page.

While the overall "feedback loop" in dynamic webpage updates is as summarized above (and graphically illustrated in Figure 2), it can be seen that there is considerable flexibility in terms of the specifics of how the server-side and client-side systems are structured and how the actual work for incremental page updates is distributed between the server-side and client-side. A noteworthy point in this regard is the recent resurgence of "static" webpages wherein the dynamism is accomplished purely by client-side JavaScript code with the server-side content being simply static files. These static files however are often generated using code, i.e., using static site generators such as Hugo ( https://gohugo.io) and Jekyll ( https://jekyllrb.com), wherein high-level templating engines and programmatic content and layout specifications are used to generate collections of static files that are deployed to the server.

Using the approach outlined above for dynamic webpage updates, it is, in fact, possible to make an entire website a single page wherein after initial page load, all subsequent updates are done as incremental changes to a page without ever explicitly navigating to a different page. Such a "single-page application" enables a much more dynamic and responsive feel to the user wherein instead of navigating from page to page, a single page is dynamically rewritten wherein the parts (e.g., header, footer, sidebars, menus) that remain the same are not ever fetched again from the server and indeed not even "drawn" again on the browser. In order to address some of the nuances with single page applications such as enabling bookmarking specific pages or sharing select links to social channels, the location of the user within the single-page application can be encoded in the URL path and routes can be defined to automatically reopen the same location that was bookmarked/shared. Current-day web application frameworks such as Angular ( https://angular.io) and React ( https://reactjs.org) enable efficient development of dynamic web pages including single page applications based on the strategies outlined above.

Figure 2: Interaction of client-side and server-side code to enable dynamic webpage updates.

Content Management Systems (CMSs)

CMSs both for specific domains (e.g., Collective Access for museums, https://www.collectiveaccess.org) and for general use cases (e.g., Drupal, https://www.drupal.org, WordPress, https://wordpress.com) have been developed over several years. Current-day CMSs integrate a wide variety of functionalities that facilitate content management and are therefore highly preferable to use instead of a special-purpose custom CMS built for managing content for a specific website. While it might initially appear that a simple repository of media files and associated metadata (e.g., via key-value stores in, for example, a schemaless MongoDB ( https://www.mongodb.com) database) could be sufficient for back-end content management for a website, it is often the case that websites very quickly outgrow such simple needs and eventually require various CMS-standard functionalities. Ease of content administration is, of course, the most important benefit of using an actual CMS since managing media repositories and metadata directly is not a user-friendly solution for a content administrator. CMSs such as Drupal provide a rich structure for defining taxonomies (i.e., vocabularies) to accurately represent the semantics of the content. Furthermore, CMSs provide features such as content tagging and integrated search.

Additionally, some features built into the back-end admin/editorial UI (user interface) include, for example, user authentication, management of permissions by role and author, revision history and change management, log messages, available security updates, cache statistics, and overall site status reports. Such functionalities come "for free" compared to managing flat content as media repositories with metadata wherein keeping track of when and by whom a particular content was reconfigured itself requires custom solutions. Also, CMSs typically allow individual settings to be accommodated in the admin UI to fit individual workflows and preferences. The admin UI is usually optimized for speed of response to facilitate management of large content repositories. Furthermore, even if a separate system is used for front-end page layout in a headless solution, parts of the CMS front-end functionalities can still be used to configure aspects of the front-end display (e.g., high-level structures such as menus, integration of specific CMS-provided modules such as stores and blogs, using the CMS admin UI to configure metadata for the front-end such as theme settings).

Hence, instead of developing a custom data store, it is often a good strategy to use a CMS with a well-developed admin/editorial user interface (UI) and associated functionalities to manage the back-end content, but in a headless mode, i.e., without using the CMS to manage the webpage layout and display, but instead retrieving needed content using an API as illustrated in Figure 3. While the webpage front-end development in a coupled mode of the CMS utilizes, for example, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor or other CMS-inbuilt page layout functionalities, the headless mode relies instead upon the CMS API (e.g., using REST - Representational State Transfer) to access data and other key functions of the CMS and relies upon a separate system for the actual front-end display. Thus, the CMS is used for its main purpose of storing, administering, and retrieving structured content (i.e., content such as media files along with its semantic context) while however decoupling the CMS from where or how the content will be displayed. This approach also enables separation of concerns wherein the content administrator does not need to be necessarily concerned about how the content is going to be displayed. This can also be seen to better fits the "agile" development philosophy. Content development and front-end development can happen simultaneously based on a structured API-based interface between the back-end and front-end systems. Incremental updates on both the back-end and front-end can happen independently. Furthermore, this decoupled approach enables the workflow and development tools/interfaces to be less cluttered since each group of people only needs to care about their aspect of the work (content creation vs. front-end development). Also, this architecture intrinsically enables scalability and plurality of front-ends since content configured by the content administrator from within a CMS admin UI can be transparently reflected onto multiple front-ends without additional effort.

Figure 3: Decoupling of the back-end CMS and the front-end interface using a headless CMS approach.

In addition to headless modes of more traditional CMSs such as Drupal and WordPress, more recent CMSs built primarily/only for headless operation (i.e., "API-first" CMSs) such as Storyblok ( https://www.storyblok.com), Contentful ( https://www.contentful.com), and Prismic ( https://prismic.io) are attractive choices for development of Content as a Service (CaaS) solutions, which can be viewed as an adaptation of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model to content delivery.

Interfacing the Headless CMS to the Web Front-End

As discussed in the two sections above, the dynamic interaction between the front-end system (JavaScript code being run in the browser) and the back-end system (web server and CMS and any other server-side code) involves queries from the front-end to the back-end (e.g., GET requests), response from the back-end (e.g., JSON serialized data structures), and incremental updates of the web page at the front-end. This process is asynchronous since the front-end does not "pause" while waiting for a response from the server, but instead arranges for a callback function to be invoked when the response is received. While much of the details of the dynamic interactions are as in any dynamic website, there are some specific nuances in the context of a headless CMS as discussed below.

Current-day CMSs that support headless operation typically provide inbuilt REST API and JSON serialization functionalities and often also interfaces to configure REST API endpoints (e.g., Drupal's REST Web Services module). While these inbuilt functionalities can provide quick and easy access to content entities and their fields, one aspect to consider is that a web application typically requires specific subsets of content when rendering different pages. To query for the required data via the built-in API of the CMS might not be directly possible or at least not efficient. Instead, a custom module (as, for example, in the Timeline website discussed in the next section) might need to be developed integrated with the CMS to specifically service requests from the front-end for the application as illustrated in Figure 3. The custom module implements essentially a domain-specific language (i.e., DSL) embedded into the CMS and custom-designed for efficient interaction with the front-end for the specific application (e.g., to retrieve the specific hierarchical data structures that are required for a website, to simultaneously retrieve sets of related data that are all required at the same time for a webpage update rather than requiring separate queries, etc.). Technologies such as GraphQL, https://graphql.org (a data query and manipulation language that can be used, for example, to precisely specify what data structures to retrieve regarding, for instance, entities and entity collections in the CMS) can be used to facilitate development of a custom module.

Regarding performance, there are some subtle trade-offs to be cognizant about. A coupled solution (wherein the front-end is built using layout functionalities integrated into the CMS) can benefit from multi-level caching capabilities built into the CMS. In particular, since the CMS is aware of when each piece of content has been updated, the cache invalidation can utilize logic based on content updates to optimize the use of caches. In a decoupled solution, the page load performance can be better since the front-end pages to be sent to the browser can be stored as static files rather than being built at load time by PHP code in the CMS. However, the retrieving of content from the CMS can be slower unless care is taken to ensure that the CMS caching capabilities are being used effectively. While not necessarily out-of-the-box as in coupled mode, the caching capabilities can be enabled by making the REST API functions cognizant of cached contents and fetching from cache whenever possible. For optimal performance, load balancing and third-party caching systems for DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection can also be utilized in addition to caching at the CMS and web server levels. Another point to note is the overhead associated with communication between a custom module and the back-end CMS. In particular, for example, the custom module which essentially mediates communication between the web server and the CMS back-end might be hosted on a machine different from the CMS itself in which case the interaction would be via a web-based API (e.g., REST) and network latency and bandwidth limitations would need to be carefully addressed. Prerendering and caching strategies can help in alleviating some of this overhead. Commonly accessed pages/sub-pages/views can be prerendered by the custom module and cached so that new requests are serviced directly from the cache instead of having to query the CMS. Depending on the application, the prerendering and caching can be at different levels of granularity ranging from small snippets (e.g., corresponding to responses to specific queries) to complete pages.

In addition to coupled and decoupled approaches to website development, progressively decoupled approaches offer another hybrid possibility. In a progressively decoupled solution, JavaScript-based "sub-pages" are embedded into a page layout that is managed by the CMS. Depending on the particular website's needs and the technology preferences and skills of the developers, any of the coupled, progressively decoupled, or decoupled approaches could work best in a specific use case. Websites that predominantly fit typical CMS-inbuilt use cases work best in coupled and progressively decoupled modes (possibly with JavaScript-based components for specific widgets) while a fully decoupled approach better fits websites with different more dynamic interfaces or cases in which JavaScript-based front-end technologies are preferred. Another aspect to consider in a decoupled implementation is that authentication and access control need to be coordinated and handled on both the front-end and back-end sides (e.g., using cookies and OAuth) in contrast to a coupled implementation where such details are handled by built-in functionalities in the CMS.

To test functionality and performance, automated testing methodologies (e.g., using the Selenium framework) can be used as with any other websites. In the case of decoupled websites based on headless CMSs, one additional aspect to consider during automated testing is to ensure that all the REST API endpoints and interactions between the custom module and the CMS are covered in the testing including any corner cases in these code modules.

Shared templates is another recently evolving technology that is useful when developing a decoupled website. While the webpage layout functionalities of the CMS are not used in deployment since the front-end is separately developed, the content administrator might still wish to be able to preview the final webpage while configuring content in the back-end UI. Shared templates provide a flexible solution for this purpose whereby both the CMS admin UI and the browser-side JavaScript use the same templating system (e.g., Twig.js, which is a JavaScript re-implementation of the PHP-based Twig template engine used in Drupal) so that the layout templates can be processed in both the back-end and the front-end interfaces. A related technology is shared rendering which involves instead a rewriting of the CMS rendering code in JavaScript or somehow embedding the original CMS rendering code in a JavaScript program.

The Timeline Website: A Case Study of the Headless CMS Approach

The Timeline website has been recently developed at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. This website presents an interactive timeline of the events of 9/11 along with various media content within a rich and responsive user interface. In the implementation of this website, the Drupal CMS was used as the back-end running in the headless Drupal mode (So, 2018; Buytaert, 2019; Mayekar, 2019) and the front-end was implemented using client-side JavaScript along with HTML and CSS for the presentation layer. The overall architecture of the technology stack used in the development of this website is shown in Figure 4. The structure of the interactive website from the user's point of view is illustrated in Figure 5. At a high level, the webpage initially presents the user a list of timelines and after the user picks one of the timelines, displays a carousel view (that can be toggled between user-controlled and automatic scroll modes) of timeline items, any of which can be picked by the user to view further details on the specific timeline item.

Figure 4: Technology stack used in the Timeline website.

Figure 5: Timeline website architecture from the user's point of view.

To enable a flexible architecture of this website, a "timeline" is represented as an abstract concept via labels (using the taxonomy module in Drupal). Additional labels can be created anytime in the Drupal administration back-end interface. Creating an additional label will automatically instantiate a new timeline within the front-end and allow interactive access to it. The user interactivity, carousel views, timeline item views, etc., are all seamlessly scalable so that new timelines can be added by simply configuring the timeline items in the admin back-end without changing any of the front-end code. From the back-end admin interface, each timeline is specified as a sequence of timeline items ("events" or "elements") and the temporal sequence of timeline items within a timeline is configured via weights. Events can be assigned to multiple timelines. The view of each timeline item is configured as a paragraph in Drupal along with entity references to model relationships between entities represented in the CMS. The view of each timeline item can have multiple components including audio, video, images, etc. These components can be configured from within the admin back-end and once configured, any combination of media types will be automatically shown in the front-end view. Thus, the front-end view provides a unified framework that automatically scales to addition of new timelines, new timeline items, new media components for timeline items, reconfiguration of temporal sequence of timeline items, etc. Also, timeline items in each timelines can be easily toggled to visible/disabled via a simple toggle button in the admin back-end. The admin UI is implemented as a custom module based on Drupal Views to facilitate the back-end content management. The admin UI allows arbitrary linkages between timelines, timeline items, and media (e.g., multiple timeline items can reference the same media item). The admin UI also includes an integrated search to enable quick finding of timeline items with a specific text, tag, etc. The admin UI also includes functionalities for revision history and change management, tagging (for search and optionally display in the front-end view), and configuration of aspects of the front-end such as menus.

A custom module was implemented in PHP to integrate with the CMS and provide a domain-specific mini-language for efficient communication between the web front-end and the back-end CMS. The custom module exposes REST API endpoints to retrieve the list of available timelines, lists of timeline items for each timeline, media for each timeline item, etc. The custom module enables efficient retrieval of the specific hierarchical data structures used in the Timeline web application (e.g., media representation with multiple sub-representations). The front-end is implemented using the React JavaScript library that provides a flexible framework for building web-based dynamic user interfaces. Using an in-memory virtual DOM, React enables efficient computation of incremental updates required for refreshing the in-browser view of a webpage. The front-end code uses the Axios ( https://github.com/axios/axios) JavaScript-based HTTP client for making HTTP GET requests to the server and fetching data via the response from the server-side API. The server-side custom module responds to the requests via JSON serialized representations of the retrieved hierarchical content. This fetched data is then stored in Redux ( https://redux.js.org) JavaScript library that is used for maintaining the application state and to enable data sharing between the React application components On the server side, multiple Drupal modules that are included in Drupal 8 are utilized to enable headless operation including the JSONAPI, RESTful Web Services, Serialization, and HTTP Basic Authentication modules. To enable scalability, the back-end is structured such that the static files (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.) can be located on a separate web server different from the server running the Drupal CMS back-end. Additionally, the back-end CMS allows the media to be stored on a separate back-end system such as Amazon S3. While the discussion above focused on the Timeline website, the headless architecture facilitates relatively simple development of other front-ends that pull from the same back-end content. In particular, we are currently developing a "time-streaming" front-end layout that would be more suitable for mobiles and other hand-held devices. In this time-streaming layout, a selected timeline is presented as a linear streaming view of events of the day on 9/11/2001 and depending on the current time, the view automatically scrolls to the event that happened around that time on September 11, 2001. This helps in providing an immersive and closer perspective to the audience.

Conclusion/Summary

The decoupled architecture discussed in this paper enables leveraging the specific key strengths of CMS and dynamic web front-end technologies. More broadly, this architecture based on a headless CMS will enable development of a multitude of front-ends (e.g., native desktop/mobile applications, websites, audio, VR, etc.) that all draw from the same content configured in a single back-end CMS. This can greatly reduce the work entailed in developing heterogeneous front-ends while also simplifying both the back-end content management by content administrators and the front-end interface implementation by developers skilled in each of the specific technologies.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my appreciation for Rui Yang of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and the 2019 summer interns (Kai Heng Chen and Andy Wang) who worked on various aspects of the implementation of the Timeline website. I would also like to thank Ms. Nancy Morrissey (SVP of Digital Products and Technology at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum) for always encouraging me to take on challenging projects and providing crucial support throughout the development and implementation process. Finally, I would like to give a big shout-out to my husband Prashanth Krishnamurthy for always motivating me to expand my boundaries and also my two small kids who have been very patient while this paper has been competing with them for my attention.

References

Buytaert, D. (2019). "How to decouple Drupal in 2019." Consulted January 15, 2020. Available https://dri.es/how-to-decouple-drupal-in-2019

Heslop, B. (2018). "History of content management systems and rise of headless CMS." Consulted January 15, 2020. Available https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-management-systems-history-and-headless-cms

Mayekar, D. (2019). Decoupling Drupal: a decoupled design approach for web applications. New York: Springer.

Schadler, T. & M. Grannan. (2017). "The rise of the headless content management system." Forrester. Consulted January 15, 2020. Available https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Rise+Of+The+Headless+Content+Management+System/-/E-RES132202

So, P. (2018). Decoupled Drupal in practice: architect and implement decoupled Drupal architectures across the stack. New York: Apress.
Cite as:
Nagaraja, Radha. "Losing our Heads: Leveraging Headless Content Management Systems to Bridge Dynamic Web Interfaces and Backend Content."MW20: MW 2020. Published January 16, 2020. Consulted .
https://mw20.museweb.net/paper/losing-our-heads-leveraging-headless-content-management-systems-to-bridge-dynamic-web-interfaces-and-backend-content/

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Losing our Heads: Leveraging Headless Content Management Systems to Bridge Dynamic Web Interfaces and Backend Content - MW20 | Online

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Radha Nagaraja, National September 11 Memorial and Museum, USA While modern-day content management systems (CMSs) provide very easy-to-use interfaces for managing content as well as functionalities to build web interfaces, the front-end development functionalities in CMSs are often optimized for specific structures of web interfaces (e.g., built-in themes).

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It sets a standardised procedure to document and describe collections of archaeological, cultural, and artistic objects. By facilitating the identification of these objects, a standardised description can aid in their recovery in case of loss or theft.Object ID was developed in collaboration with the museum community, police and customs agencies, the art trade, insurance industry, and valuers of art and antiques. It helps to combat the illicit trade of cultural heritage by encouraging the use of the standard and by bringing together organisations around the world that can encourage its implementation.

About Object ID

In case of theft, the information gathered and recorded using the Object ID norm can be checked against other databases of stolen artefacts, for example, the INTERPOL database of stolen works of art. Object ID was created as a practical tool for facilitating the recovery of stolen cultural goods, and is now internationally recognised as a necessary and effective tool when inventorying a collection.

The Object ID standard defines nine categories of information as well as four steps to fulfil the procedure. The categories are:

Type of object

Materials and techniques

Measurement

Inscriptions and markings

distinguishing features

Title

Subject

Date or period

Maker

The four steps are divided as follows:

Taking photographs of the object

Identifying the above mentioned categories

Writing a short description, including additional information

Keeping the constituted documentation in a secure place

New translation initiatives are constantly being promoted and undertaken. Currently Object ID is available in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

Why is it needed?

The illicit trade in cultural objects is now widely recognized as one of the most prevalent categories of international crime. The proceeds of thefts, forgery, ransoms, and smuggling operations involving cultural objects are often used to fund other criminal organisations and terrorist activities, and the objects themselves often serve as both a medium of exchange between criminals and a means of laundering the profits of crime.

Law enforcement agencies have long recognised the importance of good documentation in the fight against art thieves. Documentation is indeed crucial for the protection of cultural objects, for police and customs officers can rarely recover and return objects that have not been photographed and adequately described. Police forces and customs administrations put into the custody of the museums and Ministries of Culture large numbers of objects that have been recovered in the course of operations, but which cannot be returned to their rightful owners because there is no documentation that makes it possible to identify the victims.

Who is using it?

Around the world there is growing, broad-based support for this standard. The majority of customs authorities of the member states of the European Union use the standard, and the Object ID checklist has already been translated into 17 languages.

Amongst the participants promoting and using the Object ID Checklist are:

Art and Antiques Unit, Metropolitan Police, London

Carabinieri Command for Cultural Heritage Protection (TPC), Italy

European Commission

Interpol

J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles

National Museum of World Cultures Foundation (NMVW), the Netherlands

UNESCO

World Customs Organization

Historical background

In 1993 the Getty Information Institute initiated a collaborative project to develop an international documentation standard for the information needed to identify cultural objects. This new standard was developed in collaboration with police forces, customs agencies, museums, the art trade, valuers, and the insurance industry.

The contents of the standard were identified by a combination of background research, interviews, and, most importantly, through a major series of international questionnaire surveys. In total, over 1,000 responses were received from organisations in 84 countries. The findings of these surveys — published in Protecting Cultural Objects in the Global Information Society — demonstrated that there was close agreement on the information needed to describe objects for purposes of identification. The result was the Object ID checklist.

The Object ID standard was launched in 1997. It has been promoted by major law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Scotland Yard, Interpol; organisations including the WCO and UNESCO; and by museums, cultural heritage organisations, art trade and art appraisal organisations, and insurance companies. Having established a descriptive standard, Object ID now helps combat the illegal appropriation of cultural objects by facilitating documentation of items from collections and by bringing together organisations from around the world to encourage its implementation.

From 1999 to 2004, the Object ID project was housed at the Council for the Prevention of Art Theft (CoPAT) in the United Kingdom. In October 2004, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) signed an agreement with the J. Paul Getty Trust for ICOM’s non-exclusive worldwide use of the Getty’s Object ID standard. ICOM now holds the license rights to promote the use of this standard among museum professionals and, to this end, organises workshops on its implementation, in collaboration with UNESCO, WCO and INTERPOL.

More Information

Fanizzo, Kelly Yasaitis, (2005) ‘Object ID: A Model of Global Collaboration’ in Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 20, No. 21

Thornes, Robin with Dorrell, Peter and Lie, Henry (1999) Introduction to Object ID: Guidelines for Making Records that Describe Art, Antiques and Antiquities Getty Information Institute

Thornes, Robin (1997) Protecting Cultural Objects in the Global Information Society: the Making of Object ID Getty Information Institute

Thornes, Robin (1995) Protecting Cultural Objects: A Preliminary Survey Getty Art History Information Program

Thornes, Robin and Bold, John (eds) (1998) Documenting the Cultural Heritage Getty Information Institute

UNESCO (2006) Legal and Practical Measures Against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property – UNESCO Handbook International Standards Section, Division of Cultural Heritage, Paris

For more information on documentation standards for cultural objects, other than Object ID, visit the ICOM website for CIDOC – ICOM International Committee for Documentation.

Contact

To find out more about Object ID, contact:

ICOM: International Council of Museums, 15 rue Lasson, 75012 Paris France Tel: +33 1 47 34 05 00

Email:  illicit-taffic@icom.museum

Legal Mentions / Trademark / Copyright

*Object ID ™ is a trademark of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Use of this trademark is prohibited without permission from: ICOM, 15 rue Lasson, 75012 Paris, France © The J. Paul Getty Trust, 1999. All rights reserved.

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Object ID - International Council of Museums

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Object Identification (Object ID) is an internationally recognized documentation standard conceived to identify and record cultural goods. -Select your language-ArabicChineseCzechDutchEnglishFrenchGermanHungarianItalianKoreanNorwegianPolishPortugueseRussianSlovenianSpanishUkrainian It sets a standardised procedure to document and describe collections of archaeological, cultural, and artistic objects. By facilitating the identification of these objects, a standardised description can aid in their recovery in case of [...]

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1. Home

2. Collections

3. Datasets

You can download the object data available in the online collections database as either a CSV, XML or JSON file. Each Curatorial Sections' data is available below as well as a single file containing all 379,498 object records. This data is provided 'as-is'. Not all records included herein have been reviewed for completeness or accuracy. That process is ongoing and the Museum would welcome your assistance in drawing our attention to any particularly egregious omissions or inaccuracies. If you have questions about this data please email online.collections@pennmuseum.org.

This data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

These files were last updated on October 28, 2018

What is available?

These files contain metadata about the objects in the Penn Museum collection. This usually includes information about what the object is, a brief physical description, dates, where it is from, and what it is made of. Some records will have more information than others. As a work in progress, the Museum continuously strives to improve both the quantity and quality of the data contained within the online collections database.

Some fields contain multiple values (e.g. Place Name, Material, and Other Number). In the CSV file, multiple values in these fields are seperated by a single pipe-bar character '|'. For complete documentation about the fields in these files please see the Help page.

What isn't available?

Unfortunately, images, information about where the object has been published, and its exhibtion history are not included in this dataset. These datasets may be added in the future.

What can I do with the data?

Anything! This data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. However you use our data, we ask that you credit www.penn.museum and indicate if changes were made. If you build something let us know via email at online.collections@pennmuseum.org.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Download Penn Museum Collections Data in CSV, XML or JSON format.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Catalogue API

Search our collections for visual culture, books, journals, archives, manuscripts and objects.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health. Find out how you can use open APIs to access our collections.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anyone can edit this page. If you know of an open data service that's not listed, just sign up to add it. If you have some free time, the list of APIs needs to be tidied up a bit, and open cultural data releases (such as images online) could be put on a separate page - feel free to dive in and help out!
If you use this to find data for a project or to build another list, it'd be lovely if you credited the wiki/ Mia Ridge as its maintainer as it's been a lot of work over the years.)

Please add APIs and other data sets you're aware of, ideally with a comment on what's useful or not about how they've been implemented or documented. If you know of or have written libraries for use with these APIs, then please add them to help other people get started. It's fine to add your own GLAM API or open cultural dataset - in fact, it's encouraged, whether it's tiny or huge, or whether it's a simple text file or a fancy endpoint. The layout is simple - H2 heading for the title, a brief summary of what's available with which licences and formats, and as many links as you like.

Information about schemas/data structures used by other projects is also useful, even if they don't provide an API. If you're looking for images and books rather than machine-readable data, here's a lot of ' open collections'. If there's a public-facing collections online site related to the museum API, feel free to include it. It's also helpful if you can give a rough estimate of the number of records and supported access methods.

Designing an API? Check out (and add to) Making good APIs. Thinking of having a hack day to road-test your API? Check out hackdaymanifesto.com for lots of useful tips. If you're preparing a list of data sets for a hackday, why not add them to this page and share them more widely?

Other sites listing data sources include: DH Toychest: Data Collections and Datasets (curated by Alan Liu); Survey of GLAM open access policies; Micah Walter's list of awesome open access projects; various German-language datasets are available from Coding da Vinci, with related images (without metadata) on Flickr; Open Collections.

'The National Gallery of Art serves the United States by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity. In pursuing our mission, we are making certain data about our collection available to scholars, educators, and the general public in CSV format...'

Released under the Creative Commons Zero designation.

The dataset provides data records [metadata] relating to the 130,000+ artworks in our collection and the artists who created them. ...

The dataset is published in CSV format and uses UTF-8 encoding. It is compressed with LZW compression to permit the files to be downloaded without any special tools and can be decompressed with commonly available file unzipping tools. A data dictionary fully describes the dataset.'

'As the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of twentieth-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. ...

The Whitney's collection includes over 25,000 works created by more than 3,600 artists in the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The datasets in this repository reflect those works and artists that have been catalogued and publicly released on the Museum's website.

At this time, the datasets are available in CSV format, encoded in UTF-8.

These datasets are placed in the public domain using a CC0 License.'

Further reading: Stepping into open access at the Whitney

Smithsonian Open Access

'download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian's images-right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to nearly 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections-with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian's 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.'
Landing page: https://www.si.edu/openaccess
Metadata: https://github.com/Smithsonian/OpenAccess

Smithsonian Institution Open Access API documentation http://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/ https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/docs/

Hungarian photo archive Fortepan

Museums of the City of Paris / Paris Musées

100,000 open access works and an API.

Collections Portal: http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/

Collections API: http://apicollections.parismusees.paris.fr/

An article on using APIs without writing code, based on OCLC APIs that provide access to library data

Australian GLAM-related CSV-formatted datasets

Collected by Tim Sherratt @ wragge, who says: after an initial sweep of Australian gov data portals I have a list of more than 400 GLAM-related CSV-formatted datasets.

Browse here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gCcLZEe-pdYEn8DfLrhM9WwfJ2jgfPV39ZRiodzhm78/edit#gid=1192241706

Harvesting code in the notebook here: https://github.com/wragge/ozglam-data

With approximately 500,000 objects from 4,000 years of human history, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG) is one of Europe's most important museums of art and design. The digitised and published parts of the collection are accessible online via MKG Collection Online since 2015: http://sammlungonline.mkg-hamburg.de/en

The website features more than 20,000 artworks and artifacts. The LIDO-XML dataset that is provided and updated here contains metadata of all the published records including links to the connected images, if available.
https://developers.wellcomecollection.org/
As of April 2018, you'll find the following:

Catalogue: Unified search across our museum and library collections, using the same API that we use on wellcomecollection.org.

IIIF: Access to 110k images from our collections, using the standard International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) Image API.

Datasets: A full daily snapshot of the Catalogue and around 5800 Medical Officer of Health (MOH) reports from the Greater London area.

Ontologies: A set of OWL ontologies that describe our collections, exhibitions and editorial content as a rich graph of linked data.

Cardigan: Our UX design system, including the visual architecture and reusable components we use to build wellcomecollection.org.

BHL is a treasure trove of information about global biodiversity. In addition to the various programmatic methods - an API supporting http and SOAP queries and an OAI-PMH interface, plus R and other libraries - there's also a data export page.

The British Library is making copies of some of its datasets available for research and creative purposes. Hugely varied datasets from the collections of the British Library, ranging from archived web pages to Hebrew manuscripts.

'Our open-access service includes nearly 25 million MARC records, as distributed in the unabridged 2014 Retrospective file sets. These MDS record sets have been made available primarily for research and development usage. Records are available in three file formats - UTF8, MARC8 and XML.'

'We hope this list of APIs, bulk downloads, and tutorials will help you begin exploring the many ways the Library of Congress provides machine-readable access to its digital collections.'

Downloadable dataset that combines data about heritage assets (from the expected buildings etc to 'shipwrecks, ancient trees, war memorials and more') and activities (volunteering etc) collected under headings for historic built environment, museums and archives, industrial heritage, parks and greenspace, natural heritage, cultures and memories, general - assets and activities for each heading:
https://www.thersa.org/action-and-research/rsa-projects/public-services-and-communities-folder/heritage-and-place
Documentation and SPARQL endpoint

'The initial release encompasses performance history data from 1891 through the end of the 2015-16 concert season (July 15, 2016).'

Bluestocking Corpus: Letters by Elizabeth Montagu, 1730s-1780s

243 manuscript letters, written by the 'Queen of the Blues' Elizabeth Montagu between the 1730s and the 1780s. Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson, 1718-1800) was one of the key figures of the learning-oriented Bluestocking Circle in eighteenth-century England. Available as XLSX or XML download.

The WCMA collection includes works of art in all media ranging from ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greco-Roman objects, Indian painting, African sculpture, photography, art of the U.S., and international modern and contemporary art. This research dataset contains contains 15,635 records, representing all currently accessioned works of art in WCMA's collection. It includes basic metadata for each artwork, including accession number, title, date, classification, medium, and dimensions. This dataset is placed in the public domain using a CC0 License.

At this time, the dataset is available in CSV format, encoded in UTF-8. While UTF-8 is the standard for multilingual character encodings, it is not correctly interpreted by Excel on a Mac. Users of Excel on a Mac can convert the UTF-8 to UTF-16 so the file can be imported correctly.

ACMI Collection Data, CC0 1.0 Universal, files in TSV and JSON. This github page describes the data structures and provides instructions for opening files.

ACMI Historic Film Screening Data, CC0, a single TSV file listing dates and times of film screenings at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image from 1st April 2004 to 24th January 2016.

The National Library of Scotland's Digital Scholarship Service publishes data collections on the Data Foundry. Collections on the Data Foundry includes: digitised collections (text and images); metadata collections; map data; and organisational data. The Library updates and adds to these data collections on a regular basis.

The German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) aims to promote the use and distribution of its collections. In this context, TIB publishes the authoritative and time-based, automatically generated metadata of videos of the TIB AV-Portal as Linked Open Data. Only metadata and thumbnails of videos which allow usage of their respective metadata and thumbnails under the Creative Commons License CC0 1.0 Universal are made available. Please note that the data was partially generated by an automatic process and may therefore contain errors or might be incomplete.

From http://data.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/: Available as linked open data through the Zeri & LODE project: 'Data mostly regard artworks of Modern Art (15th-16th centuries): about 19.000 works of art and more than 30.000 photographs depicting such works are accurately described by means of like 11 million of RDF statements'. It uses 'two Italian metadata content standards, Scheda F, for Scheda di fotografia (photograph)and Scheda OA, for Scheda Opera d'Arte (work of art), both issued by the ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, Central Institute for the Cataloguing and Documentation) of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage'.

Access data and connect your application to our SPARQL endpoint or use the web interface to directly query it.

The last version of the RDF dataset can be downloaded at the University of Bologna data repository AMSActa: DOI: 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/5157

The Central Library[1] of the Hungarian National Museum published its entire catalogue as open data under CC0 licence. The data can be accessed and downloaded online from the online catalogue, from the OAI_PMH and Z39.50 servers. A zip file containing all data is also available. The data can be accessed in many formats: HUNMARC, MARC21, MARCXML and in many character sets including UNICODE. The documentation can be found here: http://hnm.hu/hu/muzeum/konyvtar/nyilt-bibliografiai-adatok

[1]: http://mnm.hu/konyvtar

Exhibitions data on github: 'The exhibition index dataset was compiled by a project team from the MoMA Archives as part of their work to preserve, describe, and open to the public over 22,000 folders of exhibition records dating from 1929 to 1989 from its registrar and curatorial departments. ... This research dataset lists 1,788 exhibitions, representing all of the known exhibitions held at the museum from 1929 through 1989. All known curators and organizers, artists and other participants are listed for each exhibition. A total of 11,550 constituents are represented in this dataset, approximately 5,900 of them not currently represented in MoMA's permanent collection of artworks.'

Their 'data centre' provides 'public access to high quality, open-licensed data that has been used or produced by MicroPasts crowd-sourcing or crowd-funding projects'. This includes 3D Models of various objects as well as data transcribed from museum records.

A useful guide to cultural datasets in data.gov.au and the Australian National Data Service (ANDS).

'Using correspSearch you can search through indexes of different letter collections (digital or print) by sender, addressee, location written, location sent, and date. To this purpose a website and a technical interface are provided. The web service collects and evaluates TEI-XML data in the 'Correspondence Metadata Interchange' format.'

The site is work-in-progress but useful data can already be obtained via http://collaborativecollections.org/WorldWarOne/How_to_access_structured_data

The site contains 'manuscripts written in the Arabic script from all subject areas, and of various geographical origins, dating from the rise of Islam up to the 19th century'. Contributing organisations include Bodleian Libraries, Oxford and Cambridge University Library. Further information:

Downloadable datasets.

'The catalogue of the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes contains about 200,000 records which were originally created in compliance with the MARC21 standard. The entries in the catalogue have been recently migrated to a new relational database whose data model adheres to the conceptual models promoted by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), in particular, to the FRBR and FRAD specifications.

The database content has been later mapped, by means of an automated procedure, to RDF triples which employ mainly the RDA vocabulary (Resource Description and Access) to describe the entities, as well as their properties and relationships. In contrast to a direct transformation, the intermediate relational model provides tighter control over the process -for example through referential integrity-, and therefore enhanced validation of the output. This RDF-based semantic description of the catalogue is now accessible online.'

JSON queries for their museum, library, image and exhibit databases.

'We provide access to positions, luminosity, color, and other data on over 100,000 stars as well as constellations, exo-planets, clusters and others.'

Docs for JSON access.

'The Artsy API provides access to images of historic artwork and related information on artsy.net for educational and other non-commercial purposes. It's currently available for playing, testing, and learning only, and not for production'

API: https://api.artsy.net/api

The journal has released various ontologies implemented in SKOS and two datasets:

Articles Dataset A dataset comprising the full set of articles on nature.com (1845-2015)

Contributors Dataset A dataset comprising the full set of contributors on nature.com (1845-2015)

CSV files available via GitHub, under a CC0 License. Over 120,000 records, 'representing all of the works that have been accessioned into MoMA's collection and cataloged in our database. It includes basic metadata for each work, including title, artist, date made, medium, dimensions, and date acquired by the Museum'. Not all records are complete.

Includes historical data such as Hansard volumes, and the UK Parliament Ontology.

Includes artwork and artist data with a sparql endpoint. Data available under CC0.

This will also contribute to the American Art Collaborative (AAC) which aims to establish a 'critical mass of LOD on the subject of American Art'.

Almost 1 million records from the Auckland Museum's natural sciences, human history, documentary heritage and Cenotaph collections are available as linked open data.

Including creative works, curriculum, news and wildlife.

Manuscripts Online ( http://www.manuscriptsonline.org/) enables you to search a diverse body of online primary resources relating to written and early printed culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500. The resources include literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers. The Manuscripts Online API enables users to connect programmatically to the search engine, using GET parameters, and retrieve search results in an XML format.

Yale Center for British Art
http://britishart.yale.edu/collections/using-collections/technology/linked-open-data
The Yale Center for British Art's Linked Open Data service provides machine-readable access to the Center's collections data. The data in the Linked Open Data service is expressed in RDF to allow our data set to link to other data sets without the need for database integration. We have organized our data using the CIDOC CRM (Conceptual Reference Model). The CRM is a powerful and robust ontology that represents our data set granularly to permit semantic integration with other data sets. This resource exists to support scholarly and creative activities, and to facilitate interdisciplinary projects.

The data, and sample SPARQL queries, are available through our SPARQL end point. Browse examples of our data using Pubby.

When accessing or using the Center's data and services, please be mindful that they are subject to the Center's Open Data And Data Services Terms of Use.

A description of our internal architecture is available on our In Depth page.

A list of ' open heritage data from and/or about Switzerland' compiled for a hackathon.

Data available includes Museum Universe Data File FY 2015 Q1 'a list of known museums in the United States maintained by the Institute of Museum and Library Services', information on grants and public libraries.

The UK National Archives API

'Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives and institutions across the United Kingdom as well as a much smaller number of archives around the world. The information in Discovery is made up of record descriptions provided by or derived from the catalogues of the different archives. Although some of The National Archives records have been digitised and can be read online, Discovery can't search the words within them - only their description and title.'

Lincoln Mullen has shared an R Client for the Internet Archive API.

Provides access to a database of library 'circulation data compiled by OhioLINK and corresponding bibliographic data from the WorldCat database maintained by OCLC' under the Open Data Commons Attribution License.

Available in Excel or tab-delimited text. They request that users adhere to the OCLC Community Norms.

See also: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Open Data: A Case Study in the Harvard Art Museums' API

'This dataset contains over 12 million bibliographic records for materials held by the Harvard Library, including books, journals, electronic resources, manuscripts, archival materials, scores, audio, video and other materials.'

MARC21 records are available for download from openmetadata.lib.harvard.edu/bibdata/data under a CC0 licence. (At the time of writing the file is approx 3.8gb). They request that users 'comply with a simple set of Harvard Library community norms. These norms request attribution and that if others improve this data, they make those improvements equally freely available'.

It's also available via the DPLA API.

'The "Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook" dataset contains transcribed and encoded text from 76 influential American cookbooks held by MSU Libraries Special Collections. Features encoded within the text include but are not limited to recipes, types of recipes, cooking implements, and ingredients. The 76 texts were chosen among more than 7000 cookbooks that MSU Libraries holds as representative of periods and themes in American cookbook history spanning the late 18th to early 20th century.'

Data available as a simple download: 'The "Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook" dataset contains 76 plain text files of transcribed cookbook text, 76 XML files of encoded cookbook text, 1 XML file that includes metadata records for each cookbook in the dataset, and 1 DTD file that describes the schema that was used to encode the cookbooks.'

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)

Catalogue data of artworks in the QAGOMA Collection. CSV format with a CC-BY licence, available via CKAN-style API or download.

They've also put attendance and other data online in the Queensland Government data repository.

' 2,499,355 of the Museum's 80 million specimens are now available online.'

Includes information on how to cite the dataset. Data is available through a CKAN-style API or as a download.

'Two mechanisms are available for interacting or obtaining the dataset is available. It can be obtained as bulk file downloadable files and according to the specifications of the W3C Linked Data Platform 1.0.

Bulk files for all open data collections can be downloaded at the data sets page.
License
The linked open data set is available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license.
Data Model and Vocabularies
A complete description of the data model used for the dataset can be found in the document: " Linked Data at The European Library: Data Model and Vocabularies ".'

'The Balboa Park Commons site uses a simple rest style API that allows the retrival of our data in a lightwieght JSON data format. There is no authentication required and the data cannot be changed or manipulated on the host side. Developers and enthusiasts may retrive the JSON data and manipulate however they see fit on the client side. In this example the JSON data for the page of a Featured Set from url http://www.balboaparkcommons.org/objectview/listview/14149813/Animals is retrieved, itenerated through and echoed out on to the page using two simple PHP function called "file_get_contents" and "json_decode".'
http://labs.europeana.eu/api/
Re-launched April 2014. 'We currently offer two APIs for use. The first is a REST-API that is suited for dynamic search and retrieval of our data. This API offers exactly the same data as the Europeana Portal for end-users and in many ways the Portal can be viewed as an advanced API-implementation.

The second API is more experimental and supports download of complete datasets and advanced semantic search and retrieval of our data via the SPARQL query language. The Linked Open Data Downloads and SPARQL-endpoint currently includes only a sub-set of all Europeana data, about 20 million of the in-total nearly 31 millions records.'

Europeana Search Widgetis a ready-made search box suitable for organisations who want to enable search in Europeana collections with the least possible effort. The widget is easily styled, configured and quickly embedded by simply copying and pasting an HTML-snippet into your website.

Search for more than 1.7 million people, their positions, children and spouses, and more than 4 million adresses (of which 1.7 million are geo tagged).

All data are returned as from our RESTful API, in JSON format.

The data concerns all people living in Copenhagen between 1890 and 1923. It was decided by law, that citizens of Copenhagen should report personal informations such as way of living, place of birth and family informations to the police.

The 1.4 million registrations has been digitized by Copenhagen City Archives and tagged by volunteers.

See more at http://www.politietsregisterblade.dk/api/1/info.html

Documentation on GitHub: 'There are 5 objects that you can get via the Walters API. Each of these has documentation available via the links below.

Bonus 'sandbox' for trying it out.

Canada's national aggregator, 'Canadiana.org operates the Canadiana Discovery Portal, a federated search platform that collects metadata (cataloguing information) from our partners and connects it into a single searchable portal. Some 40 memory institutions have joined, providing access to 65 million pages in total'.

'Any search query can be turned into a Web service request by appending the parameter fmt=json to retrieve a JSON object.'

And here's a short example of how to use it from Ian Milligan.

'This data set includes all artifacts in the collection of the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and Canada Science and Technology Museum. These artifacts represent the products and processes of all areas of science and technology, including communications; non-renewable resources and industrial design; physical sciences and medicine; renewable resources, including agriculture and forestry; and transportation, including land, marine, and aviation and Space flight The data set is available in XML, and includes images for almost every artifact in the collection.'

See also: Tips for Using the Artifact Open Data Set.

Data about museum organisations and other data appears to be available through the Canadian Government's Open Data Portal.

'The focus of the SAWS project is on collections of ideas and opinions - ranging from pithy sayings to short passages from longer philosophical texts - which make up the ancient genre of Wisdom Literature.'

Offers image galleries, simple visualisations and the ability to export data in CSV, JSON, GeoJSON, KML. More information: https://opendata.hauts-de-seine.fr/explore/dataset/archives-de-la-planete/information/

Press release in English; API der Deutschen Digitalen Bibliothek documentation (in German)

'Over the next months, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek plans to announce a programming competition for API applications and will host a series of workshops for developers.

We expect that the most convincing and creative ideas for the application of the API will come from DDB's community of users and data providers.' Metadata released under CC0 licence.

The Tate Collection
https://github.com/tategallery/collection
The metadata here is released under the Creative Commons Public Domain CC0 licence. Please see the enclosed LICENCE file for more detail.

Images are not included and are not part of the dataset. Use of Tate images is covered on the Copyright and permissions page. You may also license images for commercial use.'

We offer two data formats:

1. A richer dataset is provided in the JSON format, which is organised by the directory structure of the Git repository. JSON supports more hierarchical or nested information such as subjects.

2. We also provide CSVs of flattened data, which is less comprehensive but perhaps easier to grok. The CSVs provide a good introduction to overall contents of the Tate metadata and create opportunities for artistic pivot tables.

The largest art museum organisation in Finland, including the Ateneum Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, and the Central Art Archives. In addition to the API, The Finnish National Gallery provides a data-package that contains all artwork information in a single data-file. Released under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0). You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Units of the Finnish National Gallery manage more than 36 000 artworks. Files can be downloaded, or are available through REST calls over HTTP as Dublin Core XML, Dublin Core JSON or Dublin Core Text.

' Archives.gov/developer connects citizen developers with the tool they need to unlock government data' and includes information on:

With:

Archival description metadata

Authority record (persons, organizations, geographic references, topical subjects, and specific records types) metadata

Digital object metadata (including technical metadata)

Public contributions to the catalog (like tags and transcriptions)

Metadata for crawled web pages of archives.gov and presidential libraries

Some metadata for user accounts

See also: Introductory blog post and github link: Using the National Archives Catalog API, 'a basic FAQ about NARA's online catalog API'.

Downloadable 'metadata about the objects in the collection. This usually includes information about what the object is, a brief physical description, dates, where it is from and what it is made of. Some records will have more information than others. As a work in progress, the Museum continuously strives to improve both the quantity and quality of the data contained within the online database.' Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License as CSV, XML or JSON.

Collections from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The PastPlace API (Applications Programming Interface) offers a simple, free to use, web service. It allows you to search our database of historical information directly in a variety of ways returning data in a range of structured formats. It is designed to allow web servers and software components to speak to each other more easily, human beings looking for data should generally use our main website A Vision of Britain through Time.

Digital boundaries (shapefiles), Historical statistics by location or topic, and data from the GB1900 crowdsourcing project.
API
Their REST API (free key required) returns JSON-LD.
Bulk download
'All DPLA data in the DPLA repository is available for download as zipped json files. These include the standard DPLA fields, as well as the complete record received from the partner.'

As far as I can tell, the relevant licences are discussed on the Terms and Policies pages, and their metadata (PDF) is released under CC0 and content ('any images, video and audio') is under CC BY 3.0 License.

They've also outlined their philosophy and listed their namespaces: dc: Dublin Core elements;dcterms: Dublic Core terms; dcmitype: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative types; dpla: Hey, that's us!;edm: Europeana Data Model; ore: Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange; rdf: Resource Description Framework; rdfs: Resource Description Framework Schema; skos: Simple Knowledge Organization System; owl: Web Ontology Language.
Announcing the NYPL Digital Collections API
The New York Public Library Digital Collections API: 'For more than a century, The New York Public Library has amassed an extraordinary trove of rare and unique material covering the full spectrum of recorded knowledge. Now, for the first time, significant portions of the Library's digitized collections are available as machine-readable data: over 1 million objects and records for you to search, crawl and compute.' Page includes sample access code.

Formats: XML, JSON in the MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema) format.

And here's a post from Dot Porter on 'How to get MODS using the NYPL Digital Collections API'.

'RAMM cares for a wonderful and diverse collection consisting of over one million individual objects and specimens from all over the globe. They are divided into the following curatorial departments: antiquities; ethnography; natural history, decorative and fine arts.

The collections contain items of local, national and international importance, and many are of outstanding historical or cultural significance. Our ethnography collection has achieved Designated Collection status and RAMM as a whole won the title Museum of the Year in 2012.'
REST API, key required
Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History

'The Portal to Texas History provides public access to number of application programming interfaces (APIs) to the collections within the system. Below are examples of APIs avaliable for Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History that can be used openly by those interested in programatically accessing data from this system. You do not need to apply for a special key to use these APIs.

...

Note that all example URLs below use the same protocol and server name, http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/CCMS/. We only show the URL paths and parameters below to save space.'

They offer access via OAI-PMH, SRU, and OpenSearch.

Full list at APIs for Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History

Exploring Surrey's Past

From Developers and API:

The API is based upon OpenSearch, and by default takes a Lucene style query syntax. The API is available via a rate limiting proxy, API search requests are limited to 900 requests per hour. The data made available through the API is licenced as Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 UK and you are asked to provide a credit and link back to Exploring Surrey's Past website in your application or mashup. For non-rate limited, or commercial use, of the data please contact Exploring Surrey's Past for licensing terms. Our open data feed must not be used for any commercial planning or development use. You agree to your use of our API being monitored.

The National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek)

The KB (Nationale bibliotheek van Nederland) has several SRU and OAI-PMH based APIs available on their Overview page for their Dataservices and APIs including:

British Library
Free Data Services
British National Bibliography: 'The initial offering includes published books (including monographs published overtime) and serial publications, with future releases extending coverage to include multipart works, integrating resources (e.g. loose leaf publications), kits and forthcoming publications' in Linked Open BNB, Basic RDF/XML, MARC21 via Z39.50.

'This facility allows you to work directly with the text of both the individual trials and sessions published as part of the Proceedings' of the Old Bailey (London's Central Criminal Court, 1674-1913).

'You can either use the Old Bailey API Demonstrator to build queries and export texts to Voyant Tools; or else address the underlying text directly through the API.

As a part of the Datamining with Criminal Intent project, a new statistics facility that allows more complex graphing and visualisation of trial data and text has also been created:

See also OBO-APIextraction-and-Analysis, 'Tools for downloading offence and punishment data from the Old Bailey Online web-API, then modelling and analysing this data. These tools were developed as part of a masters project in which the author also learnt Python'.

See also this impressive list of ' Projects Which Have Used Old Bailey Online Data'.

'Locating London's Past ( http://www.locatinglondon.org/) is a website allowing analysis of historical data using the Google Maps API. It allows a user to search data relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and to map the results on historical or modern maps, with a degree of GIS-style functionality.' JSON, XML and HTML.

'Connected Histories ( http://www.connectedhistories.org/) brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single federated search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates, as well as the ability to save, connect and share resources within a personal workspace. The Connected Histories API enables users to connect programmatically to the search engine, using GET parameters, and retrieve search results in an XML format.'

Danish Cultural Agency

(Via Google translate, excuse any mistranslations)

The Danish Heritage Agency has records from four national datasets of cultural heritage in the landscape and the country's museums. The records updated daily by museums and municipalities. There is public access to search all registers.
http://www.kulturstyrelsen.dk/kulturarv/databaser/
http://www.kulturstyrelsen.dk/kulturarv/databaser/hoest-data-via-oai-pmh/ (OAI-PMH)

http://www.kulturstyrelsen.dk/kulturarv/databaser/webservices/ including map services, SOAP and possibly a REST service.

Via http://hack4dk.tumblr.com/datasets

Danish Historical Atlas API

http://blog.historiskatlas.dk/api and some documentation/examples at http://service.historiskatlas.dk/

Via http://hack4dk.tumblr.com/datasets

COMET (Cambridge Open METadata)

From the Project blog:

data.lib.cam.ac.uk - Our first run at a library-centric open data service. It includes:
Datasets (see also the FAQ)
#3 Cambridge University Library OCLC recordset

Graph: http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/context/dataset/cambridge3/bib ( sample entries)

This dataset contains over 500,000 bibliographic records originating from the OCLC Worldcat database. The data has been enriched by OCLC with links from the FAST subject and VIAF name authority services. ODC-BY licence.

#2 Cambridge University Library major UK vendors recordset

Description:

This dataset contains over 1.7 million bibliographic records from the British Library and Research Libraries UK. These records are currently only available as a bulk download only. The data has been enriched by OCLC with links the the FAST subject and VIAF name authority services. PDDL licence.

#1 Cambridge University Library Recordset

Graph: http://data.lib.cam.ac.uk/context/dataset/cambridge/bib ( sample entries)

Description:

This dataset of around 1.3 million records represents work over a 20+ year period which contains a number of changes in practices and cataloguing tools. No attempt has been made to screen for quaility of records other than the Voyager export process. Both MARC and RDF versions have been enriched by OCLC with links the the FAST subject and VIAF name authoirty services. This data also includes the 180,000 'Tower Project' records published under the JISC Open Bibliography Project. PDDL licence.

Dutch Open Cultuur Data

Lots of different datasets listed at http://www.opencultuurdata.nl/datasets/ including many with images.

Flander's Open Cultuur Data

Same as above: lots of different datasets listed at http://www.opencultuurdata.be/datasets/ including many with images.

Finnish HelMet network (city libraries of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, and Vantaa, Finland)

The open data (CC0) includes library catalogues in MARC and MARCXML with examples in JSON and MARCXML at http://data.kirjastot.fi. At the moment you can perform searches by: author, title or isbn. Depending on the format you want the search result to be in, you can change the file extension in the url to either json or marcxml.

More info about HelMet: http://www.helmet.fi/en-US/Info/What_is_HelMet

Swiss National Library

Metadata from the Helveticat electronic catalogue has 'been made available under Creative Commons License CC0 1.0 and can be freely used by third parties without restriction and without citing the source'.

The data can be obtained in MARC21 format via the Z39.50 interface and on request via OAI-PMH.

More information: http://www.nb.admin.ch/aktuelles/03147/03950/04156/index.html?lang=en

The catalogue: https://www.e-helvetica.nb.admin.ch/pages/main.jsf (though it's not clear how the data is downloaded)

What's on the Menu data (New York Public Library)

http://menus.nypl.org/data

There's a lot of data behind What's on the Menu?: a mix of simple bibliographic description of the menus (created by The New York Public Library) and the culinary and economic content of the menus themselves (transcribed by you). Now we're opening it up.

All data generated through What's on the Menu? is available in two ways:

Spreadsheet Exports

On the 1st and 16th of every month, we'll post a complete export of all menu and dish data collected so far (menus, dishes, prices, and more).

API

As the first project of NYPL Labs, we're happy to announce that Menus is also the first NYPL project to have a public API. In fact, we use this exact same API to build many of the features of this site.

Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums
http://rpmcollections.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/open-data-from-our-collections/
Like any museum, one of our core functions is to make our collections accessible. This applies to the digital data about our collections as much as it does to the physical objects themselves. ...there are many people who would like to use our digitised collections in other ways, whether through analysis of the data we hold, or by re-using this information for other purposes. In recognition of this, we have just released several datasets relating to our collections, along with accompanying images, which are available to download via the Open Data section of our Image Store.

Although this only represents a fraction of our total records, this data can be considered 'clean' - that is, to the best of our knowledge, the data can be considered accurate, can be illustrated, should be relatively easy to understand, and should not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.

The datasets are taken from eight of our collections:

Archaeology (17 records)

Costume (193 records)

Craft (33 records)

Decorative Art (1914)

Fine Art (422)

Local Photographs (1777)

Natural Science (40)

Related images are gathered in a zip file. A link to this can be found by each dataset in the Image Store.

K-samsök / SOCH (Swedish Open Cultural Heritage)

From http://www.ksamsok.se/in-english/: "a web service used to search and fetch data from any organization that holds information or pictures related to the Swedish cultural heritage. ... SOCH functions as an exchange/aggregator where data from many local databases are made searchable and visible to the public and to the research community. ... The beta version was released in February 2009 and by then there were already 1.78 million objects available through SOCH. The number is growing as more content providers hook up, and below you can see the actual number of objects available through SOCH today. The set of objects include archaeological, ethnological and religious objects, as well as ancient monuments, historical buildings and places, and natural objects."

API documentation and demos (in Swedish).

SMK (Statens Museum for Kunst), The National Gallery of Denmark (art history, open data)

SMK site page about their Free download of art works

Download all the 159 images here. Please notice, that the file is 5 GB.
Case study: Highlights from SMK, The National Gallery of Denmark
A pilot with digital images of 159 collection highlights, and 100 educational videos on YouTube under the CC BY license. The 159 images of highlights from SMK's collections are released for free download in the highest available resolution that the museum currently has at its disposal. The image files range from approximately 10 MB up to 440 MB.

Hat tip: @MSanderhoff.

State Records NSW API (archives, API)

Documentation: http://api.records.nsw.gov.au/usage and Making sense of the catalogue data.

Downloads (from http://data.records.nsw.gov.au/?page_id=32)

This dataset is available for download as:

1) a set of XML files:

2) an SQLite database:

ai_sqlite.zip (contains the combined content of the XML files) [18.8Mb]

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia License.

See also http://data.nsw.gov.au/ 'the central catalogue of NSW public sector data published online.'

Victorian Government Data Directory
http://data.vic.gov.au/
Downloadable datasets including The Victorian Heritage Database, shipping lists (immigration records useful for family history, more info at http://data.vic.gov.au/blog/find-your-family/283).
General site Terms of use
TSO Open Up Labs (UK government)

Apparently TSO is 'the leading provider of information management and publishing solutions to the public sector'

The full list of datasets available in RDF via their SPARQL endpoint.

They provide APIs and some documentation on using them:

Meketre (Egyptology, linked data)

"reliefs and paintings of Middle Kingdom tombs of Ancient Egypt. The project targets two- dimensional art of the Middle Kingdom (11th to 13th Dynasty, ca. 2040 - 1640 B.C.) and one of its main aims is to map and elaborate the development of the scenes and their content in comparison to the Old Kingdom."

http://www.meketre.org/repository/

http://meketre.org/index.php?page=about: "Multimedia content within the MEKETREpository is organized by means of one main taxonomy (in English), which embraces the various themes depicted by the reliefs and paintings in a hierarchical fashion and multiple additional concept schemes (ontologies / controlled vocabularies) that further describe the content. The concept schemes that describe other aspects of the multimedia content (not the depicted persons and things but for example colours, location, age, etc.) are constantly developed in the course of the project, using collaborative ontology building methods. The applied concept schemes are technically represented using standardized web based knowledge organization systems (KOS), in particular the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL).
The implementation of the MEKETREpository software solution utilizes industry-standard technology to ensure both reliability and maintainability. Since the project is expected to develop beyond the three-year limit, it is important to build on a well-proven foundation of software components and a clean, well documented implementation. Therefore we decided to organize the MEKETREpository in a 3-tier style which is very common for many enterprise software solutions.
As stated above, the main focus lies in providing an easy-to-use interface to the collected data. For the user browsing the MEKETREpository, an up-to-date webbrowser (e.g. Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 7.0 or Safari 4.0 and, of course all versions above) is sufficient. If the user needs to edit and update information in the repository, he needs to enable Javascript in the browser."

Hat tip: @bhaslhofer.

Trove and National Library of Australia APIs

Trove offers over 289,384,834 Australian and online resources including books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/general/api

The Trove API provides programmatic access to the metadata and some full text in Trove.

You can use the API to search across Trove's books, images, maps, music, sound, video, archives, journal articles, newspaper articles and lists created by other users (archived websites, people and organisations may be added at a later date) and retrieve metadata records for the items you find. You can also download the full text for most digitised newspaper articles.

Response encoding: XML, JSON

Base URL: http://api.trove.nla.gov.au

https://wiki.nla.gov.au/display/ARDCPIP/National+Library+of+Australia+APIs has links to:

NLA Party Infrastructure (Trove People and Organisations zone) available as OAI-PMH, SRU and OpenSearch

Libraries Australia data as z39.50 (subscribers only) or OpenSearch (RSS or ATOM)

Picture Australia z39.50, OpenSearch (RSS), OAI (with API key)

Discuss your ideas or progress with others at their new Forum: Reusing Trove resources.

There's also an API console you can use queries without an API key: http://desolate-bastion-1864.herokuapp.com/

Yvonne Perkins has written a very user-friendly guide to using the Trove API which is also a good introduction to APIs, An Introduction to the Trove API.

Cooper Hewitt

' Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collections provides a REST-ish style application programming interface (API) for developers to use in their products and services.'
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/api/ https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/api/methods/
See also blog posts labelled CH 3.0.

Also available on GitHub, with tombstone data released under a CC0 licence.
http://labs.cooperhewitt.org/2012/releasing-collection-github/
Amsterdam Museum Metadata API Collection

[Google-translated from http://www.appsforamsterdam.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/AmsterdamMuseum.txt]
http://amdata.adlibsoft.com/wwwopac.ashx
images: http://ahm.adlibsoft.com/ahmimages/

Replace ..\..\dat\collectie\images\ in the object records with the above (and replace slashes)

Adlib API description: http://api.adlibsoft.com/site/

The database of the museum collection called Amcollect. An example search:
http://amdata.adlibsoft.com/wwwopac.ashx?database=AMcollect&search=creator=Helst*&xmltype=grouped
AMlibrary library database:
http://amdata.adlibsoft.com/wwwopac.ashx?database=AMlibrary&search=title=Helst*&xmltype=grouped
AMperson:
http://amdata.adlibsoft.com/wwwopac.ashx?database=AMperson&search=name=Helst*&xmltype=grouped
Thesaurus AMterms:
http://amdata.adlibsoft.com/wwwopac.ashx?database=AMterms&search=term=Herengracht*&xmltype=grouped
The linked open data from the Amterdam Museum: http://ckan.net/package/amsterdam-museum-as-edm-lod

Rijksmuseum API

www.rijksmuseum.nl/api

The Rijksmuseum Application Programming Interface (API) is a Rijksmuseum service for partners and application developers. Register for an API key for access to structural metadata and images of the Rijksmuseum's collection, which can then be used to develop applications or simply to enrich your collection.

Once you register for an API key, you will be emailed a code with which you can access data sets. You will be granted access to the Rijksmuseum's general collection, consisting of over 100,000 objects, The Night Watch included! Digital images are available for all objects. The images are 330 dpi JPEg images (approx 3 to 5 mb, produced in a colourmanaged enviroment).

A complete description of our XML records is available in Dutch at: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api/uitleg.

For information or comments please contact: collectieinfo@rijksmuseum.nl

Update October 2012: 'The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is going to place its entire collection of works of art online on October 30'. 125,000 objects! More at http://www.rnw.nl/english/video/tinkering-rijksmuseum%E2%80%99s-collection

Government Art Collection (crawled version of website on kasabi)
http://kasabi.com/dataset/government-art-collection
'This dataset is a re-publication of the metadata contained in the Government Art Collection website. The data was obtained by crawling the website to collection information about all of the works, artists and subjects.

The dataset contains over 10,000 art works from more than 3,000 artists. The art works depict nearly 2,000 places and over a 1,000 different people. The majority of the people mentioned in the paintings (over 700) have been linked to their description in Dbpedia. Over time the dataset will be updated to include links to other datasets.

While this dataset and the original website are available for re-use under the Open Government License, the images on the site have their own copyright terms. Refer to the GAC website for guidance on licensing of images. The images themselves are not copied into this dataset, but links have been made to the source images to facilitate legal re-use. Copyright statements have been preserved where available, so these can be queried from the dataset.'

Includes SPARQL endpoint, sample queries, search, lookup, reconciliation, augmentation and attribution links.

National Library of France/Bibliothèque nationale de France
http://data.bnf.fr/
'les informations issues de ses différents catalogues, ainsi que de sa bibliothèque numérique Gallica' or content from various catalogues and Gallica, their digital library.

English Heritage Places
http://kasabi.com/dataset/english-heritage
This dataset contains metadata for about 400,000 nationally important places as recorded by English Heritage, the UK Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment.

This dataset covers features located in England and is divided into various types:

Listed Buildings - buildings of special architectural or historic interest
Scheduled Monuments - nationally important sites and monuments from all periods of history
Registered Parks & Gardens - landscapes and naturally occuring features of national importance
Historic Battlefields - sites of important battles in English history
Protected Wreck Sites - sites of shipwrecks of national importance

Includes SPARQL endpoint, sample queries, search, lookup, reconciliation, augmentation and attribution links.

National Maritime Museum (Royal Museums Greenwich)
http://collections.nmm.ac.uk/api.html
API structure
The search interface is powered by SOLR ( http://lucene.apache.org/solr/), an open source enterprise search platform developed by the Apache foundation.

The system is currently under development and therefore the schema and indexes described in this document are subject to change.

Base URL
The base URL for SOLR searching is http://collections.nmm.ac.uk/solr

Sample queries
Find objects made in 1914 and return the description and collection:
http://collections.nmm.ac.uk/solr/?q=type:object AND dateMade:1914&fl=description,collection

Find all records with 'Nelson' in the title, return the title and description and provide a facet count of each record type:
http://collections.nmm.ac.uk/solr/?q=name:Nelson&facet=on&facet.field=type&fl=name, description
http://collections.nmm.ac.uk/conditions
Extract: "Collection images must always credit 'National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London' and link to the original collection record on the NMM collections website. Some collection images have a more restricted licence than CC BY-NC-SA, which you must comply with. Please see our full API documentation for advice on how to exclude such images"

British Museum Semantic Web Collection Online
http://collection.britishmuseum.org/
"...Linked Data and SPARQL service. It provides access to the same collection data available through the Museum's web presented Collection Online, but in a computer readable format. The use of the W3C open data standard, RDF, allows the Museum's collection data to join and relate to a growing body of linked data published by other organisations around the world interested in promoting accessibility and collaboration.

The data has also been organised using the CIDOC-CRM (Conceptual Reference Model) crucial for harmonising with other cultural heritage data. The current version is beta and development work continues to improve the service. We hope that the service will be used by the community to develop friendly web applications that are freely available to the community."

There are links to further resources related to the use of the collection from the British Museum Research Space case study, and British Museum Collections discussion and feedback pages on this wiki

The National Gallery (UK)

National Gallery API
http://research.ng-london.org.uk/wiki/index.php/National_Gallery_API
'A SPARQL end-point to an rdf description of the National Gallery Collection is being developed. The data will be stored in a triple store from Garlic called 4Store and will be published in the form of URIs with data in human readable and machine readable form. ... The data will potentially be mapped to more than one schema/ontology, though we will be specifically developing a mapping to the CIDOC CRM.'

RDF at the National Gallery
http://rdf.ng-london.org.uk/scientific/rdf.php
'These pages represent RDF descriptions of National Gallery related information, some linked to the CIDOC CRM and other external information sources.'

Raphael API

The Raphael Research Resource began to examine how complex conservation, scientific and art historical research could be combined in a flexible digital form. Exploring the presentation of interrelated high resolution images and text, along with how the data could be stored in relation to an event driven ontology in the form of RDF triples. In addition to the main user interface the data stored within the system is now also accessible in the the form of open linkable data combined with a SPARQL end-point.

Web-page: http://rdf.ng-london.org.uk/raphael.

Further detail relating to the worked examples along with the code used to build then can be seen at: http://rdf.ng-london.org.uk/workshops/interface2011/

'Explore over 250,000 objects and archives from the Science Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, National Media Museum and National Railway Museum.'
Collections Online API - documentation and examples for accessing collections data via JSONAPI
Science Museum, National Railway Museum, Media Museum (NMSI) object records as CSV (2011)
http://api.sciencemuseum.org.uk/documentation/collections/
We've published three data sets:

218,822 object records

40,596 media records

173 event records

Things other people have done:

CultureGrid
http://www.culturegrid.org.uk/use/
Documentation:

Code libraries, snippets: some PHP that handles JSON from the CultureGrid API at https://github.com/mialondon/mmg-import/blob/master/mmg_import_functions.php

Open API

Open API is a Ruby-based program that allows users to create a public API for any MySQL database, including digital collections databases.

Visit our GitHub page ( http://github.com/OpenExhibits/OpenAPI) to download the latest build or learn more about Open API on our blog ( http://openexhibits.org/blog/api-generator-collection-database.html).

Powerhouse API
http://api.powerhousemuseum.com/
Documentation: http://api.powerhousemuseum.com/api/v1/documentation/

Code libraries, snippets: some PHP that handles XML from the Powerhouse Museum API at https://github.com/mialondon/mmg-import/blob/master/mmg_import_functions.php

Open Context API

Open Context has some museum content, as well as data from a variety of field-based (mainly archaeological) projects. RESTful web services for Open Context are described here:
http://opencontext.org/about/services
Essentially, query results are available in paged Atom(+GeoRSS) feeds, KML, and JSON formats. Open Context also makes summaries of query results (bascially facets) availble in these formats.

Query parameters include

GeoSpatial (Lat / Lon bounding box)

Context (Named locations, archaeological contexts)

Date Ranges (Start and end dates)

Project / Collection name

Type / category of item (site, small finds, sculpture, coins, etc.)

Related People

Descriptive properties (including numeric range searches)

Linked Data URIs: Currently Open Context supports queries over URIs to geographic places defined by Pleiades and to biological taxa defined by the Encyclopedia of Life. A description of how to query over URIs and a few examples can be found at: http://opencontext.org/about/services#query-rel

A demonstration of the use of the Open Context API is at:

http://bade.psr.edu/content/tell-en-nasbeh-database (Bade Museum website)

Pleiades
http://pleiades.stoa.org/
'A community-built gazetteer and graph of ancient places...

Pleiades is a historical gazetteer and more. It associates names and locations in time and provides structured information about the quality and provenance of these entities. There is also a graph in Pleiades: names and locations are collected within places and these collections are associated with other geographically connected places. Pleiades also serves as a vocabulary for talking about the geography of the ancient world within Linked Data sets and is referenced by research projects such as Google Ancient Places and PELAGIOS.

CSV, KML and RDF datasets can be downloaded from http://pleiades.stoa.org/downloads

Pelagios

Pelagios is a Digital Classics network which aims to interconnect scholarly resources from the domain of Ancient World research through the places they refer to. In principle, any dataset that contains references to places in the ancient world can join the Pelagios data network. Some examples for this are:

Text collections that include mentions of ancient places

Image collections that depict ancient places in photographs, drawings or maps

Database records that describe objects that are located at - or which originate from - an ancient place (e.g. archaeological finds)

Any other piece of data that bears a relation to a particular ancient place

To find out more about the Pelagios project, visit our blog at http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com.

The Pelagios HTTP API enables you to search and browse the Pelagios network of place references. It features a basic HTML interface, and provides API responses in JSON or RDF ( XML and Turtle).

Get started with the Pelagios API here: http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/api

Documentation is available here: https://github.com/pelagios/pelagios-cookbook/wiki/Using-the-Pelagios-API

Open Images - Newsreel collection

Open Images (www.openimages.eu) is an open media platform that offers online access to audiovisual archive material from various sources to stimulate -creative- reuse. Footage from audiovisual collections can be downloaded and remixed into new works. Users also have the opportunity to add their own material to the Open Images and thus expand the collection. Open Images provides an API ( http://www.openimages.eu/api), making it easy for third parties to develop mashups.

The platform currently (April 2011) offers access to over 1.500 items from various sources, including a considerable number of newsreels from the collection of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. This amount will grow substantially over the coming years as new items will be uploaded continuously, and as new partners join the initiative.

This website contains complete sets of high-resolution archival images of manuscripts from the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and other institutions, along with machine-readable TEI P5 descriptions and technical metadata. All materials on this site are in the public domain or released under Creative Commons licenses as Free Cultural Works.

Files are available through a simple HTML interface or, in bulk, through rsync.

Introduction: http://openn.library.upenn.edu/ReadMe.html

Technical details (including how to bulk download objects and collections): http://openn.library.upenn.edu/TechnicalReadMe.html

A subset of our data, produced as a beta API for our mashup competition.

Brooklyn Museum API

"A set of services that you can use to display Brooklyn Museum collection images and data in your own applications."
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/api/
Methods

collection.search

collection.getItem

collection.getImages

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/api/
Parameters

The methods provided by the API take a range of parameters specific to their individual functions, but all methods rely on these three principal parameters:

method (Required)

Specifies what method to perform (e.g., "collection.search", "collection.getItem")

api_key (Required)

Your personal API Key.

format (Optional)

The response format. Valid formats are xml, json, html. Default xml.

A write up here: Hack the Brooklyn Museum:

"The API is for non-commercial use with a limit of 3000 API calls a day. Naturally the museum must be respectful of artist copyrights, and requires proper attribution for any display of results. The API also permits only session-based caching with no retention of copies, and the images returned are no greater than 500 pixels in width or height, with many that may be smaller.

The API has a simple REST format with three methods - search, getitem (given the id returned from a search), and getimages for a particular item. The search can be filtered by date, keyword, and whether or not there are images present."

[And I just saw that they'd linked here at the end - cool!]

Museum of London API
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museumoflondon/food/rest.aspx
A REST interface to the following data sources:

publications from the Archaeology Service

events at the Museum of London, Museum in Docklands, and London Archaeological Archive and Resource Centre

a converter from OSGB grid references to latitude/longitude

Base URL is: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MuseumofLondon/food/rest.aspx?source=events

Output formats: plain XML; RSS2; and RSS2 with xCal, DC and geo extensions as used by Upcoming.

Set the output format by adding: mode={rss2 or xCal or xml}. Leaving it out returns the plain XML. (?KML output also possible? Hooks in code for plain text and JSON renderings of the output (not implemented?) )

Celtic Coin Index API
http://www.finds.org.uk/CCI/blog/accessing-the-api/
The Celtic Coin Index is the online incarnation of the Celtic Coin collection at the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford University. The collection began in 1960 and contains photographs and information about coins held in Britain's museums. Coins are still being found and added to the collection.

The API is RESTful and returns responses in JSON, XML, geoRSS, KML, RSS, and CSV.

Powerhouse Museum Collection Search (RSS/Opensearch available)
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/menu.php
Image search option also available.

Good example of RESTful query construction and Opensearch/result URI generation.

DigitalNZ API
http://www.digitalnz.org/developer
DigitalNZ brings together the metadata of nearly 200 organisations from around New Zealand, and international organisations with New Zealand-related content. Content partners come from the cultural and heritage, broadcasting, education, and government sectors; as well as local community sources and individuals. This metadata is made available via the DigitalNZ API.

The current version of the DigitalNZ API is version 3, versions 1 and 2 have been depcrecated. A subset of the metadata has been made available for commercial use.

The custom search records method is perhaps a little unusual. DigitalNZ has a visual search builder tool that allows users to construct complex search queries. This method provides access to that refined dataset.

Response formats: xml, json, rss. Interesting selection of metadata returns. Minimum metadata response elements include:

dc:title - the title of the item, or a brief description if no title exists.

dnz:category - the high-level DigitalNZ category(s) that the item belongs to.

dnz:content_partner - the organisation who provided the item

dnz:landing_url - the preferred URL for linking to the item.

dnz:thumbnail_url - the URL of a thumbnail of the item (required for Images, optional for other categories).

There's a good post on how to get started with the API, including sample PHP code, here: http://digitalnz.org/blog/posts/building-a-website-on-the-digitalnz-api

Victoria and Albert Museum API

http://www.vam.ac.uk/api or Victoria and Albert Museum API Docs

We're currently working on a RESTful JSON API for our collections database. It is intended to support our own web apps and widgets first and foremost but also be attractive to third-party developers. I have posted the documentation so that you can see how we've structured things.

Reciprocal Research Network API
http://www.rrnpilot.org/api
The RRN API is currently providing programmatic access to Northwest Coast items from 8 Institutions (Brooklyn Museum, McCord Museum, MOA at UBC, NMNH, Pitt Rivers Museum, Sto:lo Research and Resource Management Centre, The Burke at UW, The MAA at Cambridge). We provide a very simple API where any item or list of items can be represented as XML or JSON by appending '.xml' or '.json' to the end of the URI. We'd be open to expanding the scope of the API should there be any interest.

"The Metadata elements used in the project are divided into three categories: Content, Intellectual Property and Instantiation." These pages appear to date from about 2003 - no time at all in museum years, a few centuries in internet years.
Content Data Structure Intellectual Property Data Structure Technical Metadata

CAPTURE_DEVICE

Equipment used

CAPTURE_DETAILS

Methodology used - i.e. batch scanning

CHANGE_HISTORY

Record of changes made to Master and Web Delivery files

COMPRESSION

Level or type of compression used, if any

RESOLUTION

PPI or number of pixels on each side

COLOUR

Colour depth ofthe image, i.e. 24 bit

COLOUR_MANAGEMENT

Details of embedded colour profiles

Museum Victoria History and Technology Collections API

The API root uri is located at http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/api/v1/

Currently the only type of requests supported are those made via REST, and there are two response formats currently supported, XML and JSON.
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/help/api
Like the V&A, we're using the API for our own purposes, but would love to see what other folks might make with our "stuff".
Api Documentation Api Methods
Items

Themes

Tags

Locations

Indianapolis Museum of Art OpenSearch

Artworks on http://www.imamuseum.org are first class content, so they come up as search results in the site the same way a page would. We have exposed the entire site, including collections, through OpenSearch using the Drupal module, http://drupal.org/project/opensearch. As of the 6.x-1.3 version, there were a few bugs that had to be fixed by hand. The OpenSearch endpoint is declared in the HTML headers throughout the site. Here is the primary endpoint: http://www.imamuseum.org/opensearch/ima.

Description Schema for IMA OpenSearch

http://www.imamuseum.org/opensearch/ima/{searchTerms}?page={startPage?}&filters={apachesolr:filters?}

The apachesolr:filters declaration was a custom addition, and relies on the Drupal module's filtering ability.

Example Searches:

Site wide search for "miller"

Second page of results for "miller"

Artwork specific search for "miller"

Blog specific search for "miller"

American Numismatic Society Collection Database (MANTIS) APIs

The American Numismatic Society's collection of nearly 600,000 objects is accessible through a Solr-based API that allows for querying the collection with the Lucene search syntax and responds in Atom XML. The Atom feed contains references to the URI for the object as an HTML representation and also alternate links to the XML source of the object as well as RDF, KML, and Atom representations. The RDF is rather rudimentary and will be improved over time. A similar Solr-to-KML API exists.

Atom: http://numismatics.org/search/feed/?q=*:*
Object KML: http://numismatics.org/search/query.kml?q=*:*
Mint KML: http://numismatics.org/search/mints.kml?q=*:*

The functionality and Solr fields are discussed further in the Numishare (the open-source framework for managing and publishing coin collections) blog post: http://numishare.blogspot.com/2011/04/world-of-numismatic-data-at-your.html

Examples

http://numismatics.org/search/feed/?q=department_facet:"Islamic" AND weight_sint:[4 TO 5] - All Islamic coins that weigh between 4 and 5 grams

http://numismatics.org/search/feed/?q=type_text:temple AND imagesavailable:true AND department_facet:"Greek" - Greek coins depicting temples that have been photographed

Portable Antiquities Scheme

"The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a partnership project which records archaeological objects found by the public in order to advance our understanding of the past."

"PAS is run by the British Museum ... The data gathered by the Scheme is published on an online database (www.finds.org.uk)."

Search results from the PAS database can be accessed as xml, json, kml, atom and rss by the addition of '/format/{format}' to the end of any result set URL

Records from the PAS database can be accessed as xml, json and csv by the addition of '/format/{format}' to the end of a record URL

Thesaurus terms from the PAS database can be accessed as xml and json by the addition if '/format/{format}' to the end of the URL

In the case of search results and thesaurus terms the results are accessed in pages of 30 results. The sets can be paged through by appending /page/{number} at the end of the URL (before or after the '/format/{format}')
Examples
Search results: http://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/objecttype/ADZE/format/xml

Record: http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/464434/format/xml

Thesaurus term: http://finds.org.uk/database/terminology/objects/format/xml

Black Country History
http://blackcountryhistory.org/about/
Black Country History is a searchable website which allows users to find information about documents, maps, photographs, art works, objects and more held by archives and museums services within the Black Country.

The eight partners involved in this website are:

Dudley Archives and Local History Service

Dudley Museums Service

Sandwell Community History and Archives Service

Sandwell Museums Service

Walsall Local History Centre

Walsall Museums Service

Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies

Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service

http://blackcountryhistory.org/data/
The API is based upon OpenSearch, and by default takes a Lucene style query syntax. The API is available via a rate limiting proxy, and we don't issue usage keys: by using the API you agree to having your use of it monitored. API search requests are limited to 100 requests per hour. The data made available through the API is licenced as Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales, and you are asked to provide a credit and link back to Black Country History in your application or mashup.

Western Australian Museum Sandbox
http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/sandbox/
The API uses REST methods, and can be queried via JSON and XML.

Western Australian Shipwrecks

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/wrecks-xml - this will dynamically generate an XML file for download - this contains only Shipwrecks information (no artefact data) - roughly 1500 wrecks.

Western Australian Maritime Archaeology Artefacts - Complete API

Full API - http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/rest/node/

This contains all Maritime Archaeology data, including numismatics, artefacts and wrecks (roughly 47,200 items).

If you'd like to be involved in the beta development of the process - be one of the first to get your hands on our API and do something interesting with it we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email at: onlineservices [at] museum [dot] wa [dot] gov [dot] au

eHive - software as a service collections management system
http://ehive.com/what-is-ehive
eHive is a hosted collections management system used around the world, particularly by small museums and communities. As at May 2013 there were 600 museum accounts with 200,000 records. The site includes public access to the collection records. Developer tools to support this were expanded in early 2013.

The eHive Developers website documents the REST/JSON API, Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting support, and a suite of WordPress plugins.

The API supports searching, requesting tag clouds, reading object records, adding/removing tags and adding comments. Searching is based on SOLR/Lucene so supports the Lucene query syntax.

The OAI-PMH support provides Dublin Core object record metadata for a given museum account.

The WordPress plugins support search, object detail pages, museum profile pages, tag clouds, tagging & commenting widgets and object image grids. Shortcuts are provided to allow features like image grids to be embedded in any WordPress page or post.

The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida has their digital collections powered by the SobekCM software, and their digital collections are here: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/iharn

The Open Source SobekCM software is in use by many galleries, libraries, archives, and museums around the world. The SobekCM software supports harvesting by OAI-PMH, searches and browses as XML, and a JSON API, and all documentation as with all records are freely and openly available:
http://dloc.com/sobekcm/harvesting
Archaeology Data Service (ADS), UK

The Archaeology Data Service supports research, learning and teaching with freely available, high quality and dependable digital resources. It does this by preserving digital data in the long term, and by promoting and disseminating a broad range of data in archaeology, using a variety of avenues, including Linked Open Data.

Linked Open Data at the ADS was initially made available through the STELLAR project, a joint project between the University of South Wales, the ADS and Historic England. The STELLAR project developed an enhanced mapping tool for non-specialist users to map and extract archaeological datasets into RDF/XML, conforming to the CRM-EH ontology (an extension of CIDOC CRM for archaeology). For a full description of the ADS datasets used in this evaluation please see the ADS STELLAR Research Page. The results of the STELLAR project are published from the ADS SPARQL endpoint.

ADS also consumes LOD from other sources ( Library of Congress, Ordnance Survey, GeoNames, DBpedia and the vocabularies developed as part of the SENESCHAL project) to populate the metadata held within our Collection Management System with URIs, and then publishes the resource discovery metadata for all our archives via our SPARQL endpoint. Details of this process can be found here and here.

The ADS SPARQL endpoint is available here:
http://data.archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/page/
THE ARCHIVES OF THE PLANET BY ALBERT KAHN

The purpose of the Archives of the Planet is to account for "the aspects and the practices of human activity which will inevitably disappear over time" . This large iconographic collection consists of 72,000 Autochrome plates (color photographs on glass plates) and hundreds of hours worth of black and white films. This is the result of the work of photographers recruited by Albert Kahn and sent all around the world. Between 1909 and 1931, the photographers have been to more than fifty countries to record the everyday lives of the inhabitants of the planet.

The complete archive is available as Open Data with all the OpenDataSoft feature: map, image gallery, filters, API.

Collections from the Museum des Augustins - Toulouse, France

The whole Museum des Augustins collection in low resolution in Open Data.
https://data.toulouse-metropole.fr/explore/dataset/collections-du-musee-des-augustins-ville-de-toulouse/
Digitalt Museum (DiMu) API

The Digitalt Museum (DiMu) API provides access to collections from several Norwegian and Swedish museums. The API is documented by Nasjonalgalleriet & Nordiska museet on Github. There is a front-end available at digitaltmuseum.org.

The Cleveland Museum of Art provides datasets of information on more than 63,000 artwork records in its Collection for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use. Additionally, the museum provides image assets for as many as 34,000 works, which are made availble under the same terms. Links to the web, print, and full-sized, uncompressed versions of these images are included in the dataset where applicable.

To the extent possible under law, The Cleveland Museum of Art has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this dataset using Creative Commons Zero. This work is published from: The United States Of America. You can also find the text of the CC Zero deed in the file LICENSE in this repository. These select datasets are now available for use in any media without permission or fee; they also include identifying data for artworks under copyright. The datasets support the search, use, and interaction with the Museum's collection.

For more information about CMA's Open Access initiative, please visit:
https://clevelandart.org/open-access
To explore CMA's Open Access API:

https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/

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Anyone can edit this page. If you know of an open data service that's not listed, just sign up to add it. If you have some free time, the list of APIs needs to be tidied up a bit, and open cultural data releases (such as images online) could be put on a separate page - feel free to dive in and help out!

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Van Gogh Worldwide is a collaborative repository of all works by Vincent van Gogh.

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Home » APIs » Metropolitan Museum of Art Met Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art Met Collection API MASTER RECORD

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Met Collection API is the Met’s Open Access datasets that are available through a RESTful web service in JSON format. The API provides access to all of the Met’s Open Access data and to corresponding high resolution images. This includes endpoints for; a listing of all valid Object IDs available for access and a record for an object, containing all open access data about that object, including its image. The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art globally and provides select datasets of information on more than 470,000 artworks in its Collection for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use.

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Metropolitan Museum of Art Met Collection Version History

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Submitted

Style:REST

Version:1.0

Status: Recommended (active, supported)

Submitted:10.26.2018

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Metropolitan Museum of Art Met Collection

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Met Collection API is the Met's Open Access datasets that are available through a RESTful web service in JSON format. The API provides access to all of the Met's Open Access data and to corresponding high resolution images.

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The Smithsonian Institution Open Access API provides access to metadata about objects in the vast Smithsonian museums and galleries collection. Get metadata for the objects (name, type, etc) also metrics about objects. Search by category or terms. Smithsonian Open Access enables users to share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian's images. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

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The Smithsonian Institution Open Access API provides access to metadata about objects in the vast Smithsonian museums and galleries collection. Get metadata for the objects (name, type, etc) also metrics about objects. Search by category or terms. Smithsonian Open Access enables users to share, and…

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The Europeana Record API supports JSON, JSON-LD, RDF, and XML formats to return data with subgraphs and terminologies related to art, documents, and history. Developers require an API Key to authenticate. Europeana Record provides records of 58,072,945 artworks, artefacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives.

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The Europeana Record API supports JSON, JSON-LD, RDF, and XML formats to return data with subgraphs and terminologies related to art, documents, and history. Developers require an API Key to authenticate. Europeana Record provides records of 58,072,945 artworks, artefacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives.

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The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is designed to bring together content from Americaâ€™s libraries, archives, and museums and make them freely available online. Its goal is to make the written words, art, historical records, and science of the U.S. available as widely as possible. DPLA users can search the millions of items in the catalog, save items in lists, and share those lists with others. The DPLA API provides a programmatic method for accessing the metadata for items stored by the DPLA. Among other information, each metadata record contain a link to the object's location on the content providerâ€™s website.

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The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is designed to bring together content from Americaâ€™s libraries, archives, and museums and make them freely available online. Its goal is to make the written words, art, historical records, and science of the U.S. available as widely as possible.

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Digital Asset Management for Museums, Archives and Heritage Institutions

Axiell DAMS – Powered by Piction brings together collections data and digital media to create the foundation for complete digital workflows

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Manage, preserve, share and publish your digital assets

Manage digital assets efficiently

Boost digitisation with smarter, more efficient management of digital assets

Create a secure, central repository for all media files and all digitised and born-digital assets. Assets inherit metadata directly from the CMS for smarter organisation and easier access across teams. Cross-platform workflows streamline processes for copyright clearances, object photography requests, licensing and more.

Preservation to industry standards

Preserve your collection for future generations

Manage your preservation workflows to OAIS standard, with JHOVE & DROID integrations. Set alerts for issues like file degradation or validity. If an issue is detected, alert staff or automatically replace the file with a valid one.

Share and collaborate

Work more collaboratively with colleagues and external partners

Share assets securely with internal and external stakeholders. Curate assets, set due dates, comment on media and more in shared team workspaces. Separate views allow collections, curators and marketing to manage their assets separately, whilst still sharing in the global view.

Publish your collections

Create impactful narratives around your collections and exhibitions

Create impactful narratives by combining collections data and high-quality media in one place. Quickly find the assets you need in the right format. View images, watch videos and listen to audio in high quality to ensure media is fit for purpose. Improve access to your collection and generate revenue by pushing media directly to web, mobile or in-gallery interactives.

Axiell partners with Piction to offer you complete digital workflows

Axiell DAMS – Powered by Piction streamlines workflows between collections managers, curators, IT and digital departments, bringing together collections data and digital media to create the foundation for complete digital workflows.

The integration synchronises media and metadata in near realtime, ensuring data is accurate, up to date and preserved across systems. Choosing an out-of-the-box integration means there are no unforeseen development costs for middleware.

With a shared roadmap, this innovative collaboration between Axiell and Piction provides a sustainable solution to meet the sector’s growing demand for digitisation and content creation.

Why choose Axiell DAMS – Powered by Piction?

Fits right into your digitisation workflow

Handle even the biggest digitisation projects and ingests. Store files of any type and save to multiple locations. Link media directly to the relevant record in the CMS. Speed up transcription and tagging with OCR and AI.

Synchronises with the collection

In near-realtime, pull metadata from and push media to the Collections Management System, so assets and data are consistent and up to date. Metadata from the CMS also gives you smarter ways of organising and searching for assets.

Drives efficiency

Create more sustainable ways of working by streamlining key business processes, whilst making assets easier to organise and find, so you spend less time searching and more time on the tasks that matter.

Scalable to meet your requirements

The system is modular, so you can scale up or down depending on your needs. Choose from cloud or local hosting, or a hybrid of the two.

An area for each team

Collections, marketing and curatorial can manage their data and assets separately and share institution-wide assets in a global view.

Collaboration at its core

Create Workspaces to collaborate on projects with relevant users. Relevant team members can curate assets, set due dates, comment on media and more.

Functionality built around the needs of museums and archives

Powerful search

Filter and refine your search, with advanced search and support for thesaurus search and related image search

Intuitive web-based interface

Manage assets from wherever you are. Get highlights upon login. Clearly display rights or usage restrictions

Preservation to industry standards

Work to OAIS standard, with JHOVE & DROID integrations, for validity checking, auto-treatments, alerts and storage to multiple locations

Archive & museum relationship models

Structure assets to suit your needs, whether linking pages of manuscripts or editions from a series

Secure user management

Control who can access what. Easily create user groups for simple sharing of datasets

Drag & drop media uploader

Simple drag & drop web uploader for quick import of media, such as event photography

Powerful ingest

Ingest files of any type and save derivatives to multiple locations. Scale capacity up or down to meet your requirements

High quality media viewing: IIIF compliant

View multimedia within the software and deep zoom on high-res images

Simple media editing

Quickly edit images, create video snippets, add watermarks and more

Auditing & reporting

Track changes to fields and audit user access

Workflow engine

Streamline business processes, such as rights clearances and object photography requests

Metadata management

The metadata engine supports many standards, including Dublin core, XMP, EXIF, IPTC, CDWA, and VRA

Content distribution

Deliver digital content straight to the web, mobile or display

E-commerce

Shopping cart and payment functionality, integrates with existing systems and allows public to order digital copies

OCR / AI

Text, image and handwriting recognition via Google/Amazon integrations, for purposes like autotagging images

Integrations

Integrate with other key systems such as CRM, e-commerce and other third-party applications

Plugins

Search and retrieve assets from within apps like Photoshop and Powerpoint. Easily share branded templates

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Axiell DAMS - Powered by Piction - Axiell - Bringing culture and knowledge to life

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A Digital Asset Management System that is purpose-built for museums, archives and heritage institutions and brings together collections data and digital media to create the foundation for complete digital workflows

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Museums, as permanent non-profit institutions in the service of society and its development, are regularly confronted with copyright issues when carrying out their public interest missions of acquiring, conserving, researching, communicating and exhibiting the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for education, study and enjoyment.

For instance, it may be necessary for a museum to make a reproduction of a work in order to ensure its survival – be it to document and preserve it in case of theft, an incident (fire, flood) or a consequence of climate change. In this respect, ICOM has put in place the Object ID (Object Identification), an internationally recognized documentation standard for documenting and describing collections of archaeological, cultural and artistic objects that can assist in their recovery in the event of loss or theft. As digital copies are not subject to physical degradation, they guarantee the survival of our heritage (even if the original physical support is lost) and its accessibility to all, today and tomorrow. Seminars conducted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) nevertheless found that museums were the cultural heritage institutions least supported by their national legislation to make such copies for preservation purposes.

With regard to communication and exhibition, museums may wish to carry out online activities (such as databases accessible to all, virtual tours, etc.) thus encouraging and supporting the dissemination of knowledge and the sharing of our heritage to present and future generations. The Covid-19 pandemic, which has forced museums around the world to close temporarily, has highlighted this need. However, once again, the legal framework applicable to this type of activity is made up of a set of disparate, unequal and often insufficient solutions, making it difficult for museums to carry out their public interest activities.

In order to achieve these tasks, a clear, appropriate and balanced legal framework that also offers limitations and exceptions to copyright for certain uses is therefore necessary.

Advocating for museums at the World Intellectual Property Organization

Since 2014, ICOM has been advocating with its partner institutions, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Council on Archives (ICA), at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for an international instrument that would allow limitations and exceptions to copyright for libraries, archives and museums.

The existing legal framework provides disparate solutions and inadequate, inappropriate, insufficient or non-existent laws which cannot respond to the practical challenges that museum professionals face on a daily basis. Few legislative provisions provide for specific exceptions for museums. Moreover, the lack of a harmonised international framework creates an imbalance and renders cross-border activities complex.

To advocate, ICOM participates in the high-level meetings of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) in order to raise awareness among Member States and stakeholders of the issues specific to the museum community, particularly in relation to cultural heritage preservation issues.

Want to take action ?

Raise awareness among your decision-makers about the specific copyright issues faced by museums. Use for this the toolkit developed by ICOM;

Share with ICOM your copyright problems by using your social networks with our hashtag #FixCopyrightForMuseums;

Contact the Legal Affairs Committee to discuss actions.

Want to learn more about copyright ?

On the challenges of digitizing museum collections: the UNIGE-ICOM International Conference “When Museums Go Online”;

On the need of appropriate copyright laws to address the challenges of climate change :  Climate Change and Copyright Laws: the Challenge of Safeguarding Our Heritage;

On Managing Intellectual Property for Museums (Rina Elster Pantalony, 2013)

Studies:

FAQs Author’s Rights, Copyright and Open Licenses (by Digital Cultural Heritage ICOM Italy, 2021)

Revised report on copyright practices and challenges of museums (Yaniv Benhamou, 2019)

Study on copyright limitations and exceptions for museums (Jean-François Canat and Lucie Guibault, in collaboration with Elisabeth Logeais, 2015)

Cover image © Prostorina

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Copyright - International Council of Museums

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Museums are regularly confronted with copyright issues when carrying out their missions of acquiring, conserving, researching, communicating and exhibiting heritage.

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Choosing the right Collections Management software for the present and future

1. Does it comply with museum and archival standards?

Various collections management standards and practices have been developed by the industry to ensure best practice and consistency across institutions in the way that collections are managed. Not only does adhering to standards allow for collaboration and data sharing between institutions, but many grants, funding streams and national level collections validation schemes require that applicants meet certain standards.

Understand which standards are the most important for your institution and then identify which systems are compliant and therefore most likely to help you achieve your goals.

2. Consider who’s using the system now and who might be using it in the future

A key technology driver across all industries is the need for information to be accessible, usable and integrated. You’ll be storing large amounts of data in your Collections Management System (CMS) and it’s important to consider not only who needs to access that information now, but also in the future.

If you’re one department within a bigger institution, chances are that at some point there will be a drive to develop consistent practices across different departments and collection types and to centralise data in one repository. If you have a system that is very niche to your collection type but can’t scale further, in all likelihood it will be replaced and you’ll need to start over. Similarly, if you’re part of an organisation that manages multiple institutions, think about how the software might scale up to meet the needs of the whole group.

Look at investing in software that can be scaled up to include a range of collection types, archives, etc. and become the master source of data in the future.

3. How well will it integrate with other technology?

Similarly, consider what other systems you may need to integrate with. For now you may only be concerned with storing your collections data but in the future you may want to integrate with other systems, including digital asset management systems, CRM systems, websites and online publishing, exhibitions engagement apps and technology, and so on. If your CMS doesn’t have an open API, you may struggle to integrate it with a wider technology strategy.

You can learn more about understanding APIs here.

4. Is the software being actively developed?

Have you selected software that is being actively developed? Is there evidence that the developer is investing in new products, services and upgrades? New developments are a good indicator that the vendor is actively investing in the software’s future. The needs of collections managers, museums and archives are developing constantly and buying a system that isn’t changing with the times is essentially buying a system with a use-by date. It might service your needs now, but it’s only a matter of time before it is no longer fit for purpose and you have to go back to the drawing board. Check that the vendor is actively developing their software. More advice on finding the right vendor here.

5. What’s the scope for expanding your system in the future?

Once you have a CMS up and running, you may want to look at the next step in developing your museum or institution. Perhaps you will want to manage a large scale collections move, or increase engagement with exhibitions, or put some more focus on managing your digital assets; or perhaps your next step will be publishing your collections online. Does the CMS you are considering have add-on products which can help you achieve further goals, or will you have to find multiple vendors for your future projects?

Look at the add-on products that could add value to your system and see whether they will be useful for your future development.

If you’re looking for scalable Collections Management software, we can help

We’re the largest supplier in the world of Collections Management software and we’ve been working with some of our customers for over 30 years. We’ve been able to do so because our solutions are incredibly scalable and can develop with the needs of our customers. We work with everyone from very small, emerging institutions, to some of the largest and most prestigious in the world, and our products portfolio is constantly being developed and expanded.

If you’re looking for a long term partner for Collections Management software, speak to us about your needs and we can give you a quote based on your requirements.

You can also read our helpful guide on making a case for a new collections management software.

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5 things to consider before investing in a Collections Management System - Axiell

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Choosing the right Collections Management software for the present and future 1. Does it comply...

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SPEAKERS:

Ariadna Matas, Copyright Policy Advisor, Europeana Foundation

Sarah Pearson, Legal Counsel, Creative Commons

Andrea Wallace, Lecturer in Law, Exeter University

Organized by the Special Interest Group on Intellectual Property, Museum Computer Network and friends from the Open GLAM community!

The current global health emergency forced libraries and museums to organize digital engagement strategies, from #MuseumFromHome to making digital broadcasts. However, this doesn’t mean that copyright laws have been suspended from working. How do we deal with copyright in this public health emergency? What are the important things we need to be looking at when we make our digital engagement strategies? Where can we go to find openly available content from museums and libraries? How do we make sure that we can legally preserve some of the current records being created by these digital engagement strategies?

Top Podcasts In Education

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‎MCN 2019 sessions recordings: Copyright & Open Access for GLAMs in the age of COVID19 on Apple Podcasts

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‎Show MCN 2019 sessions recordings, Ep Copyright & Open Access for GLAMs in the age of COVID19 - Mar 30, 2020

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Thursday, November 7, 2019

Regardless of our institutions' physical locations, our online collections are accessible worldwide. As museums embrace open access, the call to make digital surrogates of public domain assets freely available, and the associated requirement to evaluate and declare their rights status, increases. Yet, duration of copyright varies across countries; works that are in the public domain in one may remain under copyright in another. A work may be created in one jurisdiction, published (or the equivalent) in a second jurisdiction, housed and digitized in third, and aggregated and accessed worldwide. Exceptions, legal decisions and practices may also vary, while international copyright treaties aim to provide a baseline across countries. In a potentially groundbreaking development, Article 14 of the new European Union Copyright Directive codifies the equivalent of the US Bridgeman decision (i.e., no separate copyright in reproductions of public domain works) across EU member countries, which have two years to enact local legislation in compliance. What are the practical implications for online collections and collaborative digital projects with stakeholders from both EU and non-EU collections? And what are the corresponding ethical and moral rights implications related to digital cultural heritage? Does online access make every copyright question an international copyright question?

Session Type60-Minute Session (Professional Forum or Hands-on Demonstration)

TrackContent
Chatham House RuleNo

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants will have a greater awareness of recent developments in international copyright law and intellectual property in cultural heritage, will have a better understanding of what challenges this may present for their projects, and understand the considerations of an international collaborative digital project (PHAROS, an international consortium of photo archives) surrounding these issues.

Speakers

Session Leader : Melissa Fournier, Head of Imaging and Intellectual Property, Yale Center for British Art

Co-Presenter : Mikka Gee Conway, Associate General Counsel, The J. Paul Getty Trust

Co-Presenter : Emily Lanza, Counsel, U.S. Copyright Office

Co-Presenter : Andrea Wallace, Lecturer, University of Exeter

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international copyright law: implications for digital collections and collaborations

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‎MCN 2019 sessions recordings: International Copyright Law: Implications for Digital Collections and Collaborations on Apple Podcasts

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Thursday, November 7, 2019 Regardless of our institutions' physical locations, our online collections are accessible worldwide. As museums embrace open access, the call to make digital surrogates of public domain assets freely available, and the associated requirement to evaluate and declare their...

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Wednesday, November 6, 2019

The open access movement has empowered museums to connect with their audiences by providing unprecedented access to digital collections. Now that a number of museums have had an open access policy for the better part of a decade, how have their policies stood the test of time? How have their policies made an impact on their institutions and communities? Have standards of "openness" changed? How can policies be updated to address changes in community practice? What lessons can those still advocating for an initial open access policy at their institution learn from early innovators? Representatives from several museums with open access policies will share how their policies are evolving and lessons learned from their experiences implementing open access, and a representative from Creative Commons will give an update on the work the OpenGLAM community is doing to support open access policies.

Session Type60-Minute Session (Professional Forum or Hands-on Demonstration)

TrackContent
Chatham House RuleNo

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants from institutions with open access policies will be ready to review their policies for areas that may need updating. Participants who are still lobbying for open access at their museum will come away with strategies for gaining institutional support for open access and crafting a policy that reflects current practice.

Speakers

Session Leader : Margaret McKee, Digital Asset Manager, The Menil Collection

Speaker : Andrea Wallace, Lecturer, University of Exeter

Co-Presenter : John French, Director of Visual Resources, Yale University Art Gallery

Co-Presenter : Melissa Fournier, Head of Imaging and Intellectual Property, Yale Center for British Art

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open access today: rethinking open access

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‎MCN 2019 sessions recordings: Open Access Today: Rethinking Open Access on Apple Podcasts

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Wednesday, November 6, 2019 The open access movement has empowered museums to connect with their audiences by providing unprecedented access to digital collections. Now that a number of museums have had an open access policy for the better part of a decade, how have their policies stood the test of...

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Captions

Captions

English

Presentation about Structured Data on Commons during the first day of the WMF GLAM & Culture team office hours, April 2021

Summary[edit]

Description

English: Wikimedia Foundation GLAM & Culture team office hours, April 2021.

Carly Bogen, the Wikimedia Foundation's Program Manager for Structured Data, talked about the new Media Search and provided updates on the Structured Data Across Wikimedia project.

Jennie Choi, General Manager of Collection Information for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, presented her process of batch uploading Structured Data on Commons.

Date | 26 April 2021
Source | Own work
Author | GFontenelle (WMF)

Licensing[edit]

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This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.

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File:GLAM & Culture team office hours - April 2021 - Monday.webm - Wikimedia Commons

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Open GLAM Webinar Series: Session 1 Basics of Open Access and Open Access Principles

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Open GLAM Webinar Series: Session 4 Open Access at Your Institution: How To?

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Open GLAM Webinar Series: Session 2 the Basics of Copyright and Open Access

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Presentation of the Digital National Library as a service for online access to digitised documents of the National Library of Portugal (NLP) collections. An overview of the NLP strategic and tactic goals for the Library digital services is provided. The content available online is briefly characterized and the main functionalities of the digital information system are explained, underlining the case of special search, browse and display features, as well as the main tools and systems in production for digital objects creation, management and the new digital archive. The information model for NLP digital objects (metadata standards, data structures, formats and other technical requirements) is presented. We will also present the main NLP aggregation services: RNOD - National Registry for Digital Objects (a metadata repository of bibliographical digital documents provided by Portuguese organizations, that also acts as an aggregator to Europeana) and RNOFA - National Registry of Acessible Objects (the Portuguese repository and union catalogue for the blind). Examples are presented of integrated services for access to NLP digital content through Europeana Portal, Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira and Biblioteca Digital do Património Ibero-Americano.

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National Library of Portugal digital collections, access services, open data and content reuse policies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Presentation of the Digital National Library as a service for online access to digitised documents of the National Library of Portugal (NLP) collections. An overview of the NLP strategic and tactic goals for the Library digital services is provided.

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Museum Collections on Wikipedia: Opening Up to Open Data Initiatives

Elena Villaespesa, Pratt Institute, USA, Trilce Navarrete, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract
The Web has become an important source of information, made possible by structured data. Open linked data enables ubiquitous presence as machines increasingly filter our views-via preferred search engines, the knowledge graph, or Siri-particularly of content found in Wikidata. In this paper, we identify paintings in Wikidata and analyze their usage in the English Wikipedia to find substantial impact. Our results provide evidence that publication of collections as open data facilitate an increase in views, enriched data, automatic translation, and magnified visibility. We find that the usage of paintings and views present a long-tail structure with an underrepresentation of contemporary paintings. Collaborations between museums and Wikimedia yield increased impact, yet projects are unsustainable. We propose an adjusted work-flow to accommodate for Wikimedia projects and amplify the impact of opening museum collections data.
Keywords: Wikipedia, Wikidata, paintings, linked open data, metrics, open access

Introduction: Open Data

In the early 1990s, the World Wide Web was presented as a new information communications technology which could allow universal access to content. In order to achieve this, documents needed to be published following a series of standards that enabled access through hyperlinks ( Berners-Lee and Cailliau, 1992 ). Documents were indexed by search engines delivering relevant results accessible through Web browsers. As technologies and user needs have become more sophisticated, and we increasingly wish to query data semantically-also by our machines, data standards have further developed into open linked structures. It is not only documents that can be linked but also data elements. One such large dataset contains all information forming Wikipedia: DBpedia. The non-profit, user-based, free online encyclopedia makes use of the open software as well as open data to further distribute information, including content of museums, libraries, and archives.

As the Web became a ubiquitous source of information, a duality emerged: some firms made the web a profitable source of revenue and their content, requiring passwords or payments, while other firms continued to develop the open standards that enable access to structured content by people and machines. One leading open initiative is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), active in developing protocols and guidelines that support open standards. Its guiding principles recognize the value of sharing knowledge (as access to human knowledge leads to further knowledge generation) and the variety of access points (there are many devices which require flexible publication schemes) (W3C website: mission) . Current legal frameworks are not always supportive of open data policies, and alternative business models are expected to imitate a revenue model based on property of objects, rather than on access to information. Open data, in fact, urges institutions to rethink their position in the information economy where strong network effects are present. The main benefit of joining the open data network is having access to its content while giving access within the linked structures that, in turn, enrich all participating members.

In order to use the Web as a single global database, some technical and legal solutions are still being sought out. However, an important challenge remains the participation of heritage institutions as important banks of vast, authoritative, structured, millenary information. From a 2013 survey on the perception of open data, Swiss institutions reported finding open data important and desirable (up to 81%), but they are rarely ready to make content available for "free" (7%) or for commercial use by others (1%) ( Estermann, 2013).

In this paper, we will show the potential impact on museums who join the Wikipedia network, particularly when a long-term strategy is in place. For this, we will look at the current network of paintings from museums present in Wikipedia, and analyze the impact. We will then discuss the current paths and tools available for museums and propose an action plan to open up collections for museums to tap into the linked open data network.

Museum Collections Online

How are Internet users encountering museum collections online? Marty (2007 and 2008) found that accessing collections on museum websites is short-lived, while Europeana is mostly used by heritage staff ( Clough, et al., 2017). On the other hand, Google and Wikipedia are highly used environments which easily give access to collections, independently of where these may be located. There are different ways Internet users may come across museums' content and resources online beyond their website. Starting from a search, which is the most common method of finding information online, here are a few scenarios using the keyword "mermaid" in a Google search, Google Images search, and with Siri.

A search on Google will often generate a knowledge panel with an image and a few lines taken directly from a Wikipedia article, with a link to read more. Figure 1 shows the knowledge panel for "mermaid" shows one painting from the Royal Academy of the Arts and one illustration from the Smithsonian. If one were to follow the hyperlink to Wikipedia, the infobox on the Wikipedia article for "mermaid" shows the painting by John William Waterhouse from the Royal Academy of the arts (UK) (see Figure 2). A search on Google Images can return images from the museum that have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Figure 3 is a screenshot of Google image results, filtering by paintings and images labeled for non-commercial reuse. It includes several paintings from various museums. And a search using a voice assistant, such as Siri or Alexa, can return a response using the museum's data on Wikipedia and Wikidata. Figure 4 shows the virtual assistants Siri's response to "mermaid."

It is clear that with our current information-seeking behavior and search engine algorithms, being part of the global online structured networks of data, can position museum content in a prevalent position as quality trusted data. Finding a museum painting on one click represents being high in the hierarchy of online content, thanks to the structured environment provided by the Wiki-platforms strongly influencing the quality of the search results.

Methodology

Data for this study was gathered from three Wikimedia projects: Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia in English. All three projects have a public SPARQL or API (Application Programming Interface) endpoint. The process of data collection and analysis was conducted as follows:

1. List of paintings images used on Wikipedia articles. We started by identifying the "paintings" available in Wikidata with a query using the SPARQL language (Figure 5), resulting in 224,374 items. Then, we gathered the data of those paintings containing basic metadata of author, date of creation, and location that have an image representation and that are used in a Wikipedia page in the English edition, resulting in 10,054 items.

2. Article coding. We manually assigned a code following a modified version of the topic category ontology proposed by Spoerri (2007): Entertainment, Politics and History, Geography, Sexuality, Science, Art, Religion and mythology, Literature, Performing Arts, and Drugs. We added a category of Wikipedia to exclude pages that are not properly an encyclopedia article such as "did you know" and "features" of articles or images, file names, templates, and lists (e.g. paintings, years, recent additions). This left a dataset of 8,104 paintings (3% of paintings in Wikidata) that were used in 10,008 Wikipedia articles.

3. Article views. Using a Python script that connected to the Wikipedia page views API, we harvested the total page views in all identified Wikipedia articles for 2017.

4. Location and country data clean-up. The location data is, in the majority of cases, museums and galleries, but it also includes private collections, monuments, embassies, and historic places. The data was cleaned as there were duplications due to misspellings or similar instances of the location (e.g. Wallace/Wallace Collection), due to the inclusion of the gallery's names instead of the whole museum (e.g. location of paintings from the Louvre Museum were listed by gallery name so they were grouped all together), in other cases there are several instances for the same museum collection (eg. Tate was divided by gallery: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool). In some cases, the collection could not be classified due to lack of information (e.g. "storage space" or "private collection"), so this cell was left black. Finally, the country was added to each collection.

Results and Findings

Access and Reach of Painting Images on Wikipedia

The dataset for this research includes 8,104 paintings that are used in 10,008 articles in the English Wikipedia. Using the site statistics, we can calculate that .17% of all the English Wikipedia articles include a painting image. The reach of these articles is substantial; Wikipedia articles including a painting received a total of 94.2M monthly views on average during 2017.

Table 1: Summary of the data

The distribution of the number of views of those articles follows a long-tail shape. About 2% of those articles receive more than 100K monthly views, which means 38% of the total views (see histogram of the article views in Figure 7).

The analysis of all article categories shows that approximately 33% of the articles where a painting image has been added are related to art, including pages about artists, artworks, art movements, art techniques, or art museums. The rest of the articles (67%) are not directly related to art but instead cover typical encyclopedia articles on topics of history, religion, and geography. In terms of views, art-related articles represent 12% of the total views, while 88% of the views of articles including a painting happen in non-art related articles (tables 2 and 3 show the top 10 articles in each of the categories).

Table 2: Top 10 non-art related articles based on monthly views (2017)

Table 3: Top 10 art related articles based on monthly views (2017)

There is a significant finding coming out of this analysis: painting images are used to illustrate a range of topics in Wikipedia including, for example, historical facts, political figures, cities, films, scientists, musical instruments, mythology, etc. (See some examples in figure 9.)

The same painting can be used in various articles to illustrate multiple topics belonging to different categories. For example, the image of The Starry Night by Van Gogh appears on 16 articles, some are related to the artist, the artwork, or are included in generic art articles such as "art movement," "history of painting," or "night in paintings." This iconic painting also constitutes a visual element in the following articles: psychosis, moon, moonlight, Venus, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and culture of the Netherlands. The image caption highlights the relevant information for each article (Figure 10).

The key effect of the inclusion of painting images on articles that are not directly related to art is that museums are getting visibility in seemingly unrelated contexts by people searching for information, reaching new audiences.

Unequal Representation of Paintings from Countries and Museums in the World

The map in Figure 11 presents the volume of views of paintings from museums used in Wikipedia articles by country, which denotes a clear presence of paintings from museums in Western countries. (See Table 5 for the top ten countries of the dataset.) This analysis may return slightly different results when looking at other Wikipedia languages. Interestingly, countries that have organized Wikipedia-in-residence programs get the majority of views (e.g. U.K., U.S., Spain, Netherlands). Other countries with large population sizes (e.g. Russia) or long histories of working with open data (e.g. France) also receive significant views in the English Wikipedia.

Table 5: Top 10 countries ordered by volume of article views (monthly)

This leads to the next breakdown of the data-the analysis by museum collection. Larger well-known museums are at the top of the list (Table 6). Some museums listed have open-access policies such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Rijksmuseum, but that is not the case for all the institutions represented on the list. These numbers only scratch the surface of the representation of painting images by country and museum collection. It is very likely affected by the country language and the popularity of some of the artworks in these museums. Further research points to a more comparative and detailed analysis by language and individual collections.

Table 6: Top 10 museums ordered by volume of article views (monthly)

Impact on Copyright Limitations and Open Licenses

A striking observation was revealed when analyzing the presence of an image of Wikidata "painting" items. Legal protection of images has a direct impact on the availability and use of images to illustrate Wikipedia articles as well as any other global use, including the knowledge panel or Siri searches. We identified all the "paintings" and arranged them by year of creation, noting a particular increase in items belonging to the Renaissance, Modern, and Contemporary periods, as well as a surprising absence of images for items made after the 1930s-even though an item page identifies such an item. Copyright restrictions vary by country but generally protect art objects 70 years after the death of the artist, explaining the lack of images of contemporary art-which has been referred to as the copyright hole (Boyle, 2009). The peak at 1650 may reflect collections dating from the "second half of the 17th Century," being dated as 1650.

Tools Available to Measure the Impact of Open Access

This research aims to capture the usage of painting images on Wikipedia and, therefore, one of the first steps in the process was to review the analytics tools to gather the data. There are different tools available to measure the impact of adding all these images and data to the different Wiki projects. The most used in the sector have been Glamorous, Treeviews and BaGlama developed by Magnus Manske. Glamorous ( https://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/glamorous.php) shows the number of files used in each of the Wikimedia projects at the time of running the query for a specific category. The details section provides a list of the top thousand images, each listing the pages where the image has been used. Similarly, Treeviews ( https://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/treeviews/) shows monthly page views for Wikipedia category trees. The BaGlama2 tool ( https://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/baglama2/) shows the number of article views, with breakdown by Wikipedia language and by article, per "category," which is the name of the institution or project. "Categories" have to be added by the developer in order to be tracked. The first institutions were added in 2010 and currently include 80 categories that track museums (Figure 13). The advantage of using these tools is that they provide harmonized information, useful for benchmarking with other cultural organizations and to demonstrate the impact of joining Wikimedia projects. The drawbacks include the dependency on categorization so that images uploaded need to be clearly identified and categorized in order to be tracked and the simplified article "views," ignoring the positioning of the image within the article or the interactions with the image, such as number of downloads or clicks to see the image details.

While these tools created by volunteers are extremely valuable, there is a need for robust tools that integrate results from all Wikimedia projects in an automated and easy-to-use form. The GLAM sector could benefit from having a dashboard, or reporting interface, whereto integrate all metrics. There have been a few attempts to capture requirements and develop tools to improve the reporting of key metrics. Wikimedia Switzerland developed a dashboard for their GLAM community to display the category network, user contribution, usage of files, and number of views (GLAM stat tool). The goal is to display the usage of images in any Wikimedia project and search engines.

Museums and Wikimedia: Past, Present, and Future

Since the early 2010s, collaborations between the GLAM sector and the Wikimedia Foundation have been explored. (For a detailed review of the GLAM-Wiki collaborations, see Stinson et al. 2018 and Lih, 2018.) We briefly review four types of collaborations that influence the data results presented in this paper: 1.) Wikipedians-in-residence, 2.) edit-a-thons, 3.) batch uploads to Wikimedia Commons 4.) data entry on Wikidata.

Wikipedians-in-Residence

One frequent collaboration in the museum sector is the establishment of a Wikipedian-in-residence program. This program, in a variety of contract formats (voluntary or paid, temporary or permanent, part-time or full-time), brings a Wikipedian editor to the museum to coordinate and promote initiatives to improve the presence of museum's resources on Wikipedia. Some of the activities undertaken by Wikipedians-in-residence can include training sessions or edit-a-thons.

In 2010, the first Wikipedian-in-residence program took place at the British Museum, where during five weeks, new articles about objects were added by Wikipedia editors in collaboration with curators. A challenge to the Hoxne Hoard page was proposed bringing the article from the stub category to a featured article, and Wikireaders were given this page to be used in the school program (Wyatt, 2010). The same year, another Wikipedian in residence started at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. During this period, new articles were created in edit-a-thons; pages got translated into other languages, and a QR code project was implemented in the galleries allowing visitors to find more information on Wikipedia about a set of objects on display. About 200 object images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons to be used by editors on Wikipedia (Byrd Phillips, 2011).

At the time of writing this paper, the articles where these images have been added have received 128M views. Another museum that hosted a Wikipedian-in-residence was the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. The goals of this residency were to create basic content for some highlights of the collection and improve the article in Catalan about the series of paintings, Las Meninas, which became a "quality article." For the museum, their expertise combined with the reach of Wikipedia will provide, as a result, a better service for the user (Rodà, 2011). Other museums that have hosted a Wikipedian-in-residence in this first wave of Wikipedian- in-residence include Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, and Israel Museum. Initial published results of some of these collaborations in 2010-11 included over 194K images uploaded, 76 events, and 2,000 articles improved in over 50 languages (GLAM-Wiki US, 2012). Other museums and cultural organizations followed the lead and hosted a Wikipedian-in-residence, reaching 165 residences, of which 44 took place in museums (Wikimedia Outreach: Wikipedian in Residence).

Table 7: Number of Wikipedians in residence by country. (Museum figures in brackets.)

Edit-a-thons

Edit-a-thons are organized events hosted at a museum location, online, or a combination of both, where Wikipedia editors, either beginners or experts, are invited to create or add information to articles based on the collections, generally about a specific topic, artist, event, or anniversary. Success from this type of meetup has been reported in terms of reach, diversity of content added and collaboration with local communities. For example, during an edit-a-thon organized by Europeana about WWI ended up with 20 images added to 62 articles, which got almost 2 million views in 6 months. (Europeana, 2013). Museums around the globe have gotten involved in the Art+Feminist initiative which aims at "improving coverage of cis and transgender women, non-binary folks, feminism, and the arts on Wikipedia" ( http://www.artandfeminism.org/). The year 2018 closed with the participation of 3,816 editors that worked on 22K articles in total. These new or edited articles have received 79M views ( Art+Feminism dashboard, 2018). Edit-a-thons have become popular in the sector, some breaking records in attendance and engagement duration, but some argue such community involvement could become part of the museum's regular events organized internally (Snyder, 2018).

Bulk Uploads of Images to Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is a wiki platform that hosts over 50 million media items under open licenses. Wikipedia editors use this media repository to add content to the articles. Therefore, having object images on Wikimedia Commons may result in the usage of these on Wikipedia articles. In order to facilitate the batch upload process of images, the "GLAMwiki Toolset" was built based on a collaboration between Wikimedia in several countries and Europeana. Besides its limitations, data mapping, and technical requirements, the tool has been used by various museums, including the Rijksmuseum, the Nordiska Museet, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Knipel, 2017). The reach of these images on Wikipedia can be tracked with the tool BaGLAMa2, and it has been used internally to provide evidence of the impact of this work. The tool estimates the number of images from the GLAM-Wiki partnerships uploaded to Wikimedia Commons is 2.5M images, which in fact is probably higher due to the limitations of capturing all the images and institutions currently participating (Stinson, 2018).

Data Imports to Wikidata

Wikidata is a repository of currently 54 million data items and growing that serves to structure data for other Wikimedia projects. Wikidata is one of the focuses of the new strategic direction of the Wikimedia Foundation and currently the fastest growing project (Wikimedia Strategy, 2017). This site, which is edited by both humans and bots, received 568.62M page views in the past 12 months (Wikimedia Statistics, 2018). The clear advantages of adding museum data to Wikidata include tapping into the active community that will continue enhancing the records, automated translations into multiple languages, integration with other Wikimedia projects, linkage to other data records, and access to the search query and visualization tools available. Data entry can be done manually or automatically; the latter is only possible if the metadata is under a CC0 license. Museums are already collaborating to publish data on this repository. For example, the Sum of all paintings project ( https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_sum_of_all_paintings) focuses on creating items for each collection painting and adding all the relevant metadata. Tutorials, case studies, and best practices to support the sector are available at Wikiproject Culture Heritage and Wikiproject Museums.

Future in the GLAM-Wiki

Collaborations between museums and the Wikimedia projects will increasingly focus on structured and linked open data. There is a major focus on Wikimedia's agenda to work with the sector to use Wikidata in order to build a central repository of heritage data (Stinson, Fauconnier, and Wyatt, 2018). Moreover, the Structure data on Wikimedia Commons project (2017-19) is taking place "to convert the free media files on Wikimedia Commons to a structured and machine-readable format, so that they become easier to view, search, edit, organize and re-use." This initiative will provide specific features for the GLAM sector, including structured, machine-readable and multilingual metadata (linked open data), structured copyright and attribution information, and rich APIs (Wikimedia Commons: Structured data|GLAM).

Opening up museum collection data has encountered internal resistance in museums as a result of fear about the loss of authority, quality, and control of the images and information, as well as arguments about the reduced income that comes from rights and reproduction permissions activities. It also brings some important challenges with regards to the technology and logistics needed to support the infrastructure and the processes for cleaning the collection data. Besides these risks and challenges, there are strong arguments made to open up museum collections, including a potential loss of funding opportunities, the museum's relevance and branding, and most importantly, how this open practice could contribute to the achievement of the museum's mission (Kapsalis, 2016, Kelly, 2013). Moreover, restricting the distribution and usage of images is practically impossible due to people's expectations and behaviors online (Sanderhoff, 2013).

Therefore, different museum and wiki professionals have been encouraging the museum sector to embrace the collaborative element of the Internet to provide access to their collections and increase the collective knowledge (Byrd Phillips, 2013; Fouseki & Vacharopoulou, 2013 ). This strong advocacy to open up has been evidenced in several museums, including the Rijksmuseum, SMK museum, Te Papa, and The Met, who have published results in the year after their launch of these policies. Open access brought a positive impact on the brand reputation of the museum, and an increase in funding and sponsor opportunities, which for these museums outweigh the loss of revenue from rights and reproduction work. In terms of access, the number of image downloads increased, and so did the views of these images on Wikipedia, including views in various languages. (Kingston & Edgar, 2015; Schmidt, 2017; Pekel, 2014; Tallon, 2018; Villaespesa, 2018; Navarrete and Borowiecki, 2016). This paper provides further insight into the reach in volume and diversity of audiences that come as a result of uploading painting images to the wiki tools.

An Action Plan to Open Up

The results of this study highlights important implications for the museum sector to open up their collections. From a strategic perspective, structuring and opening data should be of paramount importance if museums want to be findable and relevant in the future. The Wikimedia projects allow the positioning of museum data in the global network of information available to Google, Siri, and any other potential user. Automated data linkage, data translation, and data enrichment is possible once the object has been entered in Wikidata, which can be useful for museums interested in expanding their data. Examples of museums "taking data back" from the Wikimedia projects include Tate and MoMA who present Wikipedia artists' biographies on the museum's website, and in the case of MoMA, also the Wikidata ID (Foe, 2016). There is also a range of third-party tools created by the community that museums could customize to browse and dig into their collections, integrating those on the museum platforms (online and onsite), for example, the Collection Explorer ( http://glam-discovery.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/) that pulls art data from Wikidata.

The key to enabling all this is integrating Wikimedia projects into the organizational workflow. In this way, museums adopt a linked open data strategy within a linked open data structure that immediately gives visible returns. Figure 15 visualizes an open-knowledge creation and distribution process in which museums audit their data and practices in each of the arrows of the workflow in order to define a strategic plan towards open access. This diagram is a very simplified visual of the practical implications in each of the data pipelines, but it could serve as a guidance tool to review the current status and plan for a better final discovery and usage of the museum's collection.

Collaborations reviewed on this paper are normally a short-term add-on activity that, in the majority of cases, is promoted by the digital or technology department. However, this approach is not sustainable due to the speed of change of the online landscape and daily museum activities, such as new acquisitions, new photos with better quality, and other changes happening on an ongoing basis in the collection information management system that do not get reflected in the Wikimedia tools. Therefore, from a tactical perspective, this collaborative work needs to be embedded in museum processes going beyond edit-a-thons or Wikipedians-in-residence schemes. For example, when a collection object record is added or edited, there should be a step to update this data on the wiki tools, and whenever possible, this needs to be automated. This brings us to the need for better tools and dissemination of skills that are required to support this work for museums of all types and sizes. In the next step of the work chain, when it comes to measuring the impact of this work, there is a clear need of an evaluation framework across the sector and user-friendly, robust tools to track and report activities across all Wikipedia projects.

Conclusion

The Web is our global library of information that depends on open linked data to improve query results. Museums are a vast source of authoritative, quality, structured data that can enrich and be enriched by joining the Wikimedia projects information network. This research looked at the use of painting images to illustrate English Wikipedia articles and showed the substantial reach, particularly regarding the views to non-art related articles. Besides page views, the analysis of article categories where images have been used shows the value of museum collections as information sources. Our analysis highlighted the need for a revised legal framework to support the dissemination of quality information as a substantial portion of contemporary art is absent from the Web. So far, paintings located in Western museums are overrepresented, as well as well-known paintings, painters, and museum collections. Most importantly, our results show that museums that tap into the Wikimedia projects, and Wikidata in particular, also tap into the network of open linked data used by people (e.g. Wikipedia readers) and machines (e.g. Google and Siri).

The list of museums collaborating with Wikipedia in various forms continues to increase, but limited evidence is available on the overall impact of these efforts. The research presented in this paper sheds light on the impact of partnering with Wikimedia projects, including increased views, increased data links, data translation into multiple languages, magnified findability, and a great potential still waiting to be measured. Insights gained from this research may be of assistance to museums considering the adoption of a linked open data strategy, including an adjusted workflow to integrate the Wikimedia projects and, subsequently, capture the impact of those platforms.

This research is limited in scope, as we only captured "paintings" labeled in Wikidata used in the English Wikipedia. We, nevertheless, feel confident our results will serve as a stepping stone for future research involving other language editions of the encyclopedia and a more encompassing distribution of collections beyond "paintings." Another study of interest could undertake the user journey of readers when reading articles, including museum collections and the relation to search engine results on a browser or while using voice assistants.

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Cite as:
Villaespesa, Elena and Navarrete, Trilce. "Museum Collections on Wikipedia: Opening Up to Open Data Initiatives."MW19: MW 2019. Published January 14, 2019. Consulted .
https://mw19.mwconf.org/paper/museum-collections-on-wikipedia-opening-up-to-open-data-initiatives/

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Museum Collections on Wikipedia: Opening Up to Open Data Initiatives - MW19 | Boston

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Elena Villaespesa, Pratt Institute, USA, Trilce Navarrete, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands The Web has become an important source of information, made possible by structured data. Open linked data enables ubiquitous presence as machines increasingly filter our views-via preferred search engines, the knowledge graph, or Siri-particularly of content found in Wikidata.

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Constructing a Converged Open Source Museum Platform

Tommy Wilson, Independent, USA

Abstract
In this session, attendees will learn the basic building blocks of how to construct an open source museum platform which encompasses both the business and collections domains. Modeling from the system at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, a recognized leader in the field of contemporary arts, discussions will be held on choosing hardware platforms, granting that is available, and designing for commodity hardware. Then, the discussion will move into software and interoperability from the operating system level up to public facing systems.
Keywords: open source software, museum integration, digital learning

Convergence and OSS

Throughout the history of information technology, convergence has been part of the dream. Going all the way back to the early 1990s when Oracle founder Larry Ellison discussed the convergence of media, including the Internet, into a single stream of information. Today, we see convergence in the form of integrated streaming appliances, artificial intelligence platforms, which interface to control systems in our homes, and even the media companies that Ellison spoke about so many years ago have now become multi-modal conglomerates. So, what does this have to do with the modern museum? With the modern patron consuming information and experiences in so many ways in everyday life, the museum must prepare itself to mimic this consumption. Before you think, "Well, we have always done it (x) way," consider for a moment that the museum has always truly performed one major function, that being to conserve our past, reflect our current, and prepare for the future. To reflect our current climate, the museum must become a multi-modal experience engine. This transformation begins with a great technological foundation.

The open source software (OSS) idea has been around for decades, dating to the original generation of computers, where programmers would actually print source code in magazines, and users would have to enter this code to play a game or use a productivity app. Most people think of OSS as free software, though this is a bit of a misinterpretation as there can be free, closed source software. At its core, OSS is about sharing and extension, pushing a system to do its best job. It is through OSS that museums can build this technological platform, as well as streamline internal operations to better serve our patrons. It is the intent of this article to begin from the building blocks, then move through interoperability and convergence.

Where to Begin?

Almost all of the systems referenced in this article were built on "commoditized hardware." Commoditized hardware is a name of my own invention to refer to hardware which has served its "useful" life in another place. A basic server from a systems manufacturer such as Dell or HP can cost many thousands of dollars. However, stepping back one or two generations from those brand new systems opens up a world of cost savings because many large corporations are hounded into upgrades by salespeople from these manufacturers. This generates a secondary market for servers and systems which those upgrades replace. These systems can be purchased for pennies on the dollar through online marketplaces. They typically come without hard disk drives or operating systems, which is perfect for our purposes as it allows either for the hard drives to be replaced new or upgraded to a solid state and the installation of an OSS operating system, such as a flavor of Linux, BSD, or Unix. For those who do not have on-site IT staff, these systems can actually be ordered customized to your needs through the same marketplaces and ready to have software installed out of the box. I have also had great success by contacting the computer science or management information systems departments of local universities and asking if any student would be interested in doing the integration and setup as a term project or internship.

At this point, you should consider your domains of museum knowledge. The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is an oddity in the art museum community in that it has both a museum program and an active full-time studio. At FWM, the knowledge domains begin with three basic categories, art-making, programming, and business operations. These three domains can be broken into further sub-domains such as accounting, operations, and the museum shop on the business side; archives, collection and studio in art-making, and exhibitions, apprenticeships, and education in programming. However, once these basic categories are established, you should begin looking for points of convergence. The easy way to construct this is to draw the domains out on a large sheet of paper, then think about the overlap. Think of exact examples and draw connecting lines between the domains. Where the lines cross is a point of convergence and should be listed on a separate sheet of paper.

An example of this from FWM is the simple staging of an artist-in-residence program. This involves an artist coming into the institution up to two years before their exhibition. A thread can be drawn through these two years where the idea is discussed with studio staff, which most likely happens through email these days. This is a verifiable record. This seminal idea works its way through development for fundraising to make the idea a reality. This is a point of convergence as it involves studio, development, and accounting. Another would be if the artist wanted to create either multiples of an artwork or a secondary artwork for sale in the museum shop. This one would involve studio, accounting, and the shop staff. Of course, all of this creates a massive amount of data. The idea of collecting, organizing, and utilizing this data is the central tenant of a converged system. Taking the physical knowledge domains and translating them into a virtual domain system is surprisingly simple. While there is some substantial overlap, keeping the interoperability of these two domains as a central design philosophy, while acknowledging the differences, is the key to designing the converged system.

Beginning the Build: The Nuts and Bolts

Central to any converged platform is the datastore. This is not to be confused with a database, as a database is essentially a system of interconnected spreadsheets and data fields, and a datastore is a place where data is stored. This data is "freeform," it can be photos, documents, notes, or even multimedia recordings. While a simple network share can be used as a datastore, building a true converged system requires something a bit more robust. One of my favorite systems to use for datastores is a file and operating system called ZFS, which is not widely known, but is very flexible and powerful. It is fully journaled, and the file system actually operates at the OS level as opposed to above it, like most file systems. Disks are directly accessed by ZFS without abstraction, and the data is written across multiple disks, providing redundancy. It would require the bulk of this article to explain the absolute fiery witchcraft of ZFS, so it is recommended that some further independent research is done.

Implementation of this system is fairly simple, as it requires only a server with multiple hard disks and a controller. My personal favorite flavors of this system are either FreeNAS or Nas4Free, both of which are effectively the same software with some differing design philosophies. They both come as complete systems on a CD/DVD and can be installed through a point-and-click interface. One other great thing with these ZFS distributions is that they both support VirtualBox, a basic virtualization system which can have the server serve a dual purpose for storage but also for basic computing. Virtualization is also the next step in our build.

So, at this point, you have a datastore. What would you like to do with it? If you wish to have a 1990s era file server, which is almost bulletproof, you are there. However, this is nothing more than a blank canvas to begin imagining. Refer back to your information domains and points of convergence. This document is your roadmap for the build.

Look at your staff. What repetitive tasks do they perform that a system could speed up? What type of services or engagement would you like to provide for your patrons? Decide on a few key services to begin with.

In years past, servers served one function. You would have a file server, maybe an anti-virus server, maybe a database. Of course, there was also the spaghetti server, a veritable dumping ground where one physical device would have several, if not tens/hundreds, of services installed on it, each competing for resources and processing time. Many times, these services would conflict with each other, causing untold issues. It was truly a jack of all trades, but master of none. Virtualization seeks to organize the spaghetti server. It is a system which creates a number of virtual environments, where you can install another operating system and then run multiple servers on one physical device. While there are a number of players in this market, and more are joining all the time, the biggest player is VMWare ESXi. ESXi is very mature software about which a number of books, websites, and services providers are dedicated. A basic version of ESXi can be obtained for the cost of simply registering at their website. This basic version runs on up to two physical processors, which is fine when using commodity hardware from the leasing channels. ESXi sets up very easily and is largely configured through a web interface. ESXi itself is based upon Linux, an open source operating system, but you can add any flavor of OS with which you are comfortable inside of the virtual environments. At FWM, we have a mixture of Windows (Desktop and Server), FreeBSD, and Ubuntu Linux running on the same physical server.

The Complete Picture

Hopefully, by this point, you have considered what you would like to do with your new open source platform. The canvas is primed, and the basic sketch is drawn. Let's make that first brushstroke. Most of the software discussed through the remainder of this paper have easily readable instructions for installation or will auto-install for you! Do not be afraid of the command line! Also, remember . . . this is community software, which means you have a community backing you, which can answer questions and help troubleshoot. The added benefit is that there is also a complete ecosystem of people who can answer the question, "I want this software to do X. How does that work?" Also, there is a resource you can tap into in the form of independent programmers, who can help you get where you are going, even if you do not have the time or technical skill. Simply search the web with the name of the software and "programmer" appended! Finally, most open source software packages have paid systems integrators, which will build everything for you.

At FWM, we began with the art-making domain and with the installation of CollectionSpace and ResourceSpace in our environment. CollectionSpace is a collection management software akin to PastPerfect, Embark, or TMS while ResourceSpace is a digital asset manager which holds photos, videos, and audio files. Both have the benefit of being web enabled, which means you use them through a web browser. The third part of the art-making domain is documents, which will be handled by Mayan Document Management. Mayan is a complete solution for documents which uses the most common business document formats or Optical Character Recognition for PDF/scanned files to create searchable word clouds.

ResourceSpace and Mayan act as points of convergence with the business operations domain, as marketing needs AV resources, and development and accounting need access to historical documents. CollectionSpace is also a point of convergence in that exhibitions and curations need quick access to collection objects. The next step in our plan at FWM is to develop a portal which will index the resources from all of these systems into an easy-to-use meta search that will allow staff and researchers to quickly find data that, until now, was buried in mountains of banker's boxes.

In the business domain, we began with accounting, then branched out and looked for points of convergence. Money, despite being the dirty part of museology, is the grease that makes the wheels run. We chose a piece of software called Odoo, which despite having a funny name, is very powerful. Its original intent was to run large enterprises such as Toyota, but with some tweaks, it makes a great platform for non-profits. It powers our accounting, purchasing, invoicing, and the POS for our museum shop. It synchronizes information in real time, so everyone is on the same page and reporting is very simple. We developed our online museum shop in WooCommerce, for which there is a commercially available connector that ties our website to Odoo, allowing physical inventory and shop sales to be constantly updated and maintained.

For development, we paired Odoo with CiviCRM, which is a fantastic alternative to costly packages such as Raisers Edge. We also had a connector developed which synchronizes CiviCRM to Odoo, allowing the rapid exchange of information between development and accounting. CiviCRM also powers our online giving forms and handles paid events, our mailing list, and memberships.

Exhibitions are where the rubber really hits the road. This is also where you can be the most creative with the platform you have constructed at this point. We have developed tablet-based interfaces based around our business and art-making domains which present historic archival information, upcoming and in-process information, and also solicits patron feedback and membership sales. Taking all of this information, we are also in the beginning stages of development on augmented and virtual reality solutions to re-stage historic exhibitions. We are also planning to data-mine our space through heat mapping and anonymous metadata collected from our security and surveillance systems, which report to our datastore. All of this is possible by laying the foundation with a good technology platform to power the museum.

This entire platform is also possible without having a single server inside of the museum. For the past few years, Microsoft has offered Azure cloud credits and support to non-profit organizations. At FWM, we have migrated many of our servers to the cloud, leaving only the most critical on-site for business continuity. As part of our business continuity plan, these on-site servers are mirrored to the cloud. A number of other vendors such as Google or Amazon Web Services also provides low or no-cost cloud computing resources to non-profits.

While this article is a basic primer on the building blocks of open source platforms, I hope it has inspired you! Open source is a constantly evolving system which is also looking for inspiration. Join the community even if you do not have the time or resources to build a platform at your institution, though if you are reading this, I expect that you are interested. Ask questions and form relationships, you never know if you might inspire a programmer or engineer to create something which will benefit your peers or resolve a problem that you never knew you had. The possibilities are endless, and all it requires is discussion and imagination.
Cite as:
Wilson, Tommy. "Constructing a Converged Open Source Museum Platform."MW19: MW 2019. Published January 15, 2019. Consulted .
https://mw19.mwconf.org/paper/constructing-a-converged-open-source-museum-platform/

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Constructing a Converged Open Source Museum Platform - MW19 | Boston

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Tommy Wilson, Independent, USA In this session, attendees will learn the basic building blocks of how to construct an open source museum platform which encompasses both the business and collections domains. Modeling from the system at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, a recognized leader in the field of contemporary arts, discussions will be held on choosing hardware platforms, granting that is available, and designing for commodity hardware.

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How this area overlaps with open GLAM:Copyright is intended to incentivize the production of new creative works and protect authors' connection to them. In return, the author receives exclusive rights over the creative work and can commercialize or release them for various uses. Once the copyright expires, these works pass into the public domain and can be used by anyone to produce new creative works and knowledge.

GLAMs protect, preserve, and extend access to these works (and many other materials) for the appreciation of current and future generations. This is often facilitated today by digitizing collections and making them available online. But new questions arise during this process. What is the reproduction's theoretical or legal relationship to the work that it captures? Is the reproduction a new work? In fact, is it a new creative work worthy of its own copyright? If so, what is the effect of claiming and enforcing a copyright in the reproduction, especially considering the vast amount of rare or unique public domain materials in heritage collections? What options are available to users seeking to access and reuse those public domain works?

Copyright has a number of specific conditions that lead to its ubiquity in reproductions of public domain works. These conditions and their effects are explored below.

Copyright arises automatically in original works. As soon as an original idea is expressed, copyright will automatically arise and protect the new creative work. For us, the question is whether a faithful reproduction of a public domain work is sufficiently "original" to attract a new copyright. We'll explore what this means below and the many moving parts to this question.

Copyright lasts a long time. Copyright (generally) lasts during the author's lifetime and for 70 years after their death. For an author who dies in 2020, this means their oeuvre of works will officially pass into the public domain in 2091. This is a crucial detail when discussing the impact of a copyright claim to digital surrogates of public domain works.

Copyright has economic benefits. A (valid) copyright entitles the rights holder to commercialize a work, such as through licensing a digital surrogate to a user for a fee. In theory, this can bring in revenue for the rights holder. But copyright-based business models also cost money to run. The economic incentives underlying copyright are important to consider below. Barriers to Open Access discusses whether they hold up in practice.

Moral rights may accompany and complicate copyright. Moral rights protect the author's personal attachment to the work and can differ significantly from one jurisdiction to the next. In some countries, moral rights never expire. This may be relevant for any moral rights in a material work, as well as any new moral rights arising in a digital surrogate.

Cross-border differences among national laws increase risk. Where copyright or moral rights differ from one country to the next, these differences may require GLAMs to consider multiple legal frameworks when digitizing and making public domain collections available online.

Copyright in reproduction media is a contested but unsettled area of law. Whether copyright or other IPR arises in reproduction media of public domain works is an unsettled legal question in most jurisdictions, even where case law or new legislation suggests a copyright is not warranted. Even so, other areas of law provide creative workarounds for releasing materials to the public domain, so long as there is a desire to do so.

Legal uncertainties cause risk-averse habits to form and be normalized. All of the above open questions (along with many others that GLAMs encounter on a daily basis) can lead to risk-averse approaches being taken and normalized within cultural heritage management. The more common these practices become, the more normal they seem and the harder they become to change, for both practical and legal reasons.

These conditions can have a detrimental effect on GLAMs' willingness or ability to take on risk or release public domain materials for public reuse. To aid this discussion, the illustration below clarifies exactly which layer of rights we are focusing on: the rights associated with the reproduction of a public domain work (and other media, like metadata).

Almost a century ago, Paul Valéry wrote: "Works of art will acquire a kind of ubiquity. We shall only have to summon them and there they will be, either in their living actuality or restored from the past. They will not merely exist in themselves but will exist wherever someone with a certain apparatus happens to be." With the range of technologies available today for reproduction and access, we may be well on our way to realizing Valéry's prediction. The advent of mass digitization, the internet, and a vibrant public domain furnish us with the tools necessary for the at-home delivery of the cultural heritage held in GLAM collections. Yet copyright claims far outpace public domain reproductions in terms of ubiquity. In fact, the multiplicity of claims to nearly identical digital surrogates -let alone among the potential layers of reproduction in a single surrogate- obstructs Valéry's notion, even for a work as ubiquitous as the Mona Lisa.

To understand this phenomenon, we must first define the components that have induced it. There is almost an impossibility to scoping copyright, even for a narrow topic such as this one. But other resources exist for that. Here, we'll outline only the circumstances that have spawned copyright's ubiquity in GLAM digital reproduction media.

The discussion below is not framed as criticism of copyright, but rather as a defense of the public domain and a call for greater vigilance and nuance with its protection and management. Copyright is important to support authors, protect authors' connections to their works, and encourage new works to be made in the public interest. Here, we are talking about a very tiny part of copyright law that is being applied to an immeasurable amount of materials stewarded by cultural institutions in a way that is not only legally questionable but also contradicts the public interest. Access and reuse of these materials is important for educating, inspiring, and providing content to the public to make new creative works protected by copyright. Given the dormant economic and societal value of public domain heritage collections, this requires rebalancing access in consideration of user rights, particularly for reproduction of materials in which a valid copyright has expired or never existed. This also requires a deep dive into copyright's conditions to appreciate how it can obstruct its own goals when misapplied.

To start, a brief note on copyright theories. Copyright rewards the creator of a work with a monopoly over its use for a limited time. That copyright is envisioned to incentivize the work's creation and protect the author's investment in its making. Copyright's underlying theories advance that this personal monopoly encourages the production of new creative works, which leads to greater cultural progress and human welfare gains. We all benefit from more creative works and new knowledge.

Originally designed for a material world of books and publishing, copyright has since been extended to protect films, artworks, computer programs, databases, and countless other media types. IPR's growth in the digital era has challenged many of our traditional justifications and normative understandings of copyright. Indeed, research shows that the economic incentive theories upon which copyright is founded increasingly diverge from broader societal patterns around creation, consumption, and welfare benefits. Keep this in mind, because we'll revisit these theories later in relation to GLAMs.

2.3. The Nature of Copyright Protection: both Automatic and Long

Copyright protection is automatic and long. It vests the moment an original expression is fixed in a material form, triggering a bundle of exclusive rights that can last well over a century. No copyright registration or formal notification is necessary to receive the lengthy monopoly over the work's use.

For our purposes, these conditions raise at least two issues. First, it can be difficult to determine a digital surrogate's copyright status online. The rights status of reproduction media is not always clearly displayed, let alone embedded in the file in a machine-readable form. Considering the widespread practice of claiming copyright in reproduction media, users cannot rely on the rights status of the underlying work to clear copyright in the digital surrogate. This introduces uncertainty to whether the work's reproduction is in-copyright versus in the public domain.

Second, the lengthy term of protection is problematic when applied to this type of digital media. The technologies used to reproduce and extend access to a public domain work will obviously move on to new formats long before the (alleged) copyright expires in the digital surrogate. With analog media, there may be historical milestones that render a material reproduction relatively safe to engage with due to changes in copyright law, new legislation, or the overwhelming likelihood that the rights have expired. For example, users can assume that a 19th-century photograph taken more than 150 years ago is in the public domain, or at least that its reuse presents a vanishingly-small amount of risk. However, there is (and may never be) any equivalent period of time with digital reproduction media for practical reasons. By the time the digital media created today is deemed public domain or at least risk-free, its format will almost certainly be obsolete, inaccessible, or insufficient for reuse via future technologies.

Copyright's term of protection was not always so long. Over the years, international developments have strengthened protection standards and imposed compliance obligations on the states that sign them. What began as a national period of protection for 14 years after publication has expanded to an international custom measured by the author's lifetime + 70 years. Many of these legislative reforms even extended the term of protection to works already created and in circulation, which seems directly at odds with copyright's incentive-to-create theories discussed above. Moreover, empirical studies increasingly demonstrate the negative impacts of copyright's long term of protection on cultural welfare goals.

Studies have also shown that copyright can make older in-copyright creative works disappear, which results in less access for a significant chunk of cultural materials. Generally speaking, the public domain contains all the creative works made by authors who died prior to 1950, which means the works can be digitized and made available online. In-copyright works require permission from the rights holder to do the same, which means they are available online to a much lesser degree. In fact, researchers have referred to the period of years following the public domain cut-off ( i.e., 1951 to present) as the "Twentieth-century black hole." Research by Europeana has shown a dramatic drop in the availability of works online as soon as copyright kicks in. With digitization, different black holes will await us by the time the (allegedly) in-copyright digital surrogates of these public domain works pass into the public domain, or what some have predicted might become a digital dark age.

Given that the works being reproduced are in the public domain, the question for us becomes whether the reproduction media attracts any IPR protections, but particularly copyright. The answer hinges on the legal concept and criterion of "originality," meaning whether the reproduction media is sufficiently "original" for copyright protection by national standards. National originality standards are notoriously low and remain largely unharmonised. But if met, copyright vests instantaneously.

This system enables the same party who would benefit from exclusive rights over the reproduction to make the pivotal assessment of "yes, original" or "no, non-original." Copyright will be valid if choices made during reproduction are sufficiently creative, rather than technical. But only the maker of the reproduction can answer this conclusively, and the outcome might depend on a number of moving parts, like whether a scanner versus a camera is used, as well as any post-production digital editing techniques. These factors render the reproduction process open to manipulation for the goal of securing copyright.

With analog methods of pre-production, development, and printing, copyright may once have been (legally) justified by a range of creative decisions potentially available, if taken. However, digital advancements have significantly reduced this scope. Best practices, industry standards, practical and technological limitations, and homogenized workflows further filter what remains. There is no question that reproduction may require significant skill, labor, time, and financial investment. But on that basis alone, its outputs cannot be protected by copyright if the decisions made are technical rather than creative.

The crux of the issue is that in claiming copyright, a GLAM makes two assertions: first, that its reproduction is a new original work created by the GLAM; and, second, that an interpretation of the law would support that copyright and restrict use of the image. Ultimately, the public must trust GLAMs to accurately assess a complex legal question about the originality and subsequent validity of a copyright claim in reproductions of public domain works.

2.5. Copyright and Moral Rights

In addition to copyright, moral rights are important to consider. The two are closely linked: a precondition of moral rights is that a copyright must first subsist in the work. However, moral rights are non-economic in nature and relate to the author's personal connection with the work. The most common examples include the author's right to paternity or attribution ( i.e., the right to be associated with the work) and the right to integrity ( i.e., the right to prevent derogatory or transformative treatment of the work). There is a significant amount of variation in which moral rights are recognized and how they are defined worldwide.

Moral rights also have their own term of protection, which can differ from copyright's term of protection. Some countries tie the term to the author's lifetime, with the rights expiring upon death. Others tie the term of moral rights to the term of copyright, with all the rights expiring at the same moment. Several countries define moral rights to be perpetual, inalienable, and imprescriptible. Depending on the jurisdiction, this means moral rights might survive copyright and continue to apply to public domain works - and be enforceable during cross-border litigation.

Moral rights issues for open GLAM manifest in various ways. First, with material cultural heritage, the act of digitizing a public domain work may require the author's or heir's consent (if they can be found). This obligation may arise via the legislation of the country in which the digitization occurs or the country in which the work was created.

Second, new moral rights for a second author will arise if the digital materials attract copyright. Depending on the jurisdiction, the term of moral rights tied to a reproduction may complicate things further. In some cases, although the copyright can be transferred to the GLAM, the moral rights and their date of expiration remain tied to the author of the reproduction. Moral rights can therefore exacerbate risk when layers of rights apply to both the underlying public domain work(s) andthe digital surrogate. It can also be difficult to determine who holds the copyright and moral right given the nature of collaborative workflows and the scope of contributions made during digitization and post-production. Where valid, the creator(s) will enjoy the right to be identified as the author(s) of the digital reproduction and prevent any distortion, mutilation, modifications, or derogatory actions that would be prejudicial to their reputation. Finally, these rights and how they are defined also differ by jurisdiction. For example, when it comes to the right of integrity, what is or is not "derogatory" may differ from one country to the next. Simple acts like cropping or photo editing could infringe moral rights as distortion or be protected by a copyright exception, such as if it parodies or critiques the work (But which work is parodied? The underlying work or its reproduction?).

The outcomes to these and other questions are highly contextual. They depend on each use and applicable law(s), and reveal the impracticability of enforcing moral rights in the reproduction layer of digital surrogates. There is also a unique tension between the freedom of expression ( i. e., the ability to remix) and the moral right of integrity in a reproduction, something inextricably linked to the integrity of the underlying work. How might a user critique or parody a material work if the (alleged) author of its digital reproduction objects to its treatment? So far, there is no clarity around how these cases should be treated when it comes to open access and GLAM digital collections.

2.6. Differences among National Laws

Despite copyright's globalization, the term of protection(s), the scope of rights arising, and the works eligible can vary by country. These differences can frustrate or problematize the cross-border nature of digital engagement and cultural exchange in a networked information society. This is because the location of the physical media when digitized will trigger which legal frameworks apply and accompany the digital media online.

National laws also might recognize lesser forms of protection, like related rights in photographs or sui generis rights in databases, traditional cultural expressions, or genetic materials. But they can also grant national exceptions around reuse for personal, educational, or other purposes. These differences impact whether and where the rights holder can bring an infringement claim. A diligent end-user should consider IPR frameworks in (at least) two jurisdictions: the country of the rights holder and the country where the use occurs, if different.

By contrast, the public domain provides certainty on many levels (in theory). Once the copyright expires and the work passes into the public domain, infringement concerns melt away. GLAMs may safely reproduce and disseminate the work so that users may safely harvest its creative and derivative potential. However, a new copyright in reproduction media obstructs that creative process and potential, and revives liability questions due to cross-border differences among national laws.

2.7. The Danger of Risk-Averse Practices to Collections Management, Licensing, and Law

To be fair, copyright law is complicated and confusing, even for the legal professionals who practice or teach it. With the consequences of infringement and the need for case-by-case assessments, the most consistent, accurate, and reliable advice is always, frustratingly, "it depends."

For GLAMs, ambiguities in law, variations across different countries, and fears of liability lead to risk-averse approaches being taken and normalized during the management of public domain materials. Protocols developed to navigate the complex legal and social factors of rights management with living artists, rights holders, collecting societies, or donors can be transplanted when making rights determinations relevant to owners, reproduction photographers, and digitization teams. Emerging technologies, advanced imaging techniques, and sophisticated editing software now introduce new novel and complicated questions to those assessments. This is especially true for jurisdictions with strong authors' rights regimes, and/or without work-for-hire doctrines or recognition of similar employment-based agreements. Consequently, risk averse habits creep into new areas of engagement, particularly those that involve public outreach, data collection, and the management of user-generated content. The more unchartered the territory, the denser the legalese often is in a given policy. In the end, this tendency to insulate against risk by claiming or overstating rights through overbroad contractual terms corrodes our understanding of how copyright does, and should, work.

Research shows the real risk is in legitimizing the aversion-based policies, practices, and licensing markets encroaching and expanding in this digital era. Left unchallenged, such customs become commonplace and gain validity among practitioners, which then creep into legal doctrine when taken as proof that the entitlement exists. James Gibson describes this entitlement creep as "doctrinal feedback," which ultimately prevents courts from clarifying IPR's appropriate boundaries. Indeed, the ubiquity of IPR's gray areas leads to the ubiquity of questionable licensing practices, which are then called upon to justify their legality and inform new legislation. As Gibson argues, rather than top-down positive legal developments through legislation and jurisprudence, this results in bottom-up legitimization through practitioners' use of longstanding conventions. The effect is to ingrain a self-referential practice into law, further widening IPR's gray areas as public privilege recedes.

In our case, GLAMs contribute to this legitimization by interpreting IPR's gray areas to avoid perceived risk, to secure an economic advantage through copyright and licensing, or even as a measure to protect the underlying work. Users also contribute to legitimization due to the legal ambiguities that produce this phenomenon in the first place: despite whether the copyright is valid, licensing the reproduction results in quicker access, is usually preferred to the risk of infringement, and is cheaper than getting a second opinion. (Plus, you know, "it depends.") But for everyone unable to pay licensing fees, the copyright claim can chill user engagement, including many legal forms of reuse.

While the application of copyright and licensing models to reproduction media may be longstanding, it has not been without controversy. Like many things, the onset of digital brought greater transparency to and awareness of the existing legal, ethical, and social impacts of this tradition. Still, few consequences await those who claim rights without justification, a practice Jason Mazzone has called "copyfraud."

Despite making a claim to copyright, GLAMs typically lack any intention to pursue the matter in court and risk a negative outcome, especially when a cease-and-desist letter is sufficient and cheaper. In most countries, the loser also pays the court and attorneys fees - a second financial risk. These conditions produce strong disincentives to litigation, which is both necessary and instrumental to outlining the scope of IPR entitlements.

In any case, the claim - even if false - can be bolstered through restrictive website terms rooted in contract law. Put another way, legal conditions and risk averse practices have supported, entrenched, sustained, and even incentivized the practice of claiming copyright in non-original reproduction media.

Copyright as a cog both accelerates and jams the machine of cultural creation. Within this, GLAMs present a special kind of paradox to the public domain. To illustrate, with works that already exist in copies, like books, evidence shows reprints and derivative uses rise when copyright expires. The book (itself a copy) is already in the physical public domain when the work falls into the intellectual public domain. But many GLAMs steward works that are rare or unique, especially by the time copyright expires. Someare so old that they predate copyright entirely. The public is therefore reliant on GLAMs to facilitate reuse of these unique or rare public domain works through reproduction and open licensing.

This particular scenario can defeat the IPR system's aim of promoting the creation and distribution of new cultural works by making reuse of public domain works subject to the reproduction and approval of the object's possessor. Even with rare material works existing in copies, nearly identical digital surrogates appear online under various claims, at different qualities, sizes, formats, and so on. Throw in copyright's excessively long term of protection with the need to make new reproductions to keep up with technological advancements, and that exclusionary effect can live on in perpetuity.

Licensing the copy or circumventing that licensing market to access the underlying work is simply not feasible for the average person. As James Boyle argues, this amounts to a "second enclosure" of heritage, wherein the cultural commons is subjected to a vicious cycle of propertization. To revisit the rare book example, once copyright expires, the text becomes fair game for the public to reuse, in theory. In reality, there are three legal grounds upon which access may remain restricted: (1) by property-based ownership of the rare material object; (2) copyright-based claims in the digital surrogate(s) and expensive licensing models; and (3) contract-based prohibitions around visitor photography onsite and terms of use online.

Collectively, this system thwarts competition, putting the owner in a strong market position to commercialize the out-of-copyright work's value and control its reuse for as long as ownership lasts. Peter Hirtle has argued "[owners] that seek perpetual control over the use of a work are in effect saying that stewardship of a work is more important than the act of creation."While there will be sensitive or cultural materials for which the importance of stewardship outweighs the act of creation, that is not the case for the vast majority in which copyright is claimed during reproduction.

The impact of this system and the practices sheltered by IPRs gray areas have particularly ironic consequences for future GLAMs.

For the public, copyright claims in digital surrogates reduce the vast potential of collections in the public domain to a superficial value for the perfunctory purpose of viewing online. Depending on the type of work, that claim can also monopolize reuse of the knowledge it contains. This long-standing practice stunts creativity, knowledge generation, and innovation around the public domain - even by GLAMs themselves, who might otherwise be incentivized to truly innovate and use public domain collections for purposes beyond basic reproduction. All in all, this system negatively impacts the public's ability to produce new creative works, as well as GLAMs' abilities to collect them.

But it also presents significant IPR clearance issues for future GLAM staff. As digital technologies advance and authors create new works that compile and embed various media sources, like GLAM reproduction media of public domain works, rights clearance will become increasingly complicated and the number of orphan works in these compilations will rise. This is one significant area where GLAMs can reduce risk for future staff and increase efficiency when collecting and extending access to these works. Yet, in the interest of generating short-term revenue, GLAMs end up generating long-term costs for future rights clearance and collections management. All of this leads to disaster for future GLAM staff and open access.

For all the problems it poses, the system does come equipped with a solution: copyright can be transferred or waived - or at least not enforced. As IPR gray areas become even more ubiquitous with digital media, GLAMs are in a position to resolve public uncertainty by waiving copyright or declining its enforcement at least in more basic outputs, should any rights arise. This requires a shift in thinking around copyright and its relationship to public and educational missions. Indeed, these missions provide different incentives for the work's digitization, rather than IPR's traditional incentive-to-create theories that reward authors with exclusive monopolies over the work's use.

Waiver can be perceived to carry additional risk in jurisdictions with strong authors' rights (rather than copyright) regimes, which are rooted in natural rights and personality theories of copyright. Even so, many of these jurisdictions provide for waiver of moral rights and support contractual negotiations around waiver (assuming the work is sufficiently original and protected by copyright in the first place).

So long as the desire is there to release the reproduction media to the public domain, a combination of legal mechanisms may enable a GLAM to do so, and with minimal risk. Indeed, these legal mechanisms are currently shifting in support of protecting the public domain.

2.11. Legal Developments and Support for Protecting the Public Domain

Open GLAM is gaining exciting new ground daily. Key legal developments, cultural politics, and governmental support have helped to spark the necessary momentum. But the crucial work undertaken by adventurous GLAMs, open access advocates, curious volunteers and users, and cultural organizations has been the real driving force behind the movement.

Over the past two decades, a number of legal developments have increased support to the notion that a public domain work should remain in the public domain following reproduction. In the US, the 1998 and 1999 Bridgeman Art Library cases provided a catalyst when the Southern District of New York held that a photographic reproduction of a public domain painting failed to attract copyright under US (and UK) law. A decade later the Tenth Circuit in Meshwerks relied on Bridgeman in finding "the putative creator who merely shifts the medium in which another's creation is expressed has not necessarily added anything beyond the expression contained in the original." A 2016 District Court case from New Mexico extended this logic to 2D reproductions of 3D works when the photographer's choices are "utilitarian" and "made to best copy the three dimensional artifact." Given the jurisdictional nature of US court systems, these judgments had limited binding effect outside of (and even within) their own jurisdictions. Instead, GLAMs voluntarily signed on to these doctrines to better serve public missions.

Similar developments in Europe have led to more than 150 GLAMs today releasing all eligible public domain reproduction media via open licenses and tools. In 2019, the European Commission passed legislation in direct response to a 2018 German case that recognized a lesser, related right for technical (rather than creative) skill in analog photographic reproductions of public domain paintings made by the Reiss Engelhorn Museum and held that a visitor's personal photographic reproductions uploaded to Wikimedia Commons violated the Museum's onsite policy banning photography. As of June 2021, Article 14 of the Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market Directive prevents anyone in the EU from claiming copyright or related rights in any non-original reproduction media, including metadata, software, photography, 3D scans, and other various (and future) outputs. Article 14 formalizes almost two decades of open GLAM efforts to protect the public domain status of digital collections. Indeed, the data produced on human welfare gains and new innovations through expanded access to the public domain has been crucial to both legislative and individual GLAM policy reform.

Given the impact of EU and US laws, similar developments are likely to continue materializing among other jurisdictions. In 2017, the Indoneisan government implemented Law No.5/2017 on Cultural Advancement, with Article 15 establishing plans for a government portal for integrated cultural data. In her article on open GLAM Indonesia, Annayu Maharani highlights the need for greater awareness and understanding of open access frameworks and digital capacity-building to facilitate participation. So far, the preferred license of choice seems to be CC BY-SA. But this raises an important point: many of the larger and well-resourced GLAMs under pressure to release collections have been able to commercialize their reproductions for decades (and even centuries). With the onset of open GLAM, smaller and less well-resourced GLAMs are now expected to make an even greater leap, and not only to create and prepare digital collections for release but also to conform to the open access expectations shaped by an increasingly globalized copyright system.

In later Pubs, we'll discuss how the legacy of colonization contributes to IPR globalization and copyright transplantation. Here, it's worth highlighting the importance of documenting spread and judicial interpretations among these jurisdictions to generate important data that can be fed back into more inclusive approaches to digital collections management for cross-border access and reuse. This is revisited in Benefits to Open GLAM.

2.12. Growing Divide(s) among (Open) GLAMs

There are growing divides among GLAMs with online and/or open access collections, some of which is due to the inability to participate for various reasons discussed throughout this resource. This is especially the case for smaller and less well-resourced GLAMs and community organizations that lack copyright knowledge and capacity to digitize and release collections as open access. The digital divide among these GLAMs causes one significant imbalance among the types of collections and geographic regions represented online. Without support, many of these collections will remain inaccessible and underexplored.

Another divide is growing within GLAMs that digitize and release collections as open access. Financial decisions, funding schemes, or private partnerships can impact which materials are prioritized for digitization and open access programmes, as well as which materials are prioritized for commercialization over open access. Less well-resourced GLAMs may rely almost entirely on external funding or partnerships to support digitization.

For those with capacity and digitized collections, the pressure is on to embrace open access. The Smithsonian Institution's February 2020 release of 2.8 million digital surrogates via a CC0 public domain dedication is likely a huge tipping point for the cultural sector, as it spans across collections held by galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions and research centers. As more GLAMs follow the lead of others, these divides will continue to increase.

At the same time, the open access divide seems to be generating new imbalances. Open access collections made available by copyright-knowing GLAMs are more visible online. The openly-licensed status is now shaping which types of cultural materials are selected for research and creative reuse. This generates new tensions around what remains (or should remain) part of our living cultural memory, receive representation and visibility, and even the type of data used to inform the various algorithms, machine learning, and computational research that increasingly mediates society.

Having a greater awareness and understanding of these divides, their causes, and effects may help the open GLAM ecosystem to design innovative and (more) sustainable solutions to digitization, representation, and participation with cultural collections online. These tensions are explored further in Power Inequities.

Right now, copyright (and other IPR) may be the primary stumbling block to open access and digitally-enabled participation. Sharing evidence of digitization workflows, processes, and management is also crucial to enabling wider and more efficient participation. But other areas can also conflict with or resemble copyright protections that need addressing.

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How this area overlaps with open GLAM: Copyright is intended to incentivize the production of new creative works and protect authors' connection to them. In return, the author receives exclusive rights over the creative work and can commercialize or release them for various uses.

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Many factors raise barriers to open access. Some are specific to a particular GLAM, sector, collection, or jurisdiction. Barriers most commonly referenced among GLAMs and wider scholarship include:

A lack of copyright education and knowledge or access to expertise. For many GLAMs, the inability to determine whether works are in the (global) public domain versus in-copyright can override desires to prepare collections for open access release. This is a crucial area where the OpenGLAM initiative might be able to provide support and help build capacity among the GLAM ecosystem.

The expense of digitization. Digitization is expensive and can hinge on the costs of technology, labor, expertise, internal and external digital infrastructure, and its storage, preservation, and management. These costs are ongoing and require significant investment to keep up with advancements in new technologies and forms of engagement. With decreased funding, GLAMs are hesitant to give up any revenue (however small) that can support digitization programs, including licensing.

Private partnerships and their contracts. Because of these costs, GLAMs sometimes form exclusive partnerships with companies that provide digitization and commercialization services. While GLAMs typically receive copies as part of the agreement, the partnership contracts and third-party IPR claims typically prohibit GLAMs from releasing these copies under open access frameworks.

Desires to license “commercial use.” Some GLAMs view certain noncommercial uses as falling within educational missions, but license commercial use. How copyright law distinguishes between commercial and noncommercial use is fraught with jurisdictional and other highly-contextual considerations, which may not align with GLAMs’ views.

Desires to retain control. Fears around loss of control of a work and its educational context are often cited as why licensing models remain necessary. In these cases, IPR claims are also used to protect the work, the artist, its context, and the host institution.

Fears around the public domain and freeriding. Fears that releasing digital surrogates to the public domain will enable commercial photo libraries to freeride on GLAMs efforts are legitimate and already happening. This practice is legal due to the material’s public domain status.

Free entry onsite as justification for licensing fees. GLAMs without open access programs sometimes reference free onsite entry as a trade-off and justification for charging licensing fees. These GLAMs equivocate this practice with open GLAMs that charge high entry fees as evidence for why the open access program is possible. However, data suggests the majority of the museums and galleries that release collections under open access frameworks charge nominal fees or provide free entry onsite (the data excludes libraries and archives as they typically provide free entry).

Licensing as a (bad) business model. Citing licensing as a business model that drains resources, some GLAMs are exploring the new forms of commercialization, merchandising, and revenue opportunities made possible by open access and the public domain.

Practical barriers (beyond the scope of this resource). Other practical barriers will arise obstructing open access implementation. Such a major policy change requires staff buy-in across various departments (including those who worry open access may eliminate their jobs). More importantly, it requires a commitment by administrative staff at the highest levels.1 For many institutions, the lack of digital expertise or technology renders open GLAM participation impossible. Even GLAMs with digital support note difficulties keeping up with an area that evolves so rapidly. Open access can even exacerbate an institution’s technology gaps or weak spots, as it may lead to additional traffic and increased demand on technical infrastructure.2 For the most part, these practical barriers fall outside the scope of this paper. Resources are available that document individual experiences, how to approach or move past these barriers, and how to structure for digital success.3

Below, we’ll examine each the obstacles and evidence that suggest copyright claims in reproduction media pose more problems than solutions.

5.1. Digitization is Ridiculously Expensive (But the Licensing Fees!)

Let’s first address the financial elephant in the room. Digitization is costly. It requires long term planning, active maintenance, time and expertise, and sustained investment – all of which were scarce resources prior to COVID-19.4 Our collective governments have seriously underfunded the cultural sector for years. It is no wonder copyright’s economic benefits are sought to support digital operations. While not unwarranted, evidence shows this ambition is misplaced, even for the purposes of cost recovery.

As early as 2004, research by Simon Tanner revealed reproduction charging models were not profitable among a group of large American art museums.5 In his study, Tanner found little, inconclusive, or inconsistent data being monitored for factors like costs of production, administrative workflows, salary and overhead expenses, monitoring and enforcement, technological support, and delivery.6 Many museums reported funneling any income back into the service, which operated at a greater cost to the museum than it brought in.7 A few exceptions were able to profit off of a relatively tiny group of seminal or popular works.8 Even today, GLAMs cannot say with accuracy whether licensing models are profitable once costs are accounted for. One reason for this is because the granularity of financial modelling required to do so is not prioritized by non-profit organizations, nor should it be.9 Although Tanner’s 2004 study focused exclusively on museums, subsequent studies across the GLAM sector have reinforced his findings.10

Yet someone must pay for digitization and the costs it entails. Without a doubt, governments fail to provide GLAMs with crucial, adequate, and sustainable funding to enable them to fulfill their ever-expanding remits. Some public funding schemes obligate GLAMs to generate revenue via follow-on activities.11 Licensing thus provides an easy means to discharge this duty, pass costs on to consumers (i.e., their public), and feed revenue back into digitization programs.

Plus, for some GLAMs, licensing may generate not insignificant amounts. Any sum of revenue is difficult to abandon in the face of tightening belts. Indeed, austerity measures and decreased government funding over the years have caused GLAMs to over rely on copyright’s economic benefits and design strategies that support business-driven goals, sometimes out of survival. With budgets now at further risk due to COVID-19, making the case to walk away from licensing revenue and release digital materials to the public domain is only getting harder.

But what is the greater cost to the public and the economy when public domain collections remain locked up via (dubious) copyright claims? And what new forms of direct and indirect revenue might flow from open access business models that could surpass the amounts received via licensing revenue? There’s really only one way to find out.

While policy developments in the past decade have led to measurable progress, GLAMs continue to encounter significant financial barriers during the transition to open.12 This is unlikely to change anytime soon. But overcoming the first hurdle to open GLAM participation requires decision makers to change their mindsets around the reuse of collections, moving the digitization program from promoting business- to mission-driven activities.13

5.2. Private Partnerships and Contracts

One (very) attractive option to reducing the financial burden of digitization is to bring someone else in to do it entirely.

Public-private partnerships are sought because they bring the technology and know-how to digitize collections and are often accompanied by forms of income that help augment operational costs. These partnerships can introduce third-party commercial interests into IPR and digital collections management. Questions will arise around contractual obligations to partners who claim IPR in the digital outputs, whether or not the IPR is valid.14 The cumulative effect is to entrench approaches that prioritize commercialization and risk aversion above open GLAM goals.

Contracts and IPR are both limited in scope and time, but those limits can conflict in practice. For example, contractual terms might create an exclusive partnership between a GLAM and third party for a limited period, after which the GLAM can form new agreements around digitization and collections management. But unless the limited period extends to the rights in the resulting media, GLAMs are effectively bound and limited with what they can do with the media for the term of the copyright. This means many GLAMs cannot release their copies of the digital collections via open frameworks even if they wanted to. Instead, new digitizations must be made for any purpose not covered by the copyright or contract.

Here, faults must be fairly attributed to the wider system that is defaulting on its obligations to adequately support cultural heritage institutions and their publics. Decisions to commercialize collections via private partnerships are never self-interested decisions made in a vacuum. Moreover, some of these partnerships can be incredibly exciting and open up new opportunities for GLAMs and the public. Digitization might only be the first step toward a more innovative initiative that produces new data, research, software, and technologies for something like artificial intelligence or machine learning. During negotiations for such initiatives, GLAMs should advocate for more nuanced approaches to how the non-original and more basic reproduction outputs can be released under open access frameworks.

Lastly, GLAMs are not without support from their public. New engagement via crowdsourcing and volunteer communities might be expanded to test crowdsourcing the digitization labor, data management, and expertise necessary to prepare collections for open access frameworks and platforms.15 This raises questions around capacity, privilege, and compensation for labor discussed further in Power Inequities.

5.3. Desires to License “Commercial Use”

One middle road taken by many GLAMs is to differentiate between “commercial” use and other uses. This is typically done by permitting use for limited personal or educational purposes via the website terms of use, or by releasing content via a Creative Commons Noncommercial license (e.g., CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND, CC BY-NC-SA). This approach is seen as discharging educational obligations to the general public while preserving the ability to benefit from the commercial users who profit from GLAMs’ digitization efforts.

Legally, however, national framings of commercial and noncommercial activity can be unclear, which can chill the very use that GLAMs seek to enable.16 Most educational use sits somewhere in the middle, or at least is less commercial than clearly commercial uses. A small detail, such as the payment of a conference fee, can move a researcher’s lecture from non- or less-commercial to commercial, whether via the institution’s own terms of use and licensing requirements or copyright law in the conference’s jurisdiction.

Disparate and bespoke website terms on educational use among GLAMs add to the confusion: GLAMs might define “educational use” according to details around the image dimensions or resolution, by placing a cap on the number of works that can be used for free, or via specific contexts, such as “scholarly” use or use in an academic blog.17

Research on publication fees shows further disparities appear in pricing models that make blanket assumptions about the profitability and costs of publication models.18 By contrast, commercial publishers might place the burden of those fees on the author or provide limited budgets for reproduction fees, which authors must then supplement with personal funds.19 Charges for a single image can often outprice the cost of the actual publication.20 Others may seem reasonable in isolation, but the total costs quickly become unaffordable when multiple images and licenses are required.21 Faced with mounting fees and restrictions, some researchers reported reducing the amount of content quoted or included, or abandoning projects altogether.22

Similar to contracts, licenses are limited in scope and time. This means if a researcher licenses an image to study a work, that image cannot (legally) be used for any other purpose. Its inclusion in a lecture, blog post, or journal article will require a new license and fee payment to the rights holder. Licenses also expire. After a five-year license, a researcher will need to renew the license to (legally) continue using the image, subject to a new license and fee payment. And while researchers may pay to license a high-resolution image for publication (and study it, but don’t tell), most journals and periodicals print in black and white or at lower-resolution formats, undermining some value (and the price paid) for the image’s inclusion.23 One study noted that art history scholars expect to take extra steps to find a better quality image when the image paired with the article is sub-par or entirely absent.24 In other words, the public now turns to the internet, most likely Google Images.25

The difficulties distinguishing between commercial and scholarly use have motivated some GLAMs to reduce reuse barriers by adopting more open policies.26 Others have turned to licensing frameworks like Creative Commons. The Creative Commons NonCommercial (NC) license introduces some clarity due to the official interpretation of “educational use,” but the application of a NC license raises four concerns.27 First, Creative Commons does not support applying NC (and other) licenses to non-original reproduction media of public domain works. For this, CC0 is recommended.28 Second, the application of a noncommercial restriction to any material does not satisfy definitions of “open” for open access purposes. Both of these points are detailed further in Clarifying “Open”. The third issue is that “noncommercial” refers to the uses, not the users. This means NC licenses do not necessarily deter the types of actors that some GLAMs might think they deter. Finally, a number of GLAMs that apply a CC NC license to reproduction media also include a statement in the copyright policy of the specific activities considered to be commercial versus noncommercial. Many activities conflict with the official Creative Commons interpretation. In the event of a dispute, which terms should prevail?

Ultimately, financial barriers to open access for GLAMs translate to downstream reuse barriers for the public, even for GLAMs that seek to enable noncommercial and educational use.

Fears around loss of control erect philosophical barriers in terms of who should be able to interpret or generate knowledge around a collection, and for what purposes. In Tanner’s 2004 study, museums reported that between fee collection and control, the more important factor for licensing was retaining control to ensure credit was maintained to the host museum, artists, and their works.29 Studies on archives, special collections, libraries, and the value of metadata report similar control-seeking outcomes.30 These fears may be reflected in fee models that price images out of reach for most audiences and safeguard an image’s scarcity.31

Licensing also ensures a wider system of “permissions” may be employed: even when fees can be paid, the desire to control how the image is used, interpreted, and discussed may lead the (alleged) rights holder to deny a user’s request.32 Refusals might be based on factors from the user’s intention to alter or crop the image, to perceived conflicts with an institution’s subjective values and ideas of what constitutes inappropriate use or even disrespect of the artist, artwork, or institution.33 A copyright claim provides a convenient protectionist measure with added economic benefits.

This paternalistic practice has no basis in law. It also communicates an inherent distrust in the public. As Maria Vlachou has argued, “objects in the public domain belong to everyone and no one has appointed museum professionals as arbiters of taste.”34 Open access thus requires GLAMs to be willing to educate users around best practices and to tolerate the risks associated with misuse.35

To date, there has been little evidence to suggest these fears will materialize.36 Even anecdotes of racist misuse cannot justify a practice that increasingly conflicts with copyright law.37 (Although other steps can and should be taken to reduce such risk.) For a discussion of pros and cons related to the good actor / bad actor licensing question, Michael Weinberg made a compelling argument in favor of less intimidation and risk aversion in licensing and reuse policies.38

5.5. Fears around the Public Domain and Freeriding

Another fear relates to the possibility that once reproduction media is marked public domain, others will download and license it for profit. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable and inevitable.

Some GLAMs have already encountered instances of free and open access images offered for sale on commercial licensing websites. The images are identical in size and resolution to those uploaded to Wikimedia Commons or made available through the GLAM’s own website. However, they are obscured by watermarks and lack details about the image’s public domain status and host institution. Alamy and its contributors have been repeat offenders of this.39 While such freeriding may seem unfair and against the spirit of open access, it is entirely legal – and it has legal precedent to back it up.

In 2016, Getty Images was sued for doing this exact thing by photographer Carol Highsmith, who dedicated thousands of her original photographs to the public domain upon depositing them with the Library of Congress.40 Getty Images even sent Highsmith a cease-and-desist letter demanding she pay the company a licensing fee for using one of her own public domain images on her website. The $1 billion lawsuit for gross misuse and false attribution was dismissed on the grounds that the images were in the public domain.41 Accordingly, any reuse was permitted, including the commercial licensing of public domain works.42 It’s worth noting the parties settled out of court on New York state law claims related to deceptive business practices.43

Both Merete Sanderhoff of the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) and Karin Glasemann of the Nationalmuseum Sweden have asked Alamy to remove their public domain images from the commercial licensing platform, with limited success. Any images removed were of gallery spaces and taken down for privacy reasons. Regarding the public domain artworks, Sanderhoff suggests playing offense: “all we can do is advertise that our images are free and keep pushing the OpenGLAM agenda to become more widely known, so the public comes to understand they don’t have to pay for the images.”

If open GLAM becomes the norm, this could collectively knock the wind out some of these practices. At the very least, a diligent user might know to perform a reverse image search to locate the open access version before paying a licensing fee.

5.6. Free Entry as a Tradeoff (But the Ticket Fees!)

One final point to make is specific to galleries and museums, since it is uncommon for libraries and archives to charge entry fees.

Some decision makers have commented that the galleries and museums with open collections are able to recover lost licensing income through high ticket fees at the door. An example often relied on is the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which charges €20 for entry. In 2015, the Rijksmuseum released 150,000 high-quality digital surrogates and collections data to the public domain (that number now exceeds 600,000). Afterward, the museum saw a marked increase in visitors. The Rijksmuseum example is often used and assumed to be representative of other galleries and museums with the availability to use ticket fees to offset revenue loss and support open access digitization programs.

The data shows otherwise. Of the (at least) 133 galleries and museums who release all eligible data open access, the majority (79) charge the equivalent of €5 or less at the door for entry.44 In fact, the 65 galleries and museums listed below provide both free access onsite and open access for all collections online. Many release rich, high-quality collections data.

Australia: Museums Victoria

Brazil: Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo

Estonia: Eesti Tuletõrjemuuseum, Harjumaa Muuseum

Finland: Helsingin kaupunginmuseo, Museuvirasto, Satakunnan Museo, Sotamuseo, Vantaan kaupunginmuseo

France: Maison de Balzac, Maison de Victor Hugo, Musée Carnavalet, Musee Cognacq-Jay, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Brieuc, Musée d'art moderne de Paris, Musée de Bretagne, Musée de la Vie romantique, Petit Palais

Hungary: Semmelweis Orvostörténeti Múzeum

New Zealand: Forrester Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Waitaki Museum and Archive

Portugal: Museu da Cidade de Aveiro

Slovakia: Slovenská národná galéria

Sweden: ArkDes, Armémuseum, Dalarna museum, Flygvapenmuseum, Hallwylska museet, Hälsinglands Museum, Karlsborgs Fästningsmuseum, Litografiska Museet, Livrustkammaren, Marinmuseum, Mölndals stadsmuseum, Nationalmuseum, Skoklosters slott, Sörmlands Museum, Statens maritima museer, Vänersborgs museum

United States: Albright-Knox, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Birmingham Museum of Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University, Detroit Institute of Arts, Freer Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, J. Paul Getty Trust, Minneapolis Institute of Art, National Air and Space Museum, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of African Art, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the American Indian, National Portrait Gallery, National Postal Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Walters Art Museum, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Art Gallery

Of the remaining 54 galleries and museums:

21 charge fees between the equivalent of €5 and €9.99;

22 charge fees between the equivalent of €10 and €14.99;

7 charge fees between the equivalent of €15 and €19.99; and

5 charge fees of €20 or more.

Of course, this data cannot alleviate pressures to self-finance via ticketing or licensing fees (made worse by COVID-19 and the loss of foot traffic to support other commercial aspects, like the gift shop or café). It is also worth noting that in the year following the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s February 2017 announcement on the adoption of CC0 for all reproduction media, the museum announced it would resume the $25 admission fees for non-New York State residents.45 But the data does suggest adopting open GLAM without relying on ticket sales to replace licensing income is possible. Ultimately, governments must step in and adequately fund the cultural sector to facilitate digitization and open GLAM.

5.7. Copyright as a (Really Bad) Business Model

Ultimately, these barriers obstruct the potential of new innovation around public domain collections, as well as innovation around open access as a new business model. Instead of sustaining licensing systems that require overhead and drain resources, we might explore what new and exciting forms of commercialization, merchandising, and revenue opportunities flow from open access. Some examples of this are discussed in Benefits to Open Access, but more research and data on open access business models is necessary to inform more sustainable policy change.

In the meantime, mediated approaches to revenue generation can still be explored. Some examples include:

Transparent fees that pass costs to the user. Libraries and archives typically charge service fees when providing data, which are more transparent and affordable to users than copyright fee structures. (Digitization costs will obviously vary depending on the work, format, any data management and post production, and type of request.) For requests that require new digitizations, GLAMs can (and already do) pass costs on to the consumer. Fee models can build in and list hidden costs like the maintenance, storage, and delivery of digital heritage. GLAMs already operating such systems might publish their pricing schedules and modelling to aid the wider sector. The more transparent and reasonable these fees are, the more justified the ask of the service fee will seem. Why continue modelling costs on copyright licensing, which are opaque and more difficult to defend?

Donation or pay-what-you-can systems. To illustrate, one unnamed GLAM website previously allowed users to make contributions immediately prior to image download. Donation amount options were aligned with the costs of conservation, purchasing equipment, or running an educational program (e.g., €5 buys one paintbrush for conservators; €50 buys art supplies for a drawing class of 25 students). Donors could also include personal messages, which then were advertised alongside their donation with notes of gratitude by the GLAM. This system could easily be adapted to support and promote the costs of digitization and digital collections management. These costs remain so transparent users are often unaware they exist. Donation amount options could align with costs of digitization programs (€29 enables us to digitize one new painting; €100 pays for 100G of cloud storage services for one year). Moreover, there are many emerging examples of pay-what-you-can business models in other sectors. Some GLAMs even have pay-what-you-can entry fees or suggested donations. Why not also open GLAM?

More nuanced data releases. Data releases don’t need to be all-or-nothing, or tied up in big announcements around a massive website design and digital program overhaul. GLAMs can begin by releasing smaller datasets and basic digital outputs as open access. More than 600 GLAMs have taken this approach so far, rather than adopting an institutional wide policy. This approach can even be with more sophisticated projects (with private partners) that produce a range of IPR. The non-original or basic media appropriate for open access can be released while more sophisticated IPR can be retained for commercialization. The sector might collectively explore and share how to make better business decisions around digital media management that do not cling to low-hanging IPR and rely on scarcity in a (shrinking) market.

More equitable contracts with private partners. This one is tricky and will depend on a GLAM’s bargaining power and familiarity with contract negotiations. How can we encourage and establish more equitable contracts with various partners? This is not to say such partnerships are by default imbalanced. But there are many boilerplate contractual provisions or standard terms that could result in a GLAM assigning or limiting rights that, for example, affect access, reuse, or royalties generated by patents or other sophisticated IPR generated during a partnership. Sharing examples and tips and creative solutions could positively impact future rights management and revenue generation (including how to get around confidentiality clauses, if included – not everything is commercially sensitive information).

Merchandising! This one is obvious, and already happening.

And, importantly, any combination of these can be used.

Note to the reader: what else should be included in this list?

It may seem difficult to design more sustainable systems that are not based on copyright, but the evidence consistently suggests that literally anything might be more sustainable than clinging to the licensing status quo.

Data on image licensing after open access implementation reveals varying impacts. Some early adopters of middle-of-the-road policies reported a marked decrease in commercial licensing that was already on a downward trajectory;46 some were not concerned with licensing revenue loss to begin with;47 others noted little to no decrease in licensing revenue following open access adoption.48 There are even a few examples of temporary increases in image sales.49 One reason is because commercial publishers and licensors typically prefer to pay (and have budgets) for that precious piece of paper ensuring use is legal.

Finally, relevance is a significant risk with closed collections. As more GLAMs go open, online traffic and consumption will increasingly follow the openly-licensed materials. Accordingly, the risks shift from those associated with adopting open access to the downsides of maintaining restrictive policies.50 Copyright income is already limited and will continue to decrease as reuse patterns redirect to open collections. Other downsides could include decreased opportunities around brand licensing revenue, limited public engagement with collections on popular websites, or reduced general awareness of collections.51 Maintaining relevance in an attention economy is important, but it is particularly so when leveraging the potential of open collections to connect with users globally through new technologies to enable new knowledge and markets to develop around reproduction media.52 Through open access, many GLAMs have seen gains from new business opportunities and industry relationships, new methods of engagement, knowledge generation, and collections management, and greater fulfillment of public missions, in general.

There is a certain irony when GLAMs fail to level the public domain playing field by locking their public(s) out of its reuse. But governments must also support the cultural sector with adequate financial, practical, and legal infrastructure to digitize collections and actually implement open access programs. As business models around cultural content diversify and digitization incorporates new technologies, we risk allowing public domain collections and their relevance to become exclusive markets for commodification by only those trusted with their care or permitted to access them. Instead, GLAM decision makers and their governments must heed legal scholars’ warnings against the privatization of cultural heritage and the distortion of future knowledge.53 We’ll discuss how this unfolds in Power Inequities.

Continue to Benefits to Open Access

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Many factors raise barriers to open access. Some are specific to a particular GLAM, sector, collection, or jurisdiction. Barriers most commonly referenced among GLAMs and wider scholarship include: A lack of copyright education and knowledge or access to expertise.

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If open GLAM is to achieve its goals, building consensus across the GLAM ecosystem appears to necessary on (at least) four initial points:

The status of IPR in non-original reproduction media. No new rights should arise in basic or non-original reproduction media. To aid this, and future rights management, a clear and useful definition of “open” is necessary to inform: (1) owners’ appropriate application of licenses, tools, and labels to reproduction and other media; and (2) the public’s appropriate reuse of reproduction media.

The sharing of basic or non-original reproduction media, other materials, and relevant workflows. The voluntary sharing of this data and information is paramount to open GLAM.

The availability of data and its appropriateness for access and reuse. Not all data should be “open,” digitally available, or even accessed. Some materials should be set aside from digitization initiatives and IPR frameworks entirely.

The myth of neutrality. GLAMs, open GLAM, and the wider ecosystem are not neutral spaces. Digitization, access, and the application of IPR (even where supported by law) are not neutral acts.

Building consensus on these initial points will result in more appropriate management of and engagement with digital and material cultural heritage in the public domain.

The starting point for consensus-building requires an agreement on the application of IPR to non-original reproduction media.

In the years following the Bridgeman Art Library decision,1 dozens of scholars have advocated against originality in reproduction media and documented the impact a copyright claim can have on the public domain and access,2 scholarship,3 public reuse,4 and public missions.5 Yet, research reveals the pervasiveness of copyright claims despite its drawbacks and thin legal status,6 as well as the harm it poses by effectively privatizing public domain collections.7 As detailed in Copyright and Human Rights, IPR claims in non-original reproduction media result in damage to public welfare, cultural diversity and memory, and knowledge generation in an increasingly networked environment.8

There is also a legitimate possibility that this legal question may never be definitively resolved, at least not with an outcome suitable enough to deter owners from making future copyright claims in new reproduction media and formats meant for cross-border environments. New technologies for reproduction will raise novel questions to whether IPR can arise in the various digital outputs. The GLAM ecosystem must commit to disclaiming IPR in non-original or basic reproduction on principle and in line with public missions.

8.2. Consensus No. 2: Voluntary Sharing is Central to Open GLAM

The second point for consensus-building requires a commitment to voluntarily share high-quality reproduction media and other resources that can support wider participation in open GLAM.9

Even if no rights arise or are claimed, owners are under no legal obligation to voluntarily release non-original materials or other IPR protected media with limited commercialization value, like metadata templates or digital workflows.10 Technical measures may also be taken to mediate access to what is shared. For example, some owners release (very) low resolution data under open frameworks, while restricting access to higher quality data through copyright claims. Open GLAM is undermined when high-value datasets are generated but withheld from the public because of their commercial potential (the key word being potential).

Whenever possible, owners should share data for free. This commitment does not suggest that all fees for providing digitization and delivery services are inappropriate. Only licensing fee-models are neither appropriate for non-original media nor transparent. Instead, licensing models are opaque and distort the actual costs of digitization programs.

This commitment (re)centers users and “open” in open GLAM by ensuring the public will have access to high-quality public domain data, where it exists, and can reuse that data and exercise their right to participate in cultural life, as envisioned by human rights and copyright law. It also leads to greater support among the GLAM ecosystem, through the sharing of administrative processes, tools, and lessons learned to improve the design and efficiency of new digitization programs for newcomers and less well-resourced GLAMs.

8.3. Consensus No. 3: Not All Data Should be Open or Accessed

The third point for consensus-building requires a willingness to set certain materials aside from digitization, IPR, digital access, open access, and even access systems entirely. On its face, this might seem to contradict Consensus No. 2 to voluntarily share high-quality data, and widely. However, Consensus No. 3 introduces nuance to our assessment of what is fit for this purpose, or any of the acts of management leading to open access, and who should decide and guide those assessments.

This view aligns with the human rights measures and declarations discussed in Human Rights, and centers considerations like privacy and the sensitivity of materials. In the rush to digitize and reach new audiences and make everything online, some serious mistakes are being made by everyone in the GLAM ecosystem. Not everything is appropriate for digitization, IPR, digital access, open access, or even physical access. Each of these acts, and reuse, can harm the individuals or cultures associated with the collections, their descendants, or wider communities. This is particularly the case with ancestral remains. How this can materialize is discussed in Decolonization and Indigenization.

8.4. Consensus No. 4: GLAMs, Digitization, IPR, Open GLAM, etc., are Not Neutral

The final point for consensus-building requires the ecosystem to acknowledge and accept that our cultural and legal institutions are not neutral. Nor might any “objective” sense of the word be defended as suitable for all culture(s).11 We’ll summarize this now, and revisit this chain of non-neutrality in more detail in Power Inequities.

In 2017, GLAM advocates La Tanya Autry and Mike Murawski started the #MuseumsAreNotNeutral campaign to bring attention to the myth of neutrality in our cultural institutions and demand equitable approaches to their transformation.12 As Autry and Murawski and others have highlighted, our institutions have a long and direct history tied to the meaning making and value making that has occured during periods of colonization and political power.13 These ties continue to inform and shape contemporary approaches to acquisition, cataloging and collections management, exhibition design and display, authority and knowledge production, and countless other practices that are deeply embedded in heritage institutions and academic fields.

Episode 27: Museums Are Not Neutral by Museopunks

One of these practices is digitization. That initial decision to “preserve” or “copy” a work, and the selection of which work to digitize and make a new digital asset is not neutral either. The act of digitization is a new act of collection and/or acquisition related to the work itself. Nor is the resulting “copy” of the work neutral, since it represents a specific and cultural idea of what it means to make a “faithful reproduction.”

Moreover, where that reproduction physically takes place will trigger the specific legal system(s) that apply to that activity and its outputs. This raises another non-neutral practice, the decision to claim IPR and/or release the materials via open access frameworks.

This myth of neutrality and objectivity even extends to the systems that have given us property and copyright law, and the corresponding concepts of ownership, exclusivity, creativity, and originality, that our legal and cultural institutions reinforce through the regulation and management of culture. These dominant systems also require equitable approaches to their transformation, or at least to limiting their application and the harmful effects they can have.

These questions are becoming increasingly urgent for the open GLAM ecosystem to tackle. Without consensus on these four areas, we cannot build consensus around the more complex emerging questions for open GLAM discussed in New Areas of Focus. But a more holistic understanding of IPR, heritage management, transparency, and access is required to do so. The rest of this section outlines disparate practices and aims to provide greater clarity so we might develop a more critical approach to open GLAM.

Continue to Clarifying “Open”

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Building Copyright Consensus · Open GLAM

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Four key areas where the GLAM ecosystem should work to build consensus

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Sarah Dominique Orlandi; Deborah De Angelis; Pierfrancesco Fasano; Cristina Manasse; Anna Maria Marras; Mirco Modolo

FAQs AUTHOR'S RIGHTS, COPYRIGHT AND OPEN LICENSES FOR CULTURE ON THE WEB
100 questions and answers for museums, archives and libraries

By Digital Cultural Heritage Research Group - ICOM ITALY. Sarah Dominique Orlandi coordinator, Deborah De Angelis, Pierfrancesco Fasano, Cristina Manasse, Anna Maria Marras, Mirco Modolo

FAQ with practical indications for museums, archives and libraries, with the aim of clarifying the opportunities and legal limits related to the reuse and dissemination of digital reproduction of cultural resources on the web, in order to be able to take decisions on topics of a complex world with a better awareness.

We thank colleagues who have helped us with important observations and suggestions during the selection and revision of these FAQs, for their valuable contribution.

Revised version March 16, 2021 (Question 105) - Previous version Feb, 18 2021.

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FAQs AUTHOR'S RIGHT, COPYRIGHT AND FREE LICENSES FOR CULTURE ON THE WEB

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FAQs AUTHOR'S RIGHTS, COPYRIGHT AND OPEN LICENSES FOR CULTURE ON THE WEB 100 questions and answers for museums, archives and libraries By Digital Cultural Heritage Research Group - ICOM ITALY.

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Professional Forum

Friday, April 16, 2021: 11:00am - 12:00pm - - Professional Forum

Jennie Choi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA, Andrew Lih, Wikimedia, United States

The Metropolitan Museum began working with the Wikimedia/Wikipedia community in 2017 with the release of over 375,000 public domain images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Over the past two years the museum has continued its partnership with the community by adding records to Wikidata (the free, multilingual, structured database of Wikipedia) This has allowed the Met to provide greater access to its works, reach new audiences, and see the collection in new contexts.

In this session we'll take a deep dive into Wikidata as the world's most popular linked open data project, by discussing how it works and how it benefits museums and cultural institutions. We will review existing use cases, and describe the process of contributing images and metadata. We will show examples of how the world's top search engines and voice assistants rely on Wikidata to serve up results and answer queries. Along with these benefits, we will also discuss the technological, political and legal challenges facing museums in contributing content. We will demonstrate querying Wikidata and what can be done with the results in creating interactive visualizations and in artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.

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Professional Forum Friday, April 16, 2021: 11:00am - 12:00pm - - Professional Forum Jennie Choi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA, Andrew Lih, Wikimedia, United States The Metropolitan Museum began working with the Wikimedia/Wikipedia community in 2017 with the release of over 375,000 public domain images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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Speakers

Principal, Spellerberg Associates

Research, design and development for artists, museums, cultural institutions. Director of Spellerberg Projects, an art space in Lockhart TX.

Assistant Professor, Museum Studies, George Washington University

Tuesday October 19, 2021 1:00pm - 1:15pm EDT
Channel 1

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MCN 2021 VIRTUAL: Welcome to Ethical Responsibilities of M...

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Speakers Principal, Spellerberg Associates Research, design and development for artists, museums, cultural institutions. Director of Spellerberg Projects, an art space in Lockhart TX. Assistant Professor, Museum Studies, George Washington University Tuesday October 19, 2021 1:00pm - 1:15pm EDT Channel 1

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Museums are public-facing, collections-based institutions that preserve and transmit knowledge, culture and history for past, present and future generations.

This places museums in an important position of trust in relation to their audiences, local communities, donors, source communities, partner organisations, sponsors and funders. Museums must make sound ethical judgements in all areas of work in order to maintain this trust.

Introduction

This code supports museums, those who work in and with them and their governing bodies in recognising and resolving ethical issues and conflicts. It sets out the key ethical principles and the supporting actions that museums should take to ensure an ethical approach to their work.

Ethical reflection is an essential part of everyday museum practice. This code cannot contain all the answers to the ethical issues that museums face. Some actions that constitute a breach of the code will be more clearly distinguishable than others.

However, in all cases, practitioners should conduct a process of careful reflection, reasoning, and consultation with others, as well as consulting further detailed guidance on key areas of museum practice prepared by the Museums Association (MA) and other bodies.

Application of the code

All museums are bound by national laws and international conventions relevant to museums. The code supports this legal framework and sets a standard for all areas of museum practice. The code applies to governing bodies, to those who work for museums, paid or unpaid, to consultants and those who work freelance, and to those who work for or govern organisations that support, advise or provide services to museums, including the MA. Those working in associated sectors such as archives and heritage organisations may also choose to adopt this code. They should observe the spirit, as well as the letter, of the code.

Museums should proactively champion ethical behaviour. All staff, volunteers and governing bodies should be introduced to the code in order to integrate its principles into their daily work. Some museums will also wish to set up their own internal bodies to ensure a degree of ethical oversight, and can use this code as a reference for decision-making.

The MA expects all institutional, individual and corporate members to uphold and to promote the Code of Ethics for Museums. To achieve Associateship of the Museums Association (AMA) members must demonstrate awareness of the code and the ways in which it is used. To achieve Fellowship of the Museums Association (FMA) members must show that they promote the wider application of the code within museums.

The Code of Ethics

Museums and those who work in and with them agree to uphold the following principles throughout their work:

1. Public engagement & public benefit

Museums and those who work in and with them should:

actively engage and work in partnership with existing audiences and reach out to new and diverse audiences

treat everyone equally, with honesty and respect

provide and generate accurate information for and with the public

support freedom of speech and debate

use collections for public benefit - for learning, inspiration and enjoyment

2. Stewardship of collections

Museums and those who work in and with them should:

maintain and develop collections for current and future generations

acquire, care for, exhibit and loan collections with transparency and competency in order to generate knowledge and engage the public with collections

treat museum collections as cultural, scientific or historic assets, not financial assets

3. Individual & institutional integrity

Museums and those who work in and with them should:

act in the public interest in all areas of work

uphold the highest level of institutional integrity and personal conduct at all times

build respectful and transparent relationships with partner organisations, governing bodies, staff and volunteers to ensure public trust in the museum's activities

Additional information

The Museums Association
The MA is registered as a charity. It is a nongovernmental, independently financed membership organisation providing services to and reflecting the interests of museums and those who work for and govern them.
Development of the Code of Ethics
The MA has acted as the guardian of UK museum ethics since the first Codes of Practice and Conduct were introduced in 1977. These were updated in 1987, 1991, 2002 and 2007. This updated version of the Code of Ethics for Museums outlines ethical principles for all museums in the UK and was agreed following an 18-month consultation process during 2014-15. The development of this code has been a collaborative process involving representatives from across the museum sector, funders, interest groups, members of the public and other stakeholders.

This document represents the general consensus of the sector on the ethical standards that are expected of all museums and those who work in and with them.
Role of the ethics committee
The ethics committee of the MA is made up of a number of independent experts drawn from the museum sector and other experts. Its role is to:

Develop and monitor the maintenance of sound ethical principles and behaviour within the museum sector.

Give advice and guidance on ethical matters to the museum sector, including MA board and staff.

Recommend to the board amendments to the Code of Ethics where deemed necessary.

Alleged breaches of the code can be considered by the ethics committee. In some cases, where a museum or museum professional is alleged to have acted unethically, the ethics committee will investigate a matter in order to provide a considered opinion. The committee is also able to report a breach to the director of the MA, who may in turn report the matter to the MA board and disciplinary committee for further investigation and possible sanction.
The Code of Ethics and the law
The Code of Ethics for Museums defines standards that are often higher than those required by law. However, the code cannot override the legal obligations and rights of those who work in or for museums, including those arising from any contractual relationship there may be with an employer or client.

The Code of Ethics for Museums must be subordinate to the legal powers and obligations of governing bodies responsible for museums and the legal powers and obligations of individual members of such bodies. However, the MA believes this code's provisions to be in the best interests of the public and therefore urges all museum governing bodies (and where appropriate, subsidiary, subcontracted or delegated bodies such as executive committees, contractors or managing bodies), formally to adopt it.
The Code of Ethics and other voluntary standards
Ethical standards developed in this document help to underpin the Accreditation scheme for museums in the UK at an institutional level.

Accreditation is administered by Arts Council England in partnership with the Welsh Government, Museums Galleries Scotland and the Northern Ireland Museums Council. Consult the Arts Council England website for further information. The MA supports the work of specialist organisations in the UK whose members are involved in museum work and who may produce their own codes of ethics and ethical guidelines. The MA can help in cross-referencing to these codes and guidelines and in referring enquirers to appropriate sources of specialist advice.

The Code of Ethics for Museums is consistent with the Code of Ethics for Museums worldwide produced by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The MA supports ICOM's work.

Access
Usually seen in terms of identifying barriers that prevent participation and developing strategies to dismantle them. Barriers come in many forms and may be physical, sensory, intellectual, attitudinal, social, cultural or financial.
Audience
Individuals and groups who make use of the museum's resources or facilities.
Collection
A body of cultural and heritage material. Collections may be physical, intangible or digital.
Collections development policy
An internal policy document which shapes a museum's collections by guiding acquisition and disposal, and is led by the museum's statement of purpose.
Community
A group of individuals who share a particular characteristic, set of beliefs or attitudes.
Dealing
Making a speculative acquisition with the intention of reselling for profit.
Due diligence
Ensuring that all reasonable measures are taken to establish the facts of a case before deciding a course of action, particularly in identifying the source and history of an item offered for acquisition or use before acquiring it, or in understanding the full background of a sponsor, lender or funder.
Governing body
The principal body of individuals in which rests the ultimate responsibility for policy and decisions affecting the governance of the museum. Legal title to the assets of the museum may be vested in this body.
Item
A physical, non-tangible or digital object or material held by a museum.
Partner organisation
An organisation with which a museum has built up a formal relationship relating to museum activities or museum funding.
Source community
A group which identifies themselves as a community and would normally be expected to have a shared geographical location, shared cultural or spiritual and religious beliefs and shared language; or to share some of these facets; and which is recognised as the cultural source of items held in a museum collection.

The ethics committee provides confidential advice on specific issues that arise in individual museums. For all ethical queries, please contact our policy manager Alistair Brown in the first instance: alistair@museumsassociation.org

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Museums are public-facing, collections-based institutions that preserve and transmit knowledge, culture and history for past, present and future generations. This places museums in an important position of trust in relation to their audiences, local communities, donors, source communities, partner organisations, sponsors and funders.

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Adopted 1993 by the AAM Board of Directors and amended in 2000
Please note that the Code of Ethics for Museums references the American Association of Museums (AAM), now called the American Alliance of Museums.
Ethical codes evolve in response to changing conditions, values and ideas. A professional code of ethics must, therefore, be periodically updated. It must also rest upon widely shared values. Although the operating environment of museums grows more complex each year, the root value for museums, the tie that connects all of us together despite our diversity, is the commitment to serving people, both present and future generations. This value guided the creation of and remains the most fundamental principle in the following Code of Ethics for Museums.

Code of Ethics for Museums

Museums make their unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving and interpreting the things of this world. Historically, they have owned and used natural objects, living and nonliving, and all manner of human artifacts to advance knowledge and nourish the human spirit. Today, the range of their special interests reflects the scope of human vision. Their missions include collecting and preserving, as well as exhibiting and educating with materials not only owned but also borrowed and fabricated for these ends. Their numbers include both governmental and private museums of anthropology, art history and natural history, aquariums, arboreta, art centers, botanical gardens, children's museums, historic sites, nature centers, planetariums, science and technology centers, and zoos. The museum universe in the United States includes both collecting and non-collecting institutions. Although diverse in their missions, they have in common their nonprofit form of organization and a commitment of service to the public. Their collections and/or the objects they borrow or fabricate are the basis for research, exhibits, and programs that invite public participation.

Taken as a whole, museum collections and exhibition materials represent the world's natural and cultural common wealth. As stewards of that wealth, museums are compelled to advance an understanding of all natural forms and of the human experience. It is incumbent on museums to be resources for humankind and in all their activities to foster an informed appreciation of the rich and diverse world we have inherited. It is also incumbent upon them to preserve that inheritance for posterity.

Museums in the United States are grounded in the tradition of public service. They are organized as public trusts, holding their collections and information as a benefit for those they were established to serve. Members of their governing authority, employees and volunteers are committed to the interests of these beneficiaries. The law provides the basic framework for museum operations. As nonprofit institutions, museums comply with applicable local, state, and federal laws and international conventions, as well as with the specific legal standards governing trust responsibilities. This Code of Ethics for Museums takes that compliance as given. But legal standards are a minimum. Museums and those responsible for them must do more than avoid legal liability, they must take affirmative steps to maintain their integrity so as to warrant public confidence. They must act not only legally but also ethically. This Code of Ethics for Museums, therefore, outlines ethical standards that frequently exceed legal minimums.

Loyalty to the mission of the museum and to the public it serves is the essence of museum work, whether volunteer or paid. Where conflicts of interest arise-actual, potential or perceived-the duty of loyalty must never be compromised. No individual may use his or her position in a museum for personal gain or to benefit another at the expense of the museum, its mission, its reputation and the society it serves.

For museums, public service is paramount. To affirm that ethic and to elaborate its application to their governance, collections and programs, the American Association of Museums promulgates this Code of Ethics for Museums. In subscribing to this code, museums assume responsibility for the actions of members of their governing authority, employees and volunteers in the performance of museum-related duties. Museums, thereby, affirm their chartered purpose, ensure the prudent application of their resources, enhance their effectiveness and maintain public confidence. This collective endeavor strengthens museum work and the contributions of museums to society-present and future.

Governance

Museum governance in its various forms is a public trust responsible for the institution's service to society. The governing authority protects and enhances the museum's collections and programs and its physical, human and financial resources. It ensures that all these resources support the museum's mission, respond to the pluralism of society and respect the diversity of the natural and cultural common wealth.

Thus, the governing authority ensures that:

all those who work for or on behalf of a museum understand and support its mission and public trust responsibilities

its members understand and fulfill their trusteeship and act corporately, not as individuals

the museum's collections and programs and its physical, human and financial resources are protected, maintained and developed in support of the museum's mission

it is responsive to and represents the interests of society

it maintains the relationship with staff in which shared roles are recognized and separate responsibilities respected

working relationships among trustees, employees and volunteers are based on equity and mutual respect

professional standards and practices inform and guide museum operations

policies are articulated and prudent oversight is practiced

governance promotes the public good rather than individual financial gain.

Collections

The distinctive character of museum ethics derives from the ownership, care and use of objects, specimens, and living collections representing the world's natural and cultural common wealth. This stewardship of collections entails the highest public trust and carries with it the presumption of rightful ownership, permanence, care, documentation, accessibility and responsible disposal.

Thus, the museum ensures that:

collections in its custody support its mission and public trust responsibilities

collections in its custody are lawfully held, protected, secure, unencumbered, cared for and preserved

collections in its custody are accounted for and documented

access to the collections and related information is permitted and regulated

acquisition, disposal, and loan activities are conducted in a manner that respects the protection and preservation of natural and cultural resources and discourages illicit trade in such materials

acquisition, disposal, and loan activities conform to its mission and public trust responsibilities

disposal of collections through sale, trade or research activities is solely for the advancement of the museum's mission. Proceeds from the sale of nonliving collections are to be used consistent with the established standards of the museum's discipline, but in no event shall they be used for anything other than acquisition or direct care of collections.

the unique and special nature of human remains and funerary and sacred objects is recognized as the basis of all decisions concerning such collections

collections-related activities promote the public good rather than individual financial gain

competing claims of ownership that may be asserted in connection with objects in its custody should be handled openly, seriously, responsively and with respect for the dignity of all parties involved.

Programs

Museums serve society by advancing an understanding and appreciation of the natural and cultural common wealth through exhibitions, research, scholarship, publications and educational activities. These programs further the museum's mission and are responsive to the concerns, interests and needs of society.

Thus, the museum ensures that:

programs support its mission and public trust responsibilities

programs are founded on scholarship and marked by intellectual integrity

programs are accessible and encourage participation of the widest possible audience consistent with its mission and resources

programs respect pluralistic values, traditions and concerns

revenue-producing activities and activities that involve relationships with external entities are compatible with the museum's mission and support its public trust responsibilities

programs promote the public good rather than individual financial gain.

Promulgation

This Code of Ethics for Museums was adopted by the Board of Directors of the American Association of Museums on November 12, 1993 and revised in 2000. The AAM Board of Directors recommends that each nonprofit museum member of the American Association of Museums adopt and promulgate its separate code of ethics, applying the Code of Ethics for Museums to its own institutional setting.

A Committee on Ethics, nominated by the president of the AAM and confirmed by the Board of Directors, will be charged with two responsibilities:

establishing programs of information, education and assistance to guide museums in developing their own codes of ethics

reviewing the Code of Ethics for Museums and periodically recommending refinements and revisions to the Board of Directors.

Afterword

Each nonprofit museum member of the American Association of Museums should subscribe to the AAM Code of Ethics for Museums. Subsequently, these museums should set about framing their own institutional codes of ethics, which should be in conformance with the AAM code and should expand on it through the elaboration of specific practices. This recommendation is made to these member institutions in the belief that engaging the governing authority, staff and volunteers in applying the AAM code to institutional settings will stimulate the development and maintenance of sound policies and procedures necessary to understanding and ensuring ethical behavior by institutions and by all who work for them or on their behalf.

The Code of Ethics for Museums serves the interests of museums, their constituencies, and society. The primary goal of AAM is to encourage institutions to regulate the ethical behavior of members of their governing authority, employees and volunteers. Formal adoption of an institutional code promotes higher and more consistent ethical standards.

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Adopted 1993 by the AAM Board of Directors and amended in 2000 Please note that the Code of Ethics for Museums references the American Association of Museums (AAM), now called the American Alliance...

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Ethics principles that help people make choices about what they ought to do. Ethical practices are based on rights, obligations, or other values. Acting ethically means adopting behaviors that, if universally accepted, would lead to the best possible outcomes for the largest possible number of people. A commonly agreed upon set of ethical principles and practices encourage people to act beneficially and for the common good.

Acting ethically is different from acting lawfully. Laws usually reflect ethical standards that most citizens accept. AAM's Code of Ethics for Museums reminds us that "Legal standards are a minimum. Museums and those responsible for them must do more than avoid legal liability; they must take affirmative steps to maintain their integrity so as to warrant public confidence. They must act not only legally but also ethically."

A code of ethics is a statement of shared values that informs museum behavior and practice so as to maintain integrity and warrant public confidence.

The AAM Code of Ethics for Museums

The AAM Code of Ethics for Museums promulgates the ethical principles that all museums-regardless of type or size-and museum professionals are expected to follow to guide decision-making. This code also serves as the foundational set of core ethical principles that should be incorporated into each museum's own institutional code of ethics.

More Codes of Ethics for the Museum Field
International Council of Museums: ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums American Association for State and Local History: AASLH Statement of Professional Standards and Ethics Association of Art Museum Directors: Professional Practices In Art Museums Association of Zoos and Aquariums: Code of Professional Ethics American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works: Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice Museum Store Association: Code of Ethics Archaeological Institute of America: AIA Code of Ethics
Ethics are also sometimes embedded in standards and professional practices documents issued by museum organizations. In their own institutional code of ethics, museums should also incorporate/refer to codes that are relevant to their discipline or area of practice.

Ethics Codes for Specific Jobs/Functions
American Historical Association: Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct Association of Art Museum Directors: Code of Ethics for Art Museum Directors AAM Curators' Committee (CurCom) Professional Network: A Code of Ethics for Curators Association of Art Museum Curators: Professional Practices for Art Museum Curators National Council on Public History: NCPH Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct American Anthropological Association: Principles of Professional Responsibility
Institutional Codes of Ethics (for Individual Museums)

An institutional code of ethics is a Core Document. It is important that every museum not only have its own institutional code of ethics but also foster a culture of ethical practice and behavior.

A museum's code of ethics is founded on public accountability, public trust, and public service. For museums and their staff, volunteers, and governing authority members operating and acting ethically means making decisions with these fundamentals at the forefront and ensuring that no individual associated with the museum personally benefits (especially financially) as a result.

Learn more about an institutional code of ethics.

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Ethics principles that help people make choices about what they ought to do. Ethical practices are based on rights, obligations, or other values. Acting ethically means adopting behaviors that, if universally accepted, would lead to the best possible outcomes for the largest possible number of people.

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The Museums Association Ethics Committee

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There are very few open access articles and papers on cultural property protection and ethics (see our page on our Ethics and Principles), and the research literature on this is relatively limited. These papers provide some of the academic background to our work, which we constantly looking to develop.

Inclusion does not indicate endorsement by the Blue Shield of the views and opinions in the papers below.

You can download a copy of this list below.

von Clausewitz, Carl. On War (Multiple editions)

Frowe, Helen. 2015. The Ethics of War and Peace. routledge (2nd ed).

Hamilakis, Y. 2009. The ‘War on Terror’ and the Military–Archaeology Complex: Iraq, Ethics, and Neo-Colonialism. Archaeologies 5(1), p.39-65

Herscher, Andrew. 2011. From target to witness: architecture, satellite surveillance, human rights. In: Kenzari, Bechnir (ed). Architecture and violence. Barcelona ; New York: Actar.

Myers, A. 2010. Camp Delta, Google Earth and the ethics of remote sensing in archaeology." World Archaeology 42(3): 455-467. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2010.498640

Pollock, Susan. 2016. Archaeology and Contemporary Warfare. Annual Review of Anthropology 45, p.15–31 Doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095913

Stone, P. G., Ed. 2011. Cultural heritage, ethics, and the military. Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press.
The following two articles in this volume are available open access.

Teijgeler, R. Archaeologist under Pressure: neutral or Cooperative in Wartime., p.86-112.

Shearer, I., J. Curtis, J. Price, M. Rowlands, L.W. Rush & R. Tiejgeler. 2011. Relations between archaeologists and the military, and responses (opens a download link to a PDF), p.192–218.

Rush, L. W. (ed). 2010. Archaeology, cultural property, and the military. Woodbridge; Rochester, NY: Boydell Press.

Walzer, Michael. 2015. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument. Basic Books.

Several members of the Blue Shield International are in the Core Research Group for the Heritage in War Project, an AHRC-funded project combining aesthetics, value theory and the ethics of war.

Blue Shield have also contributed to this open access CPP module for the Centre for Military Ethics (requires registration, but no cost).

Our ethical framework is supported by international humanitarian law, and international human rights law. You can read more about these in our Law Library (with links to further resources).

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Cultural property protection, armed conflict, and ethics - Blue Shield International

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There are very few open access articles and papers on cultural property protection and ethics (see our page on our Ethics and Principles), … Cultural property protection, armed conflict, and ethics Read More »

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An AHRC-funded project combining aesthetics, value theory and the ethics of war

The destruction of cultural property in war zones is of pressing concern. The recent and on-going conflicts in the Middle East have featured both the deliberate, symbolic destruction of cultural artefacts and sites by ISIS, such as the destruction of the Temple of Bel, and the incidental damaging of such sites during combat, such as the damage to the site of Ancient Babylon by the US military. In response to ISIS’s campaign of devastation, in July 2015 the UK announced its intention to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The issues raised by cultural property protection (hereafter, CPP) are a huge challenge to just war theory in both its traditional and revisionist forms.

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The project will shed light on the following key questions.

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1. Under what circumstances may belligerents intentionally or foreseeably damage sites of cultural property in war?

2. How should the protection of cultural property be weighed against other priorities in conflict zones?

3. How should relevant authorities regard and treat damaged sites of cultural property in the aftermath of war?

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An AHRC-funded project combining aesthetics, value theory and the ethics of war

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The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums is a reference text setting standards for the practice of museum professionals.

The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums sets minimum professional standards and encourages the recognition of values shared by the international museum community.

This reference tool provides guidance and is presented as a series of principles supported by guidelines detailing expected professional practice. It was drafted in a cross-cutting manner and conceived as an instrument of professional self-control. ICOM members must accept and comply with the Code's rules.

The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums addresses diverse museum-related topics such as acquisition procedures, compliance with legislation, management of resources, security, returns and restitutions. The Code also advocates strong principles playing a key role in the fight against illicit traffic, for instance concerning due diligence and provenance.

ICOM promotes and advocates its Code during training sessions organised all over the world, including practical cases studies, to help museums professionals apply its values and principles. A Standing Committee on Ethics (ETHCOM) is dedicated to handling museums' ethical issues that are brought to its attention.

After being first adopted in 1986, and revised in 2004, the Code has been translated into 38 languages.

Following the 25th General Conference of ICOM, held in Kyoto in 2019, ICOM decided that the Code should be reviewed and, if necessary, revised (141 Session of the Executive Board). Should the outcome of the review indicate the need of a revision, a vote on a revised code will be held during the 26 th General Conference of ICOM in Prague. The process, which will include consultations with the ICOM Membership, will be coordinated by the ICOM Standing Committee for Ethics (ETHCOM). To ensure an outcome that is coherent with the revision of the museum definition, EHTCOM will work in close collaboration with the Standing Committee for the Museum Definition (ICOM Define).

The first step of the review is a survey addressed to the National and International Committees, Regional Alliances and Affiliated Organisations running from 11 January - 11 April 2021 to identify what is missing from the current Code of Ethics.

About the museum definition

Read more about the revision of the ICOM Code of Ethics
Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums
The ICOM Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums, established by ICOM's International Committee for Natural History Museums (NATHIST) in collaboration with ICOM's Ethics Committee (ETHCOM), was formally approved at the 28th ICOM General Assembly on 17 August, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

The purpose of the document is to define ethical standards on issues specific to Natural History Museums, providing standards of professional practice that can serve as a normative basis for museum institutions.

The Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums begins with a position statement that explains the purpose of Natural History Museums and their responsibilities. It then focuses on the specific challenges of Natural History Museums in six sections, from the presentation of human remains and the dissemination of scientific data to the collection of rocks, minerals and fossils. The Code ends with specific standards for taxidermy.
Checklist on ethics of cultural property ownership
Considering the complexity of the ethical questions affecting the work of museums today, the Checklist is a tool for two purposes: it sets out the 8 organising principles that shape the detailed articles of the ICOM Code, as well as providing orientation and support in dealing with these complex topics; and it offers a list of contacts for further advice on particular questions.

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Code of Ethics - International Council of Museums

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The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums sets minimum professional standards and encourages the recognition of values shared by the international museum community. This reference tool provides guidance and is presented as a series of principles supported by guidelines detailing expected professional practice.

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NEMO - The Network of European Museum Organisations

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Following the war in Ukraine and after receiving calls and messages from colleagues from across Europe asking how they can support their Ukrainian colleagues, NEMO started collecting and monitoring support activities and initiatives organised by museums for Ukrainian colleagues and citizens.

Polish Committee aims to protect Ukrainian collections

Komitet Pomocy Muzeom Ukrainy

Poland

The newly founded committee aims to support all Ukrainian museums and cultural institutions in the protection of collections, the most valuable souvenirs and monuments of Ukrainian culture. 50 cultural institutions are involved in the initiative, which was initiated by the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

The committee is ready to support Ukrainian museums in the following aspects:

support in documentation, digitization and inventory of collections;

providing materials needed to protect and hide the collections;

sharing experiences and good practices in the protection of collections;

collecting documentation proving the looting and destruction of Ukrainian cultural goods

The committee has already started collecting information about needs from various Ukrainian museums. A first set of materials for packing, protecting and conserving collections has been gathered. The materials will soon be delivered to chosen Ukrainian institutions from where they will be redistributed by local coordinators to facilities that have declared the need for support. To be able to continue the support, the committee has launched fundraiser run by the Paweł Włodkiewicz Institute.

Phone: +48 22 376 68 36 (supported in Ukrainian)
Phone : +48 22 376 68 43 (supported in Polish and English)
Ukrainian version: Комітет допомоги музеям України
Агресія Росії проти України спричиняє незліченну кількість злочинів, страждань і жертв. У таких умовах найважливішими є люди - мирне населення, яке зазнає варварських бомбардувань та солдати, які борються з агресором. Сьогодні українці гинуть, захищаючи рідну землю.

Але кожна війнa також означає непоправні втрати в національній спадщині та культурі. Сьогодні українські музеї стикаються з екстремальними викликами - як захистити та зберегти колекції, як зберегти спадщину багатьох поколінь, про які вони піклуються.

Польща це дуже добре розуміє. Розкрадання та знищення культурних цінностей у нашій країні набули виняткових розмірів під час Другої світової війни; кульмінацією стало повне пограбування та знищення Варшави під час Варшавського повстання та одразу після його придушення. Подібних втрат ніколи більше не повинна зазнати жодна нація та держава. На жаль, сьогодні це загрожує Україні.

Тому, щоб не допустити катастрофи та підтримати наших колег з України, ми створюємо Комітет Допомоги Музеям України. Його основними цілями є:

підтримка всіх музеїв і закладів культури України в евакуації та охороні колекцій, найцінніших експонатів і пам'яток української культури;

допомога з документацією, оцифруванням та інвентаризацією колекцій;

надання матеріалів, необхідних для захисту та переховування колекцій;

обмін досвідом;

збір документів, що підтверджують розкрадання та знищення українських культурних цінностей.

Боротьба за збереження культурної та національної спадщини України - це наша спільна боротьба!
More information

List of Ukrainian museums' needs - Donate to help

The Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) has collected information on the most pressing needs of museums and museum professionals in Ukraine. 75 museums from 16 regions in Ukraine (excluding the western regions, which are comparatively safer) have answered to HERI's questionnaire on needs. The list is regularly updated online and includes amongst others:

Financial support for museum and cultural sector staff in emergency situations.

Mobile phone payment for the staff working on saving and protecting cultural heritage from destruction.

Generators and fuel.

Packing materials (cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, craft packing roll paper, stretch film, corrugated cardboard rolls, envelopes, waterproof pack bags etc.).

Fire extinguishers.

Sacks for sand.

Payment for cloud storage services.

HERI collects resources, including money, to cover the museums' needs and communicates with those museums directly. The list includes price estimates of the different items to give an overview of the overall budget that is needed to efficiently help the Ukrainian museums and museum professionals.

Donations in EUR can be sent to the bank details below. The account belongs to Tustan NGO, which is one of the co-founders of HERI. Because of the war, it has been impossible for HERI to register a new organisation and bank account. Donations in dollars and Ukrainian Hryvnia is also possible. Find more details about donations and wire transfer in this document.

Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) is a newly founded initiative working with the aim of preserving cultural heritage in warzones and its post-crisis recovery. Right now, the focus is on Ukraine and all HERI activities are coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and Information Police of Ukraine, UNESCO, ICOM, ICOM-DRMC, ICCROM and other institutions and rescue initiatives in Ukraine and worldwide.

Tracking Conservation Shipments

Blue Shield International

We understand from our Ukrainian colleagues that they are finding it difficult to keep track of shipments and that some things are duplicated, whilst others are not answered. We also know that when people want to send shipments, it is extremely difficult to know who is working on sending what to coordinate together. We have launched this simple spreadsheet to track shipments via a form you complete. It takes approximately 10 minutes and you can add as much or as little information as you want. If you prefer, you can send the information to us via email.

The data is intended to

get an overview of which requests have been / are being answered and by who

what conservation materials are being sent

where they are going

by which routes (to provide assistance to those intending to send materials)

Securing Ukrainian cultural assets

Museum der Westlausitz

Kamenz, Germany

The museums of the administrative district Bautzen would like to support Ukrainian curators, museum employees and artists to secure Ukrainian art and culture. As an UN specialized agency the ICCROM developed a guideline for protecting and securing endangered cultural assets. This guideline provides for instance important references to evaluate any concrete danger, concepts for evacuations and transport aid. Based on that guidelines should you come to the conclusion that your collections or artistic œuvre should be secured outside of Ukrainian territory, the museums of the administrative district can offer support in:

Storage space in adequate depots

Conservational care

If necessary logistical support during the evacuation

Shelter for Ukranian Culture

The Allied Museum is offering storage space for cultural artefacts that have been evacuated from war-torn Ukraine. We are a small museum and our space is limited but we would be happy to accept objects from Ukraine in our storage facilities on a temporary basis until perhaps a central facility has been created. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on the space available and if it fits the conservational needs of the respective artefacts in question.

Contact

European Solidarity Centre

Gdańsk, Poland

There is a room for the Ukrainian community available - the Self-Help Committee "Ukrainians for Ukrainians"

Welcoming museum professionals and their families

Portuguese Association of Museology

Lisbon, Portugal

With the mission of bringing together museology professionals, or those originating from similar institutions, around the safeguarding, promotion and enhancement of collections, archives and cultural heritage, in all its dimensions APOM - Associação Portuguesa de Museologia provides the following support:

Welcoming museology professionals as well as their families. APOM will provide them with proactive support in their integration in Portugal

Bureaucratic and institutional support

Surveying, inventorization, conservation and safeguarding of museum collections, including in loco, should it be safe to travel to Ukraine.

Scholarships for Ukrainian conservators at the Auschwitz Memorial

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Oświęcim, Poland

In the situation where tens and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens are fleeing to Poland because of Russian aggression, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, in cooperation with the Auschwitz Museum, has decided to provide support. The Foundation has launched a program of scholarships for professional development in the field of conservation of objects of martyrdom for Ukrainian conservators, with the aim of providing equal job opportunities. The project involves the conservation of historical objects related to the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. The scholarships are financed entirely by funds specially earmarked by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. The scholarships are awarded for 6 months. The Auschwitz Museum will provide the recipients of scholarships with accommodation and introduce them to the project. No knowledge of the Polish language is required. All interested persons are invited to send their applications with brief information about their educational background and the conservation projects in which they participated. They application can be sent in Ukrainian, Polish or English to:

Two paid internships for Ukrainian students

European Network Remembrance and Solidarity

Warsaw, Poland

We offer 2 paid internships for Ukrainian students currently residing in Poland to provide direct support to the project coordinators in our office in Warsaw. If you are a student with a passion for history, and interest in working in an international environment, please send your CV with a motivation letter by 21 March 2022. Internships will last 4 months and may start in April or May 2022.

Grant fundraising for museum professionals

ICOM Poland decided to focus on the needs of the museum personnel that found refuge in our country. With the assistance of ICOM General Secretariat we established an Ukrainian speaking office and started to locate persons scattered throughout Polish cities. We plan to provide 3-months individual grants to the museum professionals that will apply. These grants should help them to accommodate their first needs. At the same time, our office will act as a contact point between the grantees and Polish museums and cultural institutions, so that they may find a job and a welcoming professional milieu. The Polish state already simplified the necessary employment formalities to the minimum. In order to provide these grants we need to raise funds in the international milieu. The Polish state and private pockets are getting dry fast. We count on the support of all organizations that are involved with museums, cultural heritage, art history and humanitarian help.

Funding Line for Ukrainian scholars

Ernst von Siemens Foundation for the Arts (ESVK)

Berlin, Germany

The UKRAINE Funding Line will offer support by covering staff costs in public museums and collections that employ either refugee scholars from Ukraine or Russian scholars who were forced to leave Russia due to their opposition to war in Ukraine. Employment of such scholars by and in these institutions would need to be in the context of art historical exhibitions, research projects, catalogue raisonné projects, or communication measures. The maximum length of the individual measures will be one year. The total sum offered for funding will initially amount to two million euros. As in the previous CORONA funding line we welcome co-financing and additional financial support from other patrons, whose contributions we will also be pleased to distribute.

Our funding is designed to provide security and stability to scholars, while safeguarding their knowledge and supporting German institutions which are already engaged in a number of ways in Eastern Europe.

Application s are accepted only via public museums and collections, by e-mail and in a single pdf document.

Job offer for museum professionals, historians and librarians

In Solidarity with Ukraine - Charity concert

Photography for Democracy - C/O Berlin Sundays for Ukraine

C/O Berlin Foundation

Berlin, Germany

Visit C/O Berlin and help Ukraine!C/O Berlin will donate full ticket proceeds on the four Sundays in March to the United Nations Refugee Agency's Ukraine emergency aid. C/O Berlin is deeply committed to providing support where democracy is severely threatened and people have to flee from war.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), whose German partner is the UN Refugee Agency, has been active in Ukraine since 1994. Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea in 2014, UNHCR has provided protection and humanitarian assistance on both sides of the line of contact. This includes supporting internally displaced people, refugees and stateless people in the country.

Each Donation is a Beacon

Rotating beacons assist pilots in poor weather conditions such as fog. Our beacon is originally from Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport, central hub of the Berlin Airlift 1948/49. It belongs to the Allied Museum's collection. In these dark days for Europe, the rotating beacon stands symbolically to guide the refugees of the war in Ukraine to a safe place. By donating money at the Allied Museum you can support those that struggle to survive in the war zone. The admission to the Allied Museum is free of charge. Your donation will go in its entirety to the Ukraine Donation Bridge ( Spendenbrücke Ukraine) initiative in Hangar 1 at Tempelhof Airport. Heartfelt thanks from the Allied Museum team!

Donate to support museums and museum workers in warzones

Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative

Ukraine

The newly founded Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) promotes the preservation of cultural heritage in the conditions of war and its post-crisis recovery. HERI would greatly appreciate your kind donations which will be spent to support museums and museum workers from areas where armed conflict is taking place and which are in a zone of humanitarian crisis.

Among the priority areas of the initiative are preparation for rapid response to emergencies in armed conflict; protection of museum collections from losses; carrying out rescue operations; collection and systematization of information on crimes against cultural heritage; coordination of actions between state / municipal authorities, museum institutions, cultural institutions, non-governmental sector and international organizations in the preservation of cultural heritage and its restoration; all possible humanitarian aid.

The HERI activities are coordinated with the Ministry of Culture and Information Police of Ukraine, UNESCO, ICOM, ICOM-DRMC, ICCROM and other institutions and rescue initiatives in Ukraine and the world.

Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

To show the museum's commitment to helping the Ukrainian citizens, on March 12 and 13, the profit made by the tickets sale will be donated to Chaine du Bonheur, a national fundraising organization.

Museums and Disaster Risk Reduction

How can museums use Disaster Risk Reduction approaches, to safeguard themselves, and enhance their contributions to the wider world? "Disaster Risk Reduction is aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development."

includes activities that can be undertaken during and after a disaster, in terms of planning and relationships, and how cultural heritage can be protected and used in peace education. There are lists of references to useful resources at the end.

Backup Ukraine - Preserve heritage forever

UNESCO, Blue Shield Denmark

Backup Ukraine lets anyone become an archivist. You can scan buildings and monuments as full 3D models using just your phone. And store them in an open, secure online archive - where no bombs can reach.

Spontaneous exhibition: UKRAINE IN OUR THOUGHTS

Finnish Heritage Agency, Picture Collections

Helsinki, Finland

With this Photography exhibition the Picture Collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency, together with Helsingin Sanomat -media, wants to highlight the perseverance and determination of the Ukrainians to survive the Russian invasion. The photographs in the Picture Collections depict the life of Ukrainians from the beginning of the 20 th century to the 21 st century. Correspondingly, the Helsingin Sanomat journalists and photographers have reported on the demonstrations in 2014, the situation in Donbass and the current war and the plight of the Ukrainians. Exhibition is free and open 23 rd March - 6h April 2022 at the Sanoma House in the Helsinki city centre beside Kiasma the Museum of Contemporary Art. Texts are in Finnish, English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Volunteers Unite to Archive Ukrainian Cultural Heritage

Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO)

A group of cultural heritage professionals - librarians, archivists, researchers, programmers - are working together to identify and archive at-risk sites, digital content, and data in Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions while the country is under attack. We are using a combination of technologies to crawl and archive sites and content.

Free tours for Ukrainian refugees

Kočevje Regional Museum

Kočevje, Slovenia.

Kočevje has been hosting quite some Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children. Because this is a new environment for them the Kočevje Regional Museum would like to introduce it to them. They decided to offer them a free tour of our museum, so they can learn about the history of the region. And a free walking tour of town Kočevje where they are settled, so they get to know the place better. This way we can take their minds off the current situation in their country and show them they are welcome. Tours will be given in English and also translated to Ukrainian by one of the refugees.

Contact

Action of Ukrainian artists against the war

Art Workshops for Ukrainian children

Archeological Museum

Gdańsk, Poland

Ukrainian children can come to free art workshops in the "Blue Lamb" Granary to sew felt toys, for examples favorite animals or make colorful micro-rubber keyrings.

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NEMO - The Network of European Museum Organisations

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Following the war in Ukraine and after receiving calls and messages from colleagues from across Europe asking how they can support their Ukrainian colleagues, NEMO started collecting and monitoring support activities and initiatives organised by museums for Ukrainian colleagues and citizens.

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A new tool for teams & individuals that blends everyday work apps into one.

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All too often, nonprofits see their donor database as a glorified phonebook. This mindset shows that they may not be maximizing the use of their software or the solution they’ve invested in doesn’t have extensive enough functionality to meet the organization’s needs.

When nonprofits invest in the best donor database and use it properly, this software becomes the most valuable asset for the nonprofit. It helps optimize and maximize your fundraising and relationship-building activities. Before diving deeper into this idea, let’s cover the basics of donor databases.

What is a donor database?

A donor database is a software solution used by nonprofit professionals to provide insights into your supporters’ engagement, track key fundraising metrics, and measure nonprofit success.

Today’s donor database software is more than just a passive list of names. While it stores the important contact and demographic information of donors and constituents, this technology helps build relationships with supporters by saving previous engagement data.

Especially during a time when we’ve all been more separated than ever before, you must go the extra mile to establish and develop lasting relationships with your supporters. Maintain contact with them and provide virtual opportunities to connect with your organization. This all starts with your donor database.

This buyer’s guide is designed to help your nonprofit choose the best solution for your organization to get the most out of your investment. We’ll cover topics like:

1. The benefits of investing in a donor database Benefits of a Donor Database

2. What to look for in your donor database.

3. How to find the right donor database.

4. Donor database budgeting techniques.

5. How to get the most from your donor database.

6. Consider Bloomerang’s top donor database software.

7. Other donor databases to consider

Make sure your nonprofit is ready to make this important investment decision! Let’s get started.

Benefits of a Donor Database

As we stated before, a donor database is more than an old-fashioned Rolodex. The two solutions have one important commonality: Both a donor database and a Rolodex provide a platform for maintaining clean data about your supporters.

Frankly, the advanced technology available through your donor database makes it much more useful than your Rolodex. But it’s the same idea. Your donor database stores and keeps up with emerging data about your supporters.

Think about the multitude of interactions you create for your donors. From emails to tweets to events to personal phone calls—your donors are (or should be) getting repeated touches as you steward their relationships with the mission of your organization.

Donor database software provides a precise location where your nonprofit staff members can find information regarding each of these touches and interactions, allowing you to ensure every supporter has frequent communication with your organization. After all, the best relationships are built on effective and frequent communication, so you should be sure to fulfill this need with your supporters.

For example, suppose you know that a supporter has attended each and every one of your events in the past. In that case, you might decide to send a personalized invitation to your next virtual event opportunity. They’ll feel seen and acknowledged because you understand how much that particular supporter enjoys events.

While storing rich data regarding supporters and their interactions with your organization takes care of the “database” portion of the term “donor database,” the software itself has a lot more to offer.

What to Look for in Your Donor Database

Now that you know the benefits of a useful donor database, it’s time to consider how to choose which database will be effective for your nonprofit. There are two major considerations that your nonprofit should think about when it comes to looking for features of a database: What general features should you look for? Which features will be necessary for your specific organization?

What general features should you look for in a donor database?

While every nonprofit is different, there are some features that all nonprofits need from a donor database, including:

Robust supporter profiles. Use robust profiles to manage information about your supporters, including their donations, volunteer hours, sponsorships, grants, and more. Leverage information in these profiles to build relationships with your supporters and encourage their continued interaction.

Segmentation. Segmenting supporters based on information in each donor profile helps provide a more personal experience for communication. For example, an animal shelter might have a segment of supporters for dog-lovers and another for cat-lovers and reach out differently according to these differing interests. Bloomerang’s segmentation eBook can provide more insight as to smart segments for beginners.

Online giving. Powerful and customizable online giving forms can be embedded on your website for donors to contribute to. From there, their information should be streamlined into your donor database, automatically creating new records or updating an existing one.

Scalability. Be sure the solution you choose has options to scale up or down depending on your nonprofit’s needs. This ensures you can continue using the same solution as your nonprofit continues to grow. You can simply scale up your donor database solution to gain access to the additional records or functionality your nonprofit needs as you need it.

These are standard features that your organization will find in any quality donor database. If a donor database doesn’t have these features steer clear. Chances are, you’ll regret the investment or very quickly grow out of the solution.

In addition to these necessary features, your nonprofit should also keep an eye out for the features that will benefit any organization but may not be as standard. These features indicate an excellent solution that will help your organization maintain data for years to come. Some of these features include:

Giving potential. When it comes to making an ask, your donor database should be tracking data that paints a picture of your community’s giving potential. When your donor database harnesses the data from a trusted prospect research provider, you can effectively illustrate a person’s giving capacity and propensity to donate to causes like yours through wealth and philanthropic indicators. At Bloomerang, this is considered a Generosity Score.

Engagement meter. An engagement meter provides a quick at-a-glance view of the engagement level of each supporter. This shows how often they interact with your organization, allowing you to re-engage supporters at risk of lapsing. On the other hand, you can reach highly engaged supporters for additional or higher contributions.

Email marketing. Designing emails directly in your donor database makes it easy to use the segments you’ve created to their fullest extent. Draft and design your email based on targeted group interests, then send it out directly to the desired list of constituents.

Goal progression. Your nonprofit should look for a solution that offers the flexibility to set success metrics that are meaningful to your community and its goals. Otherwise, you’ll be perpetually analyzing different metrics to determine whether or not you’re on the right path. Be sure you can track your fiscal YTD progress, which is your nonprofit’s progress toward exceeding last year’s fundraising and engagement goals. Also keep an eye on donor pyramids which track progress toward growing your different donor ranges so you can see your community grow in the right direction over time.

An example of goal progression systems is the Sustainability Scorecard feature from Bloomerang. This analysis combines data from your Bloomerang donor database with quarterly surveys to help track your nonprofit’s progression toward its goals. Bloomerang presents donor pyramids in the Scorecard to see how close you are to reaching last year’s range goal by individual donors or across organizations.

While we call these features “general,” they’re anything but ordinary. We employed this term because, generally, any nonprofit will benefit from access to these tools. When used correctly, these features will increase your organization’s ROI and enhance your fundraising strategies. However, because all nonprofits are different, you may benefit from more specific features that will apply specifically to your needs.

What donor software features does your specific nonprofit require?

While we wish we could tell you exactly what tools your specific nonprofit needs, that’s something only your team can decide. Because every nonprofit is different, there may be some tools that you’d benefit from, while other organizations won’t see the same positive results.

For instance, a nonprofit with an audience composed of Millennial donors will benefit more from a Twitter social listening hub than a nonprofit whose audience consists of the elderly.

To come up with the unique list of features that will benefit your specific organization, a few key steps:

First, take inventory of your current software. What do you have access to? Are you currently taking full advantage of your existing investments?

Second, decide what functionality is missing from your current software strategy. Is there something missing?

Finally, decide what features will fill in those holes that you’re missing in your current strategy. Write it down and keep it with you for demos.

After you’ve developed this list, take it with you whenever you research or demo a new solution. This practice will help keep you organized and focused as you create lists of potential solutions and narrow them down to a shortlist of software.

How to find the right donor database.

Now that you know what to look for, you’ll be wondering how to find it. There are several nonprofit donor databases out there, all claiming to be the best. So how can you decide which one is the best choice for your organization?

The short answer to this question is research.

You’ll need to conduct a lot of research about your organization and the various systems out there to decide which one is the right choice. Here are the research steps we suggest following:

Divide potential features that you’d like to see in your new donor database into separate “needs” and “wants” lists. Your needs should be the must-haves in a donor database. That way, as you conduct research, if a potential solution doesn’t have some of the “needs” on your list, you can immediately eliminate them from the prospective solutions.

Start compiling a master list of potential donor databases that you can choose from. You don’t need to be too specific about the solutions you list here. It’s simply a starting point for your research. Search the web, ask other organizations for references, and check referral pages to determine the solutions that are out there.

Eliminate any donor database that doesn’t have everything on your “needs” list of features. Comb through the master list of databases to develop a shorter list of potential solutions that include all of the features you need to have. Now, you’ll be left with many solutions that could work for your organization.

Compare these solutions with your nonprofit’s budget (as we’ll discuss in the next section). If any solutions are drastically over your budget, go ahead and eliminate them. A solution that you can’t afford (or one that you know you won’t be able to afford in the future) will only decrease your overall ROI, which is the opposite goal of investing in a donor database.

Compare software features for the remaining solutions with your organization’s “wants” list. The solutions with all of your “needs” and most of your “wants” should be left in your list of potential solutions. After you’ve eliminated those without a good number of your “wants,” you’ll be left with a concise list of possible solutions.

Schedule demos for your shortlist of software. Before joining these demos, create a list of potential questions to ask the team of software experts. Be sure to ask these questions in every demo and get more information about the solutions.

Choose your solution! After you’ve had demos of each software (potentially more than one for your favorites), you should be ready to pick the software that is best for your nonprofit. Congratulations, and pat yourself on the back!

It does take a lot of time to conduct the necessary research to choose a donor database. However, that time is well worth it to spend up-front. The alternative is that you might end up with a solution that doesn’t work for your organization, forcing you to choose a different solution, migrate all of your data again, and train on a new system. That would not only be a hassle, but it would also be costly.

Conduct research ahead of time to be sure that you find the right solution on the first try.

Donor Database Budgeting

Nonprofit budgeting is a necessary activity for organizations but can be somewhat tricky in practice. Organizations struggle to create a concrete budget because of the highly variable nature of donations, grants, and other such funding.

Hint: Try looking for donor software that focuses on donor retention and recurring gifts to stabilize budgetary issues.

The challenges associated with budgeting can make it incredibly tempting to look into a “free” donor database. But remember the lesson you learned in your old economics classes: there’s no such thing as a free lunch, much less free software.

Free Donor Database

The temptation of free donor database solutions can be especially significant for nonprofits just getting started. However, when you invest in a free solution, you’ll likely get what you pay for: a non-scalable solution that you will quickly outgrow. Therefore, if you start looking at free software, you can’t expect it to stay “free” for long.

This isn’t to say that “free” donor databases don’t have a place in your research process! There are some pros and cons that you should consider before test driving a solution that is advertised as free.

Pros: The significant advantage of a free donor database software solution is that it provides a trial version for your organization to use the tools without the risk of losing money. You can start at the free level of a scalable solution to see how you like it. However, you should never expect to stay at this free level due to limited features and capabilities. Check out the next tier of payment and work that into your budget, as you’ll likely need to scale up relatively quickly.

Cons: Donor database software that advertises itself as free, such as Salesforce, frequently needs extensive customization to be effectively used by the organization. Plus, these solutions tend to be challenging to use and customize, meaning the organization will need outside help to use it, which can also get expensive. Downgrading to Excel sheets or other “free” solutions may lack security, features, accessibility, and support.

When it comes to software, always think of a free option for the solution to be on a trial basis only. You’ll still need to create a budget incorporating the price of scaling up the answer if you decide it’s the right choice for you.

How to Develop a Donor Database Budget

The first thing your organization will need to do is determine your current financial standing. You can do this by analyzing your organization’s balance sheet. Make sure you’re financially stable before deciding to make a long-term investment like that for donor database software.

After you’ve determined your nonprofit’s current financial standing, you should find the actual cost of a new software solution. The true cost of the solution will include all of the following:

The monthly or annual fee for software access.

Any implementation costs

Training costs for your staff members

Consultation costs for complicated solutions

Installation costs for solutions hosted on-premise rather than cloud-based

Once you’ve determined the true costs, you can work them into your nonprofit’s annual budget. Realistically estimate the additional fundraising revenue you anticipate receiving due to the investment to update your budget’s revenue portion.

Getting More From Your Donor Database

Once you have your donor database, you’ll want to make the most of the solution. After all, that’s why you created a budget and invested so much time and money into the software. Therefore, we’ve compiled a couple of tips that you can use to get the most out of your solution:

Look for potential software integrations.

When you’re investing in a donor database, it’s essential to consider how that solution will fit into your existing software strategy. Your solution should seamlessly work with the other solutions that you use for fundraising, marketing, matching gifts, and more.

We’re talking about integrations, of course.

Integrations help your organization streamline the input of data into your donor database from other software solutions and the use of that data for better use of those other solutions.

For instance, integrating your donor database with a peer-to-peer fundraising platform allows your organization to streamline the creation of new donor profiles in your database as new supporters give to the campaign.

Consider how your fundraising, accounting, prospect research, CMS, and other software solutions will fit together before investing. You’ll want to minimize the manual input of data as much as possible to save time for what matters: your mission.

Carefully use built-in automation tools.

Automation is useless without data. As explained in our analysis of the dangers of too much automation, automation isn’t necessarily good nor evil. It’s a tool that you can use to help your organization save time.

Consider if your lawnmower could save the patterns of your mowing habits to cut your grass automatically the next time around. You could save a lot of future time by mowing your grass incredibly well once. However, when automation is used incorrectly, it’s like keeping the grass-cutting patterns of a 6-year-old. Instead of those beautiful straight lines that you’d want on your lawn, you’d have patches and irregularities all over the place.

When you automate with the data stored in your donor database to create informed decisions, you get the beautiful results you were aiming for.

You can automate the sending of thank-you messages to your supporters after they give or automatically save donor data directly to the proper profiles when a supporter gives to your organization.

The key to automation is clean data. Practice good data hygiene so that those patterns will work adequately as you automate various tasks at your organization. Regularly check for duplicate profiles, run your system through the NCOA to discover address changes and deceased individuals within your network.

Save reports and customize your dashboard.

Individual profiles are one of the most valuable tools in your donor database for maintaining personal connections and relationships with your supporters. However, to get the most out of your solution, you should also be sure to track your organization’s progress toward your predetermined goals.

There are two primary ways you can leverage your donor database to analyze organizational progress:

Customized reports. After discussing your goals and the metrics, you’ll measure to reach those goals with your team, create custom report templates that you can use to measure progress, and report back to your team. By saving these report templates, you can compare the reports to one another and ensure progress over time.

Your dashboard. When it comes to your most important goals, customize the dashboard on your donor database so that you can check in on progress every time you open up the system. For example, you might include your donor retention rate, current fundraising campaign revenue, and other essential metrics on this view.

Use these tools to track your organization’s wins and progress toward fundraising goals. Be sure to set these measurable objectives ahead of time to know how your metrics compare to your ultimate goals. As you progress, share these wins and metrics with your team to motivate them!

When you track your metrics and goal progression using your donor database, all of your data will be stored in a single place, making it easy to find at any point as you work through your strategic plan.

Consider Bloomerang’s Donor Database

Bloomerang’s donor database offers all of the features that nonprofits generally need in their day-to-day activities. The software solution is rooted in the knowledge of world-renowned fundraising consultants, researchers and practitioners with the technical expertise of software industry veterans.

Bloomerang has been developed specifically to improve donor retention and relationship-building strategies for nonprofits with insights from these four experts.

Bloomerang takes each of the features we mentioned above to the next level. For instance:

The extensive donor profiles offered as a part of the donor database are designed to track all nonprofit engagement. You can even track the engagement on a timeline to get a visual representation of your nonprofit’s supporters’ involvement. Track email open and click-through rates, volunteer hours, donations, and more. Then, Bloomerang will develop an engagement score for each supporter to help you understand who needs a little extra attention.

Run an audit on communication documents such as your email drafts or direct mail. This audit counts the number of times you used the word “you” versus first-person “I” or “we” language. You want to use “you” at least twice as frequently for effective communication. You can also measure the reading level for these messages to make sure your content is accessible to your target audience.

Bloomerang offers a free solution option to get your organization started. You can use this free option as a test-run to see how you like the solution before committing to investing your nonprofit’s precious resources towards the software. Once you’ve decided you love our software, you can choose the scaled solution that’s right for your nonprofit according to your specific donor database needs.

You’ll gain access to Bloomerang Academy with the software so that you have additional training, tips, and tricks whenever you need them. These videos will help you best take advantage of the advanced features offered as a part of Bloomerang’s donor database. This tool is in addition to the free email and chat support provided by the Bloomerang team.

Bloomerang’s expert knowledge about and passion for the nonprofit space means their donor database software goes above and beyond the average solution. You can get more from Bloomerang!

Other Top Donor Databases

Salesforce

Salesforce is often called “the world’s leading CRM.” It serves both nonprofit and for-profit organizations alike. You can build out this extremely customizable solution with various apps and integrations to provide the additional functionality your organization needs in a complete Salesforce ecosystem.

While this solution is often well-suited for large organizations, smaller nonprofits might consider starting with different software for their first donor database. Salesforce can be expensive to customize, often requiring a consultant or tech expert to help create the perfect solution. Once you build it, it offers everything a nonprofit needs for success, but configuring it requires a higher up-front cost that many organizations find difficult to afford right off the bat.

SalsaLabs

SalsaLabs is a popular donor database because it’s built specifically for nonprofit organizations. This platform not only offers a comprehensive donor database solution, but it also comes with a fully equipped marketing and fundraising solution. This is what’s referred to as Salsa’s SmartEngagement Technology, and it ensures that all of your software integrates seamlessly.

If you’re looking for an entire overhaul of your fundraising, marketing, and donor database solutions, SalsaLabs is an excellent option.

CharityEngine

CharityEngine advertises itself as an “all-in-one solution” for donor management. Their mission is to provide all of the tools that nonprofits need for success so that organizations don’t have to worry about purchasing multiple software solutions for each activity. This means that in addition to their donor database, CharityEngine offers online donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraising, email marketing, a website builder, advocacy software, and more.

This is another solution to consider if your nonprofit is considering a complete tech overhaul. A project like that can be challenging, though, so be sure you do additional research to make sure you’ve covered all of the bases, asked questions regarding each feature, and had multiple demos of the solution.

NeonCRM

NeonCRM is a cloud-based donor database that is a part of the entire Neon suite of tools. This solution offers features that enable your organization to manage your donors, members, and fundraising campaigns.

Neon also has specialized tech consultants on-hand to help you get set up with their solution. Keep in mind that their suite’s solutions will work best with one another rather than outside parties. Therefore, you might need to invest in this additional consulting service to either build integrations with existing solutions or switch your other solutions to their tools.

This donor database buyer’s guide should only be the beginning. Your organization needs to conduct a lot of research to feel comfortable and confident with the solution you choose. Be sure to keep Bloomerang in mind as you perform this research and keep a list of potential solutions to contact for a demo. To jump-start your research process, check out these articles below:

Buying Fundraising Software: 6 Important Factors to Consider. For more information about the software purchasing process and what to look for, check out our other article on the subject.

Top 9 CRM Software Solutions for Nonprofits. Looking for a referral for the top solutions out there? This re:Charity article will get you started.

The Essential Guide to Writing a Fundraising Plan. How will your donor database and other software solutions help you carry out your fundraising plan? Learn more about how these elements fit together with this guide.

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Donor Database: The Buyer’s Ultimate Guide For 2022

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An effective nonprofit donor database is core to your fundraising strategy. Make sure you invest in the best solution with this buyer’s guide

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A s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, the director of the Museum of Local History in Melitopol in the south-east of the country, Leila Ibrahimova, arranged for a hoard of gold artefacts from ancient Scythia to be hidden. Just a few weeks later, she was kidnapped and interrogated by Russian troops. They demanded to know where the Scythian gold was; she refused to cooperate. Subsequently the museum’s curator Galina Andriivna Kucher was taken at gunpoint to the museum and asked to show a Russian “expert” and agents where the gold was. She also refused to locate the collection. Kucher was later abducted from her home on 30 April and her whereabouts remains unknown.

According to a report on the theft in the New York Times, Russian troops eventually found the gold hoard, which dates back to the fourth century BC, boxed up in the museum’s basement. The items were taken to Donetsk, in the Russian-controlled Donbas region, for “safety”, with the museum’s newly installed puppet director, Evgeny Gorlachev, stating that the gold artefacts were not just for Ukrainians but “of great cultural value for the entire former Soviet Union”. His carefully chosen words were designed to erase the collection’s Ukrainian heritage and replace it with a Soviet one, one that suggested Ukraine was back within Russia’s sphere of influence and control.

A hall in the museum of Arkhip Kuindzhi, a Russian artist, destroyed after shelling by Russian-backed separatists in Mariupol. Photograph: AP

To date, Russian forces have caused the destruction or severe damage of 250 museums and institutions in Ukraine. Twenty-five paintings by Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko were incinerated after the Museum of Local History in Ivankiv was hit by a missile. The Arkhip Kuindzhi museum in the besieged city of Mariupol was badly damaged by an airstrike that left paintings exposed to the elements, hanging on walls amid piles of rubble. The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab, run by the Virginia Museum of Natural History in association with the Smithsonian, has already logged more than 110 memorials destroyed by Russian weapons. But as well as destroying museums and galleries, Russian troops are accused of having stolen an estimated 2,000 artworks. In addition to the theft of the Scythian gold in Melitopol, in Mariupol a handwritten Torah scroll and a valuable gospel printed in Venice in 1811 were all have been taken.

Autocratic leaders seizing art as a means to rewriting a nation’s cultural history and advance their interests is nothing new: in 1937, Hitler confiscated 17,000 works of art from more than 100 German museums in less than a month. Some were shown in his Degenerate Art exhibition but many were destroyed or “lost”. Napoleon had cartloads of masterpieces shipped to Paris from all over Europe: the classical sculptures Apollo Belvedere and Laocoön from Italy; Rubens’s The Descent from the Cross from Belgium. But these latest thefts are in keeping with Putin’s attempts to erase Ukraine’s independent history and promote his own expansionist model of a new Russian empire.

It is clear that Putin sees the Scythian gold as particularly central to Ukraine’s cultural identity and independence. It is not the first time he has tried to claim it for Russia. In 2014, examples of Scythian gold were on loan to the Allard Pierson museum in Amsterdam. Four of the Ukrainian museums that had issued the loans were in Crimea. As Putin invaded and annexed Crimea, he pressed the Netherlands to send the gold back. A protracted legal battle ensued and only in October 2021 did a judge finally rule that the works categorically belonged to the State Museum Fund of Ukraine and not the Russian-controlled Crimean museums (the works remain in the Dutch museum’s stores).

Mariupol’s Museum of Local Lore which burned down after a shelling by Russian-backed separatists. Photograph: AP

When the paintings that were forcibly removed from Mariupol are also considered, a clear pattern emerges. These works have been chosen to undermine Ukraine’s national identity. Paintings by western European artists have not been targeted, for example. Instead it is the work of Ukrainian-Russian artists that has been stolen. Take 19th-century maritime painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Born in Feodosiya, a Crimean port, he was a leading Romantic artist who painted heavy seas, golden sunsets and storm-tossed ships. The slightly younger Arkhip Kuindzhi, another whose works were taken, was born in Mariupol. His paintings are the calm before Aivazovsky’s storm: landscapes of harmonious tranquillity. Both painters worked in regions that are now in modern-day Ukraine and Russia, and both countries claim the artists as their own. Other works stolen are by Tetyana Yablonska (1917–2005), a politically active Ukrainian painter who was born in Smolensk, Russia, and Mykola Hlushchenko (1901–1977), who lived in Donetsk from an early age but was likewise born in Russia. Russia’s line of thinking seems to be that if it seizes such paintings by Ukrainian-Russian artists then the contested territory they once called home will follow.

There is hope, however. The resilience Ukraine is showing in the war is mirrored by the country’s response to this parallel attack on its culture. At the Venice Biennale, the exhibition This Is Ukraine was crowded with artists, with President Zelenskiy’s handwritten slogan “We are defending our freedom” adorning the side of the building. One of the artists involved, Nikita Kadan, created a work from war-damaged metal shards collected from Donbas during the war of 2014 and the current onslaught. He uses his Instagram account to record damage to Ukrainian museums but also to show how the country is protecting its cultural assets, posting photographs of monuments across the country, wrapped in blankets and tape or surrounded by hundreds of sandbags. All Ukrainians are aware that their heritage is under direct attack.

The star piece in the Scythian gold collection from Melitopol is a pectoral, or breastplate. It is an ornate crescent of twisted gold with three intricate friezes. Cattle and horses, central to the life of the Scythians, are tended by men in the first tier, while a decorative panel of flowers and tendrils occupies the middle. The bottom panel, however, is brutal. Six winged griffins attack three horses, a personification of evil spirits striking with no mercy. Despite being outnumbered, the horses struggle on, trying to stay on their feet. Today the breastplate’s message seems uncannily resonant as Ukraine witnesses the theft of its masterpieces by a neighbour who already has blood on his hands.

Charlotte Mullins is the author of A Little History of Art (Yale, £16.99).

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has abruptly transformed the world. Millions of people have already fled. A new Iron Curtain is grinding into place. An economic war deepens, as the military conflict escalates, civilian casualties rise and evidence of horrific war crimes mounts.

It’s our job at the Guardian to decipher a rapidly changing landscape, particularly when it involves a mounting refugee crisis and the risk of unthinkable escalation. Our correspondents are on the ground in Ukraine and throughout the globe delivering round-the-clock reporting and analysis during this perilous situation.

We know there is no substitute for being there – and we’ll stay on the ground, as we did during the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the first Russo-Ukrainian conflict in 2014. We have an illustrious, 200-year history of reporting throughout Europe in times of upheaval, peace and everything in between. We won’t let up now.

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‘Ukraine’s heritage under attack’: why Russia is looting museums

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2,000 stolen artworks attest to Putin’s desire to erase a nation’s history – like so many despots before him

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April 30, 2022, 1:18 p.m. ET

What is thought to be a Scythian gold helmet, displayed at a museum exhibition in Kyiv last year. Credit... Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine - The heist started when a mysterious man in a white lab coat showed up at the museum.

A squad of Russian soldiers stood behind him, with guns, watching eagerly.

Using long tweezers and special gloves, the man in the white coat carefully extracted scores of special gold artifacts more than 2,300 years old from cardboard boxes in the cellar of a museum in Melitopol, a southern town in Russian-occupied territory, Ukrainian officials said. The gold items were from the Scythian empire and dated back to the fourth century B.C.

Then the mysterious expert, the Russian soldiers and the gold disappeared.

"The orcs have taken hold of our Scythian gold," declared Melitopol's mayor, Ivan Fyodorov, using a derogatory term many Ukrainians reserve for Russian soldiers. "This is one of the largest and most expensive collections in Ukraine, and today we don't know where they took it."

This was hardly the first attack on Ukrainian culture since the war began.

In Mariupol, the town that has been hammered for weeks by Russian forces, officials said that Russian agents broke into an art museum and stole masterpiece paintings, a famous sculpture and several highly valued Christian icons.

Across Ukraine, officials said, dozens of Orthodox churches, national monuments and cultural heritage sites have been destroyed. In one town near Kyiv, Borodianka, Russian soldiers shot the bust of a famous Ukrainian poet in the head.

On Saturday, Ukrainian officials said that more than 250 cultural institutions had been damaged or destroyed.

But perhaps no cultural heist has been as brazen as what unfolded in Melitopol just a few days ago.

According to Leila Ibrahimova, the director of the Melitopol Museum of Local History, the trouble started in late February, when Russian forces shelled the airport and took over the city. Soldiers went on a rampage, smashing into supermarkets, stores and homes.

Most of the city's residents hid inside their houses. But a few museum workers, including Ms. Ibrahimova, made their way back to the museum.

It is an elegant, three-story, stone building in the old part of town, home to 50,000 exhibits, from Soviet-era medals to old battle axes. But its prized collection was a set of rare gold ornaments from the Scythians, a nomadic people that founded a rich, powerful empire, centered in the Crimean Peninsula, that endured from around the eighth century B.C. to the second century A.D.

It was the Scythian gold that Ms. Ibrahimova was most worried about.

She and other staff members secretly hid it and some other historic artifacts in cardboard boxes, stashing the boxes in a dank cellar where they didn't think anyone would find it.

"We knew that any second someone could come into the museum with a weapon," she said. So they worked fast, she said, because "the collection is priceless."

In mid-March, Ms. Ibrahimova said Russian troops burst into her house with assault rifles, threw a black hood over her head and kidnapped her. After several hours of intense questioning, they let her go. Two weeks later she left Melitopol for an area not under Russian control.

But on Wednesday, she received a call from a caretaker at the museum. The caretaker said Russian soldiers, along with intelligence officers and a Russian-speaking man in a white lab coat, had come to her house in the morning and ordered her, at gunpoint, to go with them to the museum.

They commanded her to take them to the Scythian gold.

The caretaker refused, Ms. Ibrahimova said. But the man in the white coat found the boxes anyway with the help of a Ukrainian, Evgeny Gorlachev, who was appointed by the Russian military as the museum's new director, she said. A Russian crew filmed part of the robbery.

"We hid everything but somehow they found it," she said.

What was stolen: at least 198 gold items, including ornaments in the form of flowers; gold plates; rare old weapons; 300-year-old silver coins; and special medals. She said many of the gold artifacts had been given to the Scythians by the Greeks.

Russia-Ukraine War: Key Developments

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In an interview on Russian television, Mr. Gorlachev said the gold artifacts "are of great cultural value for the entire former Soviet Union" and that the previous administrators of the museum "spent a lot of effort and energy" to hide them.

"For what purpose, no one knows," he said. "But thanks to these people and the operational work carried out, residents of the city of Melitopol - and not only Melitopol - will be able to observe again a large collection of Scythian gold." He did not say when or where the artifacts would be displayed.

Ms. Ibrahimova, who spoke by phone, sounded despondent as she spoke about the Russian invaders.

"Maybe culture is the enemy for them," she said. "They said that Ukraine has no state, no history. They just want to destroy our country. I hope they will not succeed."

Scythian gold has enormous symbolic value in Ukraine. Other collections of the artifacts had been stored in vaults in the capital, Kyiv, before the war broke out. But Ms. Ibrahimova said events unfolded too fast for her museum to spirit out their collection.

For years now, Ukraine has been locked in a complicated dispute with Russia over collections of Scythian gold that several museums in Crimea had lent to a museum in Amsterdam. After Russia seized Crimea in 2014, Ukraine pleaded with the Amsterdam museum not to return the gold. Russia demanded the museum do just that. A court has ruled in Ukraine's favor and the gold remains in Amsterdam.

But historians said the looting of the artifacts in Melitopol is an even more egregious attempt to appropriate, and perhaps destroy, Ukraine's cultural heritage.

"The Russians are making a war without rules," said Oleksandr Symonenko, a fellow of Ukraine's Archaeology Institute and a Scythian specialist. "This is not a war. It is destroying our life, our nature, our culture, our industry, everything. This is a crime."

The caretaker who refused to help the Russians was released on Wednesday after the gold was stolen. But on Friday she was taken away from her house at gunpoint again, Ms. Ibrahimova said, shortly after the mayor, who is also in exile, announced the theft.

She has not been heard from since.

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Ukraine says Russia looted ancient gold artifacts from a museum.

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April 30, 2022, 1:18 p.m. ET KYIV, Ukraine - The heist started when a mysterious man in a white lab coat showed up at the museum. A squad of Russian soldiers stood behind him, with guns, watching eagerly.

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May 7 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he was speechless after Russian shelling destroyed a museum dedicated to the 18th century philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda.

The overnight attack in the village of Skovorodynivka in eastern Ukraine hit the roof of the museum, setting the building ablaze and injuring a 35-year-old custodian. The most valuable items had earlier been moved for safety, said Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Sinegubov.

"Every day of this war the Russian army does something that leaves me speechless. But then the next day it does something else that makes you feel the same way again," Zelenskiy said in a late night video address.

"Targeted strikes against museums - not even terrorists would think of this. But this is the kind of army we are fighting against," he said.

Skovoroda, of Ukraine Cossack origin, spent the last years of his life in the village of Ivanovka, which was later renamed in his honour - Skovorodynivka.

"This year marks the 300th anniversary of the great philosopher's birth," Sinegubov said in a post on social media. "The occupiers can destroy the museum where Hryhoriy Skovoroda worked for the last years of his life and where he was buried. But they will not destroy our memory and our values."

Moscow calls its actions a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and rid it of what it calls anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked act of aggression. read more

Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melboure, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by Lidia Kelly and David Ljunggren; Editing by William Maclean and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukraine's Zelenskiy 'speechless' after shelling destroys museum dedicated to poet

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May 7 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he was speechless after Russian shelling destroyed a museum dedicated to the 18th century philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda. The overnight attack in the village of Skovorodynivka in eastern Ukraine hit the roof of the museum, setting the building ablaze and injuring a 35-year-old custodian.

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This article was first published by The Guardian.

Satellite scrutiny of Ukraine is not just focused on military hardware. Thousands of miles away from the fighting, an international group of archaeologists, historians and technicians are quietly coordinating another high-stakes monitoring effort: the tracking of the mounting losses to Ukraine's cultural landscape.

Now an impact summary, released this month from their lab at a museum in the US state of Virginia, has revealed the bleak truth.

So far, signs of damage to 191 cultural landmarks and venues have been detected. Most of the destruction - believed to have been carried out by invading Russian troops - has concentrated on Ukrainian memorials and places of worship. Fifty-eight churches, mosques, temples and cathedrals have now been listed, along with 111 memorial sites and nine public monuments. The war has also seen two arts venues attacked - including the theatre at Mariupol, images of which went around the world - and one archaeological site. Violence directed at monuments and buildings might seem insignificant compared to the growing toll of injury and death inflicted on Ukrainian families, but for a country in the shadow of a threatening neighbour, culture and heritage can play a crucial role. The deliberate targeting of religious and cultural sites is also prohibited by the 1954 Hague Convention, although individual perpetrators have rarely been punished.

The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab, at the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville, is the hub for coordinating worldwide attempts to register and protect landmarks at risk. The network was set up last year in partnership with the acclaimed Smithsonian Institution Cultural Rescue Initiative, founded in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which works to train museum curators around the world to react to conflict.

News of any affected site goes back to Ukraine immediately in case the damage to artefacts can be limited, or at least documented on the ground. Inside Ukraine's museums, many cabinets containing Byzantine icons and Scythian gold have been moved. Valuable artwork has been hidden in basements or moved secretly to supportive foreign museums. Other national collections are guarded by wardens who are now armed and ready to repel looters.

The operation in Virginia draws on the expertise of curators from America and Europe and is led by archaeologist Hayden Bassett. "It's a 24/7 operation," he recently told the Washington Post. "Even though we might not be staring at a screen at 3am, our satellites are imaging at 3am."

Brian Daniels, an anthropologist working with the team in Virginia, said the rate of attacks had increased dramatically since the report's publication. He told the Observer: "The violence is now concentrating on civilian infrastructure and this means museums and cultural heritage are targeted in this scorched-earth policy."

Bassett has seen significant cultural damage to the more densely populated areas, including the complete destruction of a museum in Ivankiv two months ago.

The 26,000 cultural sites checked by the lab this month via a combination of remote sensing, open-source research and satellite imagery, include Ukraine's seven world heritage sites. The best known of these is Kyiv's golden-domed Cathedral of St Sophia, which remains intact. Ukraine's ministry of culture has also urged witnesses to send photographs to its cultural crimes website, culturecrimes.mkip.gov.ua, so that verified evidence can be sent to the International Criminal Court.

The lab's new impact report defined cultural heritage broadly, covering venues and historical sites and monuments, but not libraries and archives. A detected "potential impact" means a sign of possible damage based upon remote sensing methods. Other, smaller impacts may not be visible to geospatial technology.

The Russian-controlled territories of Donbas and Crimea were an early concern, according to Damian Koropeckyj, a senior analyst , who has found evidence that destroyed monuments there are being replaced by new ones supporting a Russian version of the areas' heritage.

"We're a remote project. But it's certainly very real to me. Believing we can make a difference here is important," Koropeckyj said.

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Crimes against history: mapping the destruction of Ukraine's culture - ICOM UK

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This article was first published by The Guardian. Satellite scrutiny of Ukraine is not just focused on military hardware. Thousands of miles away from the fighting, an international group of archaeologists, historians and technicians are quietly coordinating another high-stakes monitoring effort: the tracking of the mounting losses to Ukraine's cultural landscape.

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Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.

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A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It’s the all-in-one workspace for you and your team

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MIP Calls for Using Official Sources of Information during Russia's Aggression
26 nov, 08:14

MIP: Ukrinform Marks Its 100th Anniversary
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September 30th: "Send a Postcard", Campaign for Promoting Ukraine Worldwide, to Be Launched in Lviv
27 sep, 16:40

Media Invitation for Press Conference on Start of KYIV MEDIA WEEK Attended by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport
13 sep, 14:04

Language Market, Large-Scale Foreign Language Learning Festival, to Be Held in Odesa
22 aug, 16:02

"Send a Postcard": MIP Initiates Campaign to Promote Ukraine in the World
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July 30th: Summary Press Conference, Music Performance of Participants of "Tvoia Kraina Fest" Festival
29 jul, 12:36

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This article was first published by ARTnews

Ukrainian soldiers discovered a trove of artifacts while digging ditches in anticipation of a Russian strike in the port city Odessa, the Ukrainian military announced last week.

Members of the Ukrainian 126th Territorial Defense unearthed amphorae, or ancient containers used to store and transport liquid and dry goods, according to Heritage Daily, which first reported the news. The tall, bottle-necked shape was common in Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine pottery, however the earliest examples of the form date to the Neolithic period.

Soldiers found the amphorae while preparing Odessa, Ukraine 's third most populous city and a strategically significant seaport on the southwestern coast, for further aggression by Russia. The containers date from between the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C., when Odessa was a Roman settlement called Odessus.

Documentation of the archaeological site is currently impossible due to Russia's military campaign to overtake the city, however images shared by the 126th Territorial Defense show its members transporting the artifacts, as well as several fragments of ceramics, to the Odessa Archaeological Museum for preservation.

Cultural heritage across Ukraine has been a casualty of Russia's invasion, which began February 24. UNESCO has estimated at least 127 culturally important sites in the besieged country have been damaged, including 54 religious buildings, 15 monuments, and 11 museums. The Kuindzhi Art Museum and the Local History Museum in the town of Ivankiv, home to dozens of paintings by famed Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko, were among those destroyed early on in the conflict. The United Nations monitoring body has called on protection for the country's archaeological property, though Russia's intense bombardment and the ongoing refugee crisis have impeded preservation efforts.

After several months of war, reports of deliberate attacks on Ukrainian culture have become common. On May 7, Russian shelling destroyed a museum dedicated to the 18th-century philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda, one of the country's most beloved literary luminaries. The museum was located in the small, non-militarized village of Skovorodynivka, outside the city of Kharkiv.

Ukrainian officials said more than 2,000 artworks have been looted from museums in Mariupol, a port city hammered for weeks by Russian shelling. Russian troops reportedly stole several painting masterpieces, as well as ancient icons, the Gospel of 1811 from the Venetian printing house for the Greeks of Mariupol, and more than 200 medals from the Museum of Medallion Art Harabet.

The mayor of the city of Melitopol has reported that a prized collection of gold artifacts more than 2,300 years old was stolen from the cellar of the local history museum. The gold items originated from the Scythians, a nomadic people who founded a powerful empire centered in the Crimean Peninsula. Their empire survived from about the 7th century B.C. to the 3rd century B.C.

Leila Ibrahimova, the director of the Melitopol Museum of Local History, told the New York Times the Scythian artifacts were "priceless."

"Each day of this war, the Russian army does something that leaves you speechless," Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. "Targeted attacks on museums-this wouldn't cross even a terrorist's mind. But this is the army that's waging war on us."

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Ukrainian Soldiers Discover Archaeological Treasures While Digging Defenses in Port City Odessa - ICOM UK

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This article was first published by ARTnews Ukrainian soldiers discovered a trove of artifacts while digging ditches in anticipation of a Russian strike in the port city Odessa, the Ukrainian military announced last week. Members of the Ukrainian 126th Territorial Defense unearthed amphorae, or ancient containers used to store and transport liquid and dry goods, according [...]Read More...

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The National Museum of Lviv in western Ukraine, one of the country’s biggest museums, was able to keep its collection intact through two world wars. And yet, over the last month, since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the museum has had to quickly dismantle its exhibitions.

“For the first time since the museum was founded in 1905, all exhibition rooms are empty—all museum items are wrapped, packed and are hidden,” Ihor Kozhan, museum’s director, tells TIME over Zoom. “When you talk, you hear echoes reverberating in the empty rooms. It hurts. It’s very sad.”

And the National Museum is not alone. During these weeks of Russian war against Ukraine, museums and archives across the country have been scrambling to protect artifacts and documents that represent Ukrainian history.

They’ve done everything from evacuating works of art over the border to hiding objects in safe storage. Cities are trying to safeguard monuments and statues by surrounding them with sandbags and covering statues with fireproof material to protect them from bombing and shelling. Some museums have been destroyed, such as Kuindzhi Art Museum in Mariupol and a history museum in Ivankiv, in the Kyiv region, which was known for a collection of 25 artworks by famed Ukrainian folk artist Maria Primachenko. On two separate occasions, Russian strikes have damaged parts of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center site in Kyiv, which marks the 1941 Nazi German massacre of more than 33,000 Jews.

Read more: A Ukrainian Photographer Documents the Invasion of His Country

For many institutions, “they are struggling to figure out how to protect the collections, how to move [artworks], what to hide,” says Yuliya Vaganova, acting director of the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv, home to the country’s most significant collections of Western and Asian art.

Yet, amid this conflict, the stakes of preserving Ukraine’s culture and past have never been clearer.

‘A war against our history’

On the first day of the invasion, the literary museum in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, began the process of sealing windows with plywood. Now all of its exhibits have been moved to an underground bomb shelter. Writing to TIME on March 25 while the sound of an air-raid siren blared, the museum’s director Tanya Pylypchuk described how the institution had evacuated “the most valuable part of the collection” in the first few days of the war. Those items include books, manuscripts, and documents on “the complex relations between Ukraine and Russia in the 20th century” that “show Ukraine wanted to be part of Europe, not Russia.”

“Such materials were banned in the Soviet Union,” Pylypchuk wrote. “Modern Russia also does not accept this version of Ukrainian history.”

On March 24, 2022, at the Taras Shevchenko Monument in Kharkiv, Ukraine, dozens of volunteers are packing sand into bags, tying them off and loading them into bucket cranes and cherry pickers, while the volunteers standing on rising sandbag walls around the statues are piling them higher around the statue to protect them from the effects of Russian bombardment.

Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times—Getty Images

“This is a war against our history, our culture,” says Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the Maidan museum in Kyiv, a history museum focused on pro-democracy efforts in Ukraine.

Since the invasion, Poshyvailo has shifted gears to helping museums obtain electricity generators and packing materials to preserve their collections, and coordinating donations of food and water for museum workers who have decided not to flee the country so that they can protect the art and artifacts. In a similar effort, Olha Honchar, director of a museum of totalitarian regimes in Lviv called Territory of Terror, organized the Museum Crisis Center to help fundraise for museum workers at small regional museums, which were short-staffed even before the war. “A lot of regional museums don’t have a security system,” Honchar says.

In this March 26, 2022, photo, a monument of Volodymyr the Great is surrounded by a a special protective structure on Volodymyrsky Hill in Kyiv to safeguard it from possible bombardment as Russian forces continue their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket—Getty Images

“Ukrainian cultural institutions—museums, national parks, libraries, theaters—they are not military objects, not oil depots or airfields, but still they are at risk,” Mykhailo Zakopets, a director of the museum Lviv Skansen, said in an email. “We see destroyed Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and understand, that enemy’s goal is to wipe out everything that is about Ukrainian identity—the language, national culture, traditions. In this context our museum is [an] invaluable treasury of information.”

Read more: Here’s What You Can Do to Help People in Ukraine Right Now

Anatolii Khromov, the chief archivist of Ukraine, who oversees the country’s network of more than 200 archives, tells TIME that the Russians burned down the archive for Ukrainian Security Service in Chernihiv, which housed more than 12,000 folders about the KGB and the repression of the Ukrainian population by the Soviet regime in the 20th century.

He says the Ukrainian archive system is desperate for funding to finish construction of underground depositories for preserving documents and in the meantime has signed an online storage agreement with the National Archives in the United Kingdom to back up copies of select documents. As Khromov describes the value of the country’s archives, “It’s not just Ukrainian history. It’s world history.”

Backing up the past

And it’s not just physical objects that museums and archives need to protect. There are a couple of ongoing efforts in the U.S. to help scholars in Ukraine back up their research online and archive websites related to the country’s history in case there are cyberattacks or researchers’ homes are bombed.

The American Folklore Society is helping Ukrainian scholars upload their research—including songs, photographs, and videos recording dances and Ukrainian festivals and celebrations— to a Google Drive site. A U.S.-based project called Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) boasts over 1,300 volunteers worldwide and more than 15,000 individual files uploaded to the website Internet Archive. Volunteers are producing replicas of museum websites—and in some cases, this work comes in the nick of time. For example, on March 3, a team worked through the night to back up the website for the state archive of Kharkiv before it mysteriously went offline.

“A website might be one of the only [pieces of] evidence that something existed and belonged to this museum, so this could potentially be evidence in future prosecutions for looting, for destruction of cultural heritage,” says Quinn Dombrowski, SUCHO co-founder and an academic technology specialist at Stanford University.

And Honchar is already thinking about the next big task for museums: telling the story of Russia’s war against Ukraine to future generations.

“Now the priority is to survive and save [museums’] collection,” she says, “but after the win, we have a lot of work to do to document this war in Ukraine.”

Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.

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Ukrainian Museums Are Racing to Save Artifacts That Tell the Country's Story

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"This is a war against our history, our culture," says Ihor Poshyvailo, a museum director in Kyiv. But Ukraine's museums are fighting back

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NEMO - The Network of European Museum Organisations

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Following the war in Ukraine and after receiving calls and messages from colleagues from across Europe asking how they can support their Ukrainian colleagues, NEMO started collecting and monitoring support activities and initiatives organised by museums for Ukrainian colleagues and citizens.

Polish Committee aims to protect Ukrainian collections

Komitet Pomocy Muzeom Ukrainy

Poland

The newly founded committee aims to support all Ukrainian museums and cultural institutions in the protection of collections, the most valuable souvenirs and monuments of Ukrainian culture. 50 cultural institutions are involved in the initiative, which was initiated by the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

The committee is ready to support Ukrainian museums in the following aspects:

support in documentation, digitization and inventory of collections;

providing materials needed to protect and hide the collections;

sharing experiences and good practices in the protection of collections;

collecting documentation proving the looting and destruction of Ukrainian cultural goods

The committee has already started collecting information about needs from various Ukrainian museums. A first set of materials for packing, protecting and conserving collections has been gathered. The materials will soon be delivered to chosen Ukrainian institutions from where they will be redistributed by local coordinators to facilities that have declared the need for support. To be able to continue the support, the committee has launched fundraiser run by the Paweł Włodkiewicz Institute.

Phone: +48 22 376 68 36 (supported in Ukrainian)
Phone : +48 22 376 68 43 (supported in Polish and English)
Ukrainian version: Комітет допомоги музеям України
Агресія Росії проти України спричиняє незліченну кількість злочинів, страждань і жертв. У таких умовах найважливішими є люди - мирне населення, яке зазнає варварських бомбардувань та солдати, які борються з агресором. Сьогодні українці гинуть, захищаючи рідну землю.

Але кожна війнa також означає непоправні втрати в національній спадщині та культурі. Сьогодні українські музеї стикаються з екстремальними викликами - як захистити та зберегти колекції, як зберегти спадщину багатьох поколінь, про які вони піклуються.

Польща це дуже добре розуміє. Розкрадання та знищення культурних цінностей у нашій країні набули виняткових розмірів під час Другої світової війни; кульмінацією стало повне пограбування та знищення Варшави під час Варшавського повстання та одразу після його придушення. Подібних втрат ніколи більше не повинна зазнати жодна нація та держава. На жаль, сьогодні це загрожує Україні.

Тому, щоб не допустити катастрофи та підтримати наших колег з України, ми створюємо Комітет Допомоги Музеям України. Його основними цілями є:

підтримка всіх музеїв і закладів культури України в евакуації та охороні колекцій, найцінніших експонатів і пам'яток української культури;

допомога з документацією, оцифруванням та інвентаризацією колекцій;

надання матеріалів, необхідних для захисту та переховування колекцій;

обмін досвідом;

збір документів, що підтверджують розкрадання та знищення українських культурних цінностей.

Боротьба за збереження культурної та національної спадщини України - це наша спільна боротьба!
More information

List of Ukrainian museums' needs - Donate to help

The Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) has collected information on the most pressing needs of museums and museum professionals in Ukraine. 75 museums from 16 regions in Ukraine (excluding the western regions, which are comparatively safer) have answered to HERI's questionnaire on needs. The list is regularly updated online and includes amongst others:

Financial support for museum and cultural sector staff in emergency situations.

Mobile phone payment for the staff working on saving and protecting cultural heritage from destruction.

Generators and fuel.

Packing materials (cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, craft packing roll paper, stretch film, corrugated cardboard rolls, envelopes, waterproof pack bags etc.).

Fire extinguishers.

Sacks for sand.

Payment for cloud storage services.

HERI collects resources, including money, to cover the museums' needs and communicates with those museums directly. The list includes price estimates of the different items to give an overview of the overall budget that is needed to efficiently help the Ukrainian museums and museum professionals.

Donations in EUR can be sent to the bank details below. The account belongs to Tustan NGO, which is one of the co-founders of HERI. Because of the war, it has been impossible for HERI to register a new organisation and bank account. Donations in dollars and Ukrainian Hryvnia is also possible. Find more details about donations and wire transfer in this document.

Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) is a newly founded initiative working with the aim of preserving cultural heritage in warzones and its post-crisis recovery. Right now, the focus is on Ukraine and all HERI activities are coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and Information Police of Ukraine, UNESCO, ICOM, ICOM-DRMC, ICCROM and other institutions and rescue initiatives in Ukraine and worldwide.

Tracking Conservation Shipments

Blue Shield International

We understand from our Ukrainian colleagues that they are finding it difficult to keep track of shipments and that some things are duplicated, whilst others are not answered. We also know that when people want to send shipments, it is extremely difficult to know who is working on sending what to coordinate together. We have launched this simple spreadsheet to track shipments via a form you complete. It takes approximately 10 minutes and you can add as much or as little information as you want. If you prefer, you can send the information to us via email.

The data is intended to

get an overview of which requests have been / are being answered and by who

what conservation materials are being sent

where they are going

by which routes (to provide assistance to those intending to send materials)

Securing Ukrainian cultural assets

Museum der Westlausitz

Kamenz, Germany

The museums of the administrative district Bautzen would like to support Ukrainian curators, museum employees and artists to secure Ukrainian art and culture. As an UN specialized agency the ICCROM developed a guideline for protecting and securing endangered cultural assets. This guideline provides for instance important references to evaluate any concrete danger, concepts for evacuations and transport aid. Based on that guidelines should you come to the conclusion that your collections or artistic œuvre should be secured outside of Ukrainian territory, the museums of the administrative district can offer support in:

Storage space in adequate depots

Conservational care

If necessary logistical support during the evacuation

Shelter for Ukranian Culture

The Allied Museum is offering storage space for cultural artefacts that have been evacuated from war-torn Ukraine. We are a small museum and our space is limited but we would be happy to accept objects from Ukraine in our storage facilities on a temporary basis until perhaps a central facility has been created. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on the space available and if it fits the conservational needs of the respective artefacts in question.

Contact

European Solidarity Centre

Gdańsk, Poland

There is a room for the Ukrainian community available - the Self-Help Committee "Ukrainians for Ukrainians"

Welcoming museum professionals and their families

Portuguese Association of Museology

Lisbon, Portugal

With the mission of bringing together museology professionals, or those originating from similar institutions, around the safeguarding, promotion and enhancement of collections, archives and cultural heritage, in all its dimensions APOM - Associação Portuguesa de Museologia provides the following support:

Welcoming museology professionals as well as their families. APOM will provide them with proactive support in their integration in Portugal

Bureaucratic and institutional support

Surveying, inventorization, conservation and safeguarding of museum collections, including in loco, should it be safe to travel to Ukraine.

Scholarships for Ukrainian conservators at the Auschwitz Memorial

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Oświęcim, Poland

In the situation where tens and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens are fleeing to Poland because of Russian aggression, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, in cooperation with the Auschwitz Museum, has decided to provide support. The Foundation has launched a program of scholarships for professional development in the field of conservation of objects of martyrdom for Ukrainian conservators, with the aim of providing equal job opportunities. The project involves the conservation of historical objects related to the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. The scholarships are financed entirely by funds specially earmarked by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. The scholarships are awarded for 6 months. The Auschwitz Museum will provide the recipients of scholarships with accommodation and introduce them to the project. No knowledge of the Polish language is required. All interested persons are invited to send their applications with brief information about their educational background and the conservation projects in which they participated. They application can be sent in Ukrainian, Polish or English to:

Two paid internships for Ukrainian students

European Network Remembrance and Solidarity

Warsaw, Poland

We offer 2 paid internships for Ukrainian students currently residing in Poland to provide direct support to the project coordinators in our office in Warsaw. If you are a student with a passion for history, and interest in working in an international environment, please send your CV with a motivation letter by 21 March 2022. Internships will last 4 months and may start in April or May 2022.

Grant fundraising for museum professionals

ICOM Poland decided to focus on the needs of the museum personnel that found refuge in our country. With the assistance of ICOM General Secretariat we established an Ukrainian speaking office and started to locate persons scattered throughout Polish cities. We plan to provide 3-months individual grants to the museum professionals that will apply. These grants should help them to accommodate their first needs. At the same time, our office will act as a contact point between the grantees and Polish museums and cultural institutions, so that they may find a job and a welcoming professional milieu. The Polish state already simplified the necessary employment formalities to the minimum. In order to provide these grants we need to raise funds in the international milieu. The Polish state and private pockets are getting dry fast. We count on the support of all organizations that are involved with museums, cultural heritage, art history and humanitarian help.

Funding Line for Ukrainian scholars

Ernst von Siemens Foundation for the Arts (ESVK)

Berlin, Germany

The UKRAINE Funding Line will offer support by covering staff costs in public museums and collections that employ either refugee scholars from Ukraine or Russian scholars who were forced to leave Russia due to their opposition to war in Ukraine. Employment of such scholars by and in these institutions would need to be in the context of art historical exhibitions, research projects, catalogue raisonné projects, or communication measures. The maximum length of the individual measures will be one year. The total sum offered for funding will initially amount to two million euros. As in the previous CORONA funding line we welcome co-financing and additional financial support from other patrons, whose contributions we will also be pleased to distribute.

Our funding is designed to provide security and stability to scholars, while safeguarding their knowledge and supporting German institutions which are already engaged in a number of ways in Eastern Europe.

Application s are accepted only via public museums and collections, by e-mail and in a single pdf document.

Job offer for museum professionals, historians and librarians

In Solidarity with Ukraine - Charity concert

Photography for Democracy - C/O Berlin Sundays for Ukraine

C/O Berlin Foundation

Berlin, Germany

Visit C/O Berlin and help Ukraine!C/O Berlin will donate full ticket proceeds on the four Sundays in March to the United Nations Refugee Agency's Ukraine emergency aid. C/O Berlin is deeply committed to providing support where democracy is severely threatened and people have to flee from war.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), whose German partner is the UN Refugee Agency, has been active in Ukraine since 1994. Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea in 2014, UNHCR has provided protection and humanitarian assistance on both sides of the line of contact. This includes supporting internally displaced people, refugees and stateless people in the country.

Each Donation is a Beacon

Rotating beacons assist pilots in poor weather conditions such as fog. Our beacon is originally from Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport, central hub of the Berlin Airlift 1948/49. It belongs to the Allied Museum's collection. In these dark days for Europe, the rotating beacon stands symbolically to guide the refugees of the war in Ukraine to a safe place. By donating money at the Allied Museum you can support those that struggle to survive in the war zone. The admission to the Allied Museum is free of charge. Your donation will go in its entirety to the Ukraine Donation Bridge ( Spendenbrücke Ukraine) initiative in Hangar 1 at Tempelhof Airport. Heartfelt thanks from the Allied Museum team!

Donate to support museums and museum workers in warzones

Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative

Ukraine

The newly founded Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) promotes the preservation of cultural heritage in the conditions of war and its post-crisis recovery. HERI would greatly appreciate your kind donations which will be spent to support museums and museum workers from areas where armed conflict is taking place and which are in a zone of humanitarian crisis.

Among the priority areas of the initiative are preparation for rapid response to emergencies in armed conflict; protection of museum collections from losses; carrying out rescue operations; collection and systematization of information on crimes against cultural heritage; coordination of actions between state / municipal authorities, museum institutions, cultural institutions, non-governmental sector and international organizations in the preservation of cultural heritage and its restoration; all possible humanitarian aid.

The HERI activities are coordinated with the Ministry of Culture and Information Police of Ukraine, UNESCO, ICOM, ICOM-DRMC, ICCROM and other institutions and rescue initiatives in Ukraine and the world.

Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

To show the museum's commitment to helping the Ukrainian citizens, on March 12 and 13, the profit made by the tickets sale will be donated to Chaine du Bonheur, a national fundraising organization.

Museums and Disaster Risk Reduction

How can museums use Disaster Risk Reduction approaches, to safeguard themselves, and enhance their contributions to the wider world? "Disaster Risk Reduction is aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development."

includes activities that can be undertaken during and after a disaster, in terms of planning and relationships, and how cultural heritage can be protected and used in peace education. There are lists of references to useful resources at the end.

Backup Ukraine - Preserve heritage forever

UNESCO, Blue Shield Denmark

Backup Ukraine lets anyone become an archivist. You can scan buildings and monuments as full 3D models using just your phone. And store them in an open, secure online archive - where no bombs can reach.

Spontaneous exhibition: UKRAINE IN OUR THOUGHTS

Finnish Heritage Agency, Picture Collections

Helsinki, Finland

With this Photography exhibition the Picture Collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency, together with Helsingin Sanomat -media, wants to highlight the perseverance and determination of the Ukrainians to survive the Russian invasion. The photographs in the Picture Collections depict the life of Ukrainians from the beginning of the 20 th century to the 21 st century. Correspondingly, the Helsingin Sanomat journalists and photographers have reported on the demonstrations in 2014, the situation in Donbass and the current war and the plight of the Ukrainians. Exhibition is free and open 23 rd March - 6h April 2022 at the Sanoma House in the Helsinki city centre beside Kiasma the Museum of Contemporary Art. Texts are in Finnish, English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Volunteers Unite to Archive Ukrainian Cultural Heritage

Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO)

A group of cultural heritage professionals - librarians, archivists, researchers, programmers - are working together to identify and archive at-risk sites, digital content, and data in Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions while the country is under attack. We are using a combination of technologies to crawl and archive sites and content.

Free tours for Ukrainian refugees

Kočevje Regional Museum

Kočevje, Slovenia.

Kočevje has been hosting quite some Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children. Because this is a new environment for them the Kočevje Regional Museum would like to introduce it to them. They decided to offer them a free tour of our museum, so they can learn about the history of the region. And a free walking tour of town Kočevje where they are settled, so they get to know the place better. This way we can take their minds off the current situation in their country and show them they are welcome. Tours will be given in English and also translated to Ukrainian by one of the refugees.

Contact

Action of Ukrainian artists against the war

Art Workshops for Ukrainian children

Archeological Museum

Gdańsk, Poland

Ukrainian children can come to free art workshops in the "Blue Lamb" Granary to sew felt toys, for examples favorite animals or make colorful micro-rubber keyrings.

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NEMO - The Network of European Museum Organisations

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Following the war in Ukraine and after receiving calls and messages from colleagues from across Europe asking how they can support their Ukrainian colleagues, NEMO started collecting and monitoring support activities and initiatives organised by museums for Ukrainian colleagues and citizens.

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Our statement on the invasion of Ukraine - Museums Association

The Museums Association supports the International Council of Museums' (ICOM) condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian Federation military forces and echoes its concern about the risks faced by museum professionals on the ground in Ukraine.

Already the international museum community is rallying and offering support, including refuge, and we encourage colleagues in neighbouring countries in particular to continue and step up their offers of solidarity and support.

Many museum workers in Ukraine have previously been involved in human rights movements and many museums provide space for the promotion and discussion of human rights. This puts museum workers at particular risk in the current situation.

The primary concern must be the safety of museum staff and the wider population - in addition there is a threat to the material cultural heritage of Ukraine and, as signatories of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, in the event of armed conflict we would call on both countries to abide by their international legal obligations to protect heritage.

What can museum workers do in solidarity with Ukraine?

Welcome refugees and work with refugee organisations to create safe spaces to deliver support

Work with the international museum community to provide support and solidarity (see statements from ICOM and NEMO)

Commission and platform Ukrainian artists and curators

Work with Ukrainian support organisations in the UK to share and celebrate Ukrainian arts, heritage and culture

Be vigilant for looted items to prevent illicit trade

Open our spaces for public debate, discussion and reflection

Consider the ethical implications of any loans to the Russian Federation or sponsorship from the Russian Federation

Image: National Art Museum of Ukraine, credit to Suicasmo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Our statement on the invasion of Ukraine - Museums Association

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Our full statement and suggestions for actions of solidarity

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UNESCO, ICCROM and the Maidan Museum in Kyiv (Ukraine) have translated the manual Endangered Heritage: Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections (Спадщина у небезпеці - Екстрена евакуація культурних цінностей), into Ukrainian. UNESCO will support the distribution of some 2,000 printed copies across Ukraine, to areas with no or limited internet access.

"UNESCO commends the fruitful cooperation with ICCROM and the Maidan Museum of Kyiv on the Ukrainian translation of this effective and easy-to-use handbook. We will quickly share it with museums and culture professionals in Ukraine to help prevent the destruction and looting of cultural objects," said

Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO.

This practical handbook, jointly elaborated by UNESCO and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property ( ICCROM) in 2016, offers a field-tested simple workflow for the emergency evacuation of valuable objects, covering fields of emergency documentation of collections, temporary storage, and safe transport. As part of the efforts of UNESCO and ICCROM to support the safeguarding of cultural heritage in Ukraine, the translation of the handbook into Ukrainian aims to offer technical support to Ukrainian communities and institutions in the midst of the armed conflict.

"Since the inception of ICCROM's programme on cultural first aid over a decade ago, our aim has been to develop easy-to-use references to enhance emergency preparedness and risk reduction for heritage in crisis. We are proud to be working in partnership with UNESCO and the Maidan Museum for this safeguarding effort."

Webber Ndoro, Director-General of ICCROM

The handbook is available online, in open access, on the UNESDOC Digital Library and the ICCROM website. Since 2016, the manual has been translated into thirteen languages: Arabic, English, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Japanese, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

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UNESCO and ICCROM join forces with the Maidan Museum of Kyiv to support Ukraine's museums

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UNESCO, ICCROM and the Maidan Museum in Kyiv (Ukraine) have translated the manual Endangered Heritage: Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections ( Спадщина у небезпеці - Екстрена евакуація культурних цінностей ), into Ukrainian. UNESCO will support the distribution of some 2,000 printed copies across Ukraine, to areas with no or limited internet access.

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Trafficking of cultural goods is the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property (items of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science). This can take different forms:

theft from cultural heritage institutions or private collections

looting of archaeological sites

displacement of artefacts due to war

To efficiently protect cultural heritage against illicit trafficking, a sound legislative framework, international cooperation and a solid base of evidence and well-targeted projects are needed.

EU legislative framework

The European Parliament and Council Directive 2014/60/EU on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State introduced arrangements enabling EU Member States to secure the return of cultural objects to their territory that were removed in breach of national measures.

Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009 on the export of cultural goods ensures uniform controls at the EU's external borders. It does so by subjecting exports to the presentation of an export licence. Individuals can obtain this document through the competent Member State authorities. This document is valid throughout the EU.

Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the introduction and the import of cultural goods provides rules on imports into the EU of cultural goods exported from their country of origin.

International cooperation

Various instruments regulate the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural goods internationally. The most important of these instruments is the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a reliable and experienced partner of the EU in combatting the illicit trade of cultural goods, which implements several EU-funded projects:

Engaging the European art market in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property

This project implemented by UNESCO provided trainings on due diligence, existing policies and regulations at the international and EU level as well as on the role of police and customs and illicit trafficking and related crimes.

Find out more about the project.

A toolkit for European Judiciary and law enforcement

The European Union cooperated with UNESCO in 2018 on training judicial and enforcement authorities in the Member States for identification, investigation and cooperation on illicit trafficking. The project organised training modules on prevention and investigation of cultural property-related crime for the relevant professional groups (including police and custom officers).

As part of the project the co-organisers published a toolkit for European Judiciary and law enforcement.

Find out more about the project.

Protecting Cultural Heritage and Diversity in Complex Emergencies for Stability and Peace

The project aimed to allow for the stabilization and urgent safeguarding of the cultural heritage of Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen as well as their population.

Find out more about the project.

Inter-regional and cross-cutting action to strengthen the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property

The overall objective of the initiative is to reduce the illicit trafficking of cultural property in the EU and beyond. This project, implemented by UNESCO, addresses beneficiaries in

EU Member States

pre-accession countries of the Western Balkans

partner countries of the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) South.

The project reinforces the skills of key professionals and stimulates new synergies among a wide range of professionals:

representatives from cultural heritage authorities and museums

professionals from the banking sector

the media

judiciary and law enforcement officials

civil servants for relevant ministries.

Find more information on the UNESCO’s website.

Cooperation with other international bodies

The EU works with other international bodies involved in the protection of cultural heritage:

Council of Europe

Unidroit

Interpol

World Customs Organization

Consolidating a solid base of evidence and information network

A 2019 study on illicit trade in cultural goods contributes to a better understanding of the illicit trade in cultural goods in Europe.

The study provides insights into the various aspects of this issue, such as the sources, transit and destinations of illicitly traded goods. It sheds light on trafficking routes, trends and patterns of trafficking and illicit trade operations, as well as the actors involved.

The authors of the study discuss approaches to measuring the volume of this illicit trade. They explore national and international criminal justice responses to trafficking in cultural goods. At the same time, they also identify the challenges that relevant law enforcement authorities face when implementing effective responses.

Selected projects

NETCHER

The idea of the project "NETCHER – NETwork and digital platform for Cultural Heritage Enhancing and Rebuilding" started to take shape after the terrorist attacks in Paris at the end of 2015. Criminal investigations proved that the trafficking of antiquities is a major source of funding for international terrorism.

The participants of this project set up a European network of relevant operators and a Europe-wide charter of good practices to efficiently fight the illicit trafficking of antiquities. The EU finances this project through the Horizon 2020 Programme.

Find out more about the NETCHER project.

Other useful resources on illicit trafficking

United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict

UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database

Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to cultural property

International Council of Museums: Fighting Illicit Traffic

International Council on Monuments and Sites

INTERPOL: trafficking in illicit goods and counterfeiting

World Customs Organization

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Trafficking of cultural goods is the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property (items of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science). This can take different forms:

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One of the big curation stories of the past decade is the emerging field of collections digitization - the digital documentation, storage, interpretation and dissemination of public and private collections of art, manuscripts and objects. The techniques and protocols used to record the world's cultural inheritance will shape its legacy in an unprecedented way - both for future generationsand today's scholars and art lovers. We speak to Emily Kate of Christie's Education's upcoming short course, Collections Digitization, about her 'passion for this intersection of art and technology.'

A specialist whose experience spans both museums and the tech industry, Emily has designed the course to give students a practical and theoretical grounding in this relatively new and increasingly consequential discipline. After studying art history at Columbia and museum studies at Harvard, she worked on digital teams at the Smithsonian Institution and The Frick Collection before moving 'from the tech side of the museum world to the museum side of the tech world' at Google Arts & Culture. There she managed cultural digitization operations in North America. 'I loved the scale, the scope of our audience,' she said of a project involving hundreds of institutional partnerships, digital curation of educational exhibitions and collections management software.

Emily has since founded the Global Art Access Corporation, a nonprofit whose mission is to broaden the availability of art and history through digital means. As executive director, Emily oversees its campaign 'to create both scholarly and public access to inaccessible works,' with a particular focus on giving private collections access to the digitization treatment enjoyed by major institutions. 'We can open up scholarly and public access to completely inaccessible masterpieces,' she attests, and through her work has seen private collections join the digital archives of the Smithsonian, Harvard University's Fine Arts Library and The Frick.

Reflecting on her knowledge of both sides of the digital divide - the vast analog resources of institutions and contemporary technological solutions - Emily is passionate about 'the importance that digitization plays in the preservation, education, curation and organization of art.' Developing these ideas, the course will cover key elements of collections digitization, including archival management, copyright, practical digitization techniques, metadata development, content management systems and public accessibility.

By combining theory with hands-on experience, students will work on digitizing 2D artwork, rendering 3D models, compiling metadata spreadsheets and use curatorial tools. 'This will provide a safe space to experiment, ask questions,' Emily confirms. 'Having practical experience for each topic can help to solidify the theory we cover in the course.'

Emily thinks it's an exciting time for this fascinating intersection between art and tech. 'I know there is incredible potential within the digital sector and I'm eager to introduce more people to the tools making this a reality.' Through the groundbreaking efforts made by Google Arts & Culture, Global Art Access Corporation and a growing number of institutions around the world, collections digitization is creating new opportunities for scholarship and appreciation - whether its from previously unseen private collections and museum archives, or the art and artifacts of historically underrepresented cultures.

To view the course and find out more click here

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One of the big curation stories of the past decade is the emerging field of collections digitization - the digital documentation, storage, interpretation and dissemination of public and private collections of art, manuscripts and objects. The techniques and protocols used to record the world's cultural inheritance will shape its legacy in an unprecedented way - both for future generationsand today's scholars and art lovers.

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"It's easy to make assumptions, and that's how we end up with museums that aren't relevant to their public."
The future of museums is relevancy and Jim Richardson, founder of the MuseumNext conference and museum news website, identifies the top priority museums should invest in to stay relevant.

Tune in as we discuss audience research, digital trends and the role of leadership in impacting change. Plus, a new game where we "predict" what museums will be like in the not-so-far-off-future!

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‎Museum Buzz: 'Next' with MuseumNext's Jim Richardson on Apple Podcasts

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"It's easy to make assumptions, and that's how we end up with museums that aren't relevant to their public." The future of museums is relevancy and Jim Richardson, founder of the MuseumNext conference and museum news website, identifies the top priority museums should invest in to stay relevant....

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Season Three Finale with Catherine Devine

Microsoft's Catherine Devine and host Emily Kotecki use the themes from Season Three to imagine the future of mixed reality and the metaverse for libraries and museums. Plus, this is the end of the Microsoft Libraries and Museums Podcast! All episodes are available wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in from around the world!  Episode Resources Interview Transcript: https://bit.ly/3FDNMoD

13:02

January 17, 2022

A Multi-Platform Experience at Ancient Olympia and Athens Olympic Museum

The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport has teamed up with the Athens Olympic Museum and Microsoft to create multi-platform, multi-site immersive experiences for visitors. The exhibition 'Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds' uses mixed reality, plus a mobile and a desktop to bring the site of Ancient Olympia to life.  Dr. Erofili Kolia, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport, and Dr. Elina Pechlivanidi from the Programs and Collections department at the Athens Olympic Museum, share their journey of creating this multifaceted experience.  Plus, commentary from Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode Resources:  Interview Transcript: https://bit.ly/3ndicHN Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds exhibition: https://olympiacommongrounds.gr/explore Microsoft In Culture: https://inculture.microsoft.com/arts/ancient-olympia-common-grounds/

24:10

January 10, 2022

Audio Tours at the USS Midway

Sometimes augmenting an experience doesn't mean virtual reality or immersive rooms. It can also mean using the technology that best fits the experience. In this case at the USS Midway, Mark Berlin, Director of Operations, and Jeff Danziger, North America Sales Director for Guide-ID, leverage the tried, true, and very successful audio guides aboard the ship to enhance the visitor experience. Listen to their story of audio guide hardware to mobile and back again after seeing visitors choose the device 90% of the time, and how they plan to approach other storytelling technologies. Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode Resources USS Midway Audio Tours: https://www.midway.org/visit/self-guided-audio-tours/ Interview Transcript: https://bit.ly/3zodOuu

25:14

January 03, 2022

An Immersive Musical Experience at the National Theatre

Toby Coffey, Head of Digital Development has been pioneering immersive and technological experiences at the National Theatre in London since 2006. Most recently, his team created a mixed reality musical performance called All Kinds of Limbo. When the pandemic hit, they received grant funding and used the opportunity to democratize access to the show by creating ways for audiences to experience it on three different platforms. Join this conversation as we take a step outside museums and libraries, into the theater world and into new ways of leveraging immersive technologies.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode Resources:  Get tickets to All Kinds of Limbo: https://bit.ly/3rLLPD5  Interview Transcript: https://bit.ly/3oPBwfo

20:39

December 13, 2021

Bringing a 13th Century Castle to Life in Italy

A visitor walks into a 13th century Italian castle and UNESCO Heritage site. The walls are bare. They poke around for a few seconds then walk out.  That was then.  Now, with a new mixed reality experience developed by Hevolus, Infratel, and Microsoft, Castel del Monte has become a HoloMuseum. Visitors can engage with various augmented reality experiences to add layers of information and detail about the castle.  Antonio Squeo, Chief Information of Hevolus, shares the details of this experience and the role that the 'phygital' museum will play in the future of cultural experiences.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode resources Castel del Monte: https://bit.ly/3lIdtNR Interview Transcript: https://bit.ly/31xPUA7

16:60

December 06, 2021

Future Proofing the Museum at the Petersen Automotive Museum

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles was one of the first public locations for visitors to use a HoloLens headset in 2015. Since then, they've continued to use mixed reality to drive attendance and enhance the visitor experience. Michael Bodell, Chief Operating Officer at the Petersen shares their journey as well as what technology they're experimenting with now to better 'future-proof' their museum. Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode resources:  XR at the Petersen: https://bit.ly/3IeSsE7 Interview transcript: https://bit.ly/2ZxPIzV

18:58

November 29, 2021

Experimenting with VR at the National Library of the Netherlands

In preparation for moving to a new library building and separate storage space, the National Library of the Netherlands is embarking on a series of experiments to digitally engage with their collection. In one particular experiment, Karin Vingerhoets, Curator of the Children's Books Collection, and Martijn Kleppe, Head of the Research Department, joined forces to create a virtual reality experience of four children's pop-up books.  In this episode, Karin and Martijn share why libraries are a bit behind in the VR space; how they chose VR; and  the relatively low cost of their investment, which resulted in numerous lessons for their library moving forward. Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode resources:  VR at the National Library of the Netherlands Interview transcript: https://bit.ly/3rf9kob

25:11

November 22, 2021

A 'Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain' through HoloLens, Holograms, and More at the Cleveland Museum of Art

In 'Revealing Krishna: A Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain,' visitors learn about a 1,500 year old sculpture of the God Krishna through multiple digital experiences ranging from 360-degree immersive cinematic video to HoloLens to holograms.   Jane Alexander, Chief Digital Information Officer and Sonya Rhie Mace, George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art, at the Cleveland Museum of Art, collaborated closely to bring these experiences to life. In this episode, they share their journey of supporting the narrative of this important sculpture through mixed reality; their guiding philosophy around leveraging technology; and what the future of massive digital projects is at CMA.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Episode resources:  Revealing Krishna website Interview transcript

25:25

November 15, 2021

The Library of the Future at Harvard Library

There's a revolution happening in university libraries that is changing the way they increase access to physical and digital collections, support professors, engage students, and redefine scholarly products. Matt Cook, Digital Scholarship Program Manager at Harvard Library, is part of that "evolution revolution" and shares two examples of how they're innovating for the future.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Show links:  Transcript Harvard Widener Library Matt Cook

21:05

November 08, 2021

The Experience Economy with Ryan Gaspar

"Museums create that bridge to humanity. So the more we learn about their collections and the stories, the more that we can learn about ourselves and each other."  Ryan Gaspar is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft. Part of his role includes working with museums to create mixed reality experiences that enhances the visitor experience. In this conversation we talk about the importance of the branded museum in today's experience economy and how to authentically create engaging content for visitors.  Plus, commentary from Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Full transcript: https://bit.ly/3nWCmoX

18:05

November 01, 2021

Minecraft at the Hans Christian Andersen House

"Anyone who has read Andersen's fairytales knows that Andersen fairytales is not about ending up with facts. It's about ending up with a sense of wonderment and it's about the play that goes on...so we wanted to create a place that that was much more telling the story like Andersen." The Hans Christian Andersen House in Odense, Denmark, just reopened over a five year renovation. In addition to creating a space that reflects the playful nature of fairytales, the museum has also created a Minecraft world for students based on the story of Thumbelina. In this episode, Henrik Lubker, Creative Director, Mette Videl Kiilerich, Curator of Education, and Adam Clarke, Minecraft mapmaker and consultant, share their process for creating the experience.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Interview transcript: https://bit.ly/3GG1kl3

22:24

October 25, 2021

Season three of the Microsoft Libraries and Museums podcast will share stories from around the world of how institutions are experimenting and innovating with mixed reality.  As a field, we are continually pioneering new ways to make and strengthen those connections. With the power of augmented and virtual reality; immersive spaces and 360 video, we are elevating what a visitor experience can be and where it can happen. Join us this season as we explore new worlds, new realities, and new futures. Hosted by Emily Kotecki and produced by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Full episode transcript: https://bit.ly/3jfsGEC

02:15

October 18, 2021

Season Two Finale with Catherine Devine

"It took a crisis - doesn't always need to take the crisis - but it took a crisis to for museums and libraries to realize they can really reach large audiences...be creative and...[achieve] more of the mission of the organization."  Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at Microsoft, reflects on the  trends and ideas that emerged in season two.  Full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/373XrG8

08:52

July 26, 2021

Smart Buildings with Janice Kung

"There are a number of ways that libraries are integrating technologies to optimize the user experience, reduce costs, and make buildings more energy efficient."  While the opportunities and benefits of adopting smart building technology are plentiful, libraries and museums are still nascent in this aspect of digital transformation. Janice Kung, Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, shares a prototype she created around monitoring noise levels and a vision for the future. Plus, commentary by Catherine Devine.  Read the full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/2UvkuqJ

16:11

July 19, 2021

Machine Learning with Dave Evans

Machine learning "allows us to tell richer stories with our collection because cognitive services can find patterns and can do things with a collection that would be time prohibited for a human being to do." Dave Evans, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Technology at the Computer History Museum, is leveraging machine learning to enrich how his museum shares its collection. Evans demystifies the technology, shares how any cultural organization can be begin adopting it, and what the broader, exciting implications would be if GLAM sector began using machine learning to unearth their collections. Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.   Read the full interview transcript here: https://bit.ly/2T5cXy2

18:52

July 12, 2021

Education with Dr. Helen Charman

"We all decided we were going to harness this moment to see how we could make it into an opportunity to think differently about our practice." Dr. Helen Charman, Director of Learning and National Programs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, focused on creativity in a crisis. When COVID-19 hit, her team transformed how they reached audiences beyond the walls of the museum. The result has been so successful it's changed the way they work moving forward.  Listen to their story plus commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Full interview transcript available here: https://bit.ly/3hZ87en

19:21

July 05, 2021

Big Data with Angie Judge

"If we're talking about the Great Data Transformation of museums in 2020 and beyond, what we're talking about is this change in a more contemporary leadership style, which has more data, less process, and more empowerment for our teams." Angie Judge, CEO of Dexibit, explains what she sees as the Great Data Transformation of the cultural sector to ensure a more agile and empowered future.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Read the full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/3hmbvjb

20:58

June 28, 2021

Collections Management with Neal Bilow

"How do you pivot on a dime in today's world when the technology has locked you into  silos, so you can't get the data out around it?" Neal Bilow, CEO and Founder of Terentia, sees a new future for collections and digital asset management systems that moves away from bespoke development, leverages data, and drives audience engagement.  Plus, commentary by Catherine Devine.  Read the full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/3qhKDVm

18:18

June 21, 2021

Ticketing and Fundraising with Erin Lively Koppel

"Ticketing and fundraising pay for digital transformation. They are the revenue engine which provides the platform of  funding for everything else that you want to do." Erin Lively Koppel, Chief Strategy Officer at Tessitura Network, reflects on the changing landscape of ticketing and fundraising as a result of the pandemic. She also shares how libraries and museums can adapt to these changes and prepare for a new financial future.   Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Read the full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/3wByugv

19:32

June 14, 2021

"What's the most flexible and scalable way that we can expose our collections to the world?"  Before Jen Looper studied computer language, she received her PhD in Medieval French literature. And while she may have jumped from French to JavaScript, she has always remained interested in supporting arts and culture through tech. Jen is the Cloud Advocate Lead at Microsoft and shares her vision for how cloud can support increasing access to more collections around the world.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine. Read the full interview transcript here: https://bit.ly/3iujm04

17:38

June 07, 2021

Minecraft with Adam Clarke

"Minecraft, isn't a field of dreams. If you build it, they won't necessarily come.  You've got to think about who your audience is, where they are, and how to reach them in a meaningful, authentic way." Adam Clarke, Minecraft map maker, producer, and consultant has co-created Minecraft worlds for libraries and museums. In this episode he shares how to leverage gaming into authentic audience engagement experiences. Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine.  Link to full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/2SP7hbd

22:01

May 31, 2021

Digital Equivalency with Michael Gonzales and Daniel Hamilton

"When you're looking at digital equivalency, we're looking at experience design. It's somewhat of an alchemy." In each episode of season two, we are doing a deep dive into the different aspects of digital transformation. Today's episode focuses on Digital Equivalency, which is the ability to offer equivalent experiences in physical and digital spaces. Michael Gonzalez, the University Librarian, and Daniel Hamilton, the Communications Manager, at the University Technology Sydney, in Australia share their multi-year process in implementing digital equivalency throughout the library.  Plus, commentary by Microsoft's Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums. Link to full interview transcript: https://bit.ly/3vmezS6

20:09

May 24, 2021

Welcome to Season Two of the Microsoft Libraries and Museums Podcast! This season we will be doing deep dives into different aspects of digital transformation in libraries and museums. We’ll hear from libraries, museums, and industry partners about pieces of the digital transformation puzzle. Tune in every Monday for new interviews plus commentary by Microsoft’s Catherine Devine. Link to full transcript: https://bit.ly/3tT94c5

02:05

May 17, 2021

Season One Finale with Catherine Devine from Microsoft

After nine interviews with guests from eight countries and four continents, this is the final episode of Season One! Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at Microsoft, reflects on the big ideas that emerged throughout the conversations. You usually hear her at the end of each episode, but as this is our last episode of the season, we’re bringing her to the forefront.  This episode was originally recorded for the MuseumNext virtual conference in February 2021 and edited for this space.

15:48

February 24, 2021

Anda Baklāne from the National Library of Latvia

The National Library of Latvia has been digitally transforming itself since the early 2000's, but like any institution transformation can start and stop.They began by digitizing collection. In 2014, after 25 years, they opened a brand new library building, where digital efforts got put on hold. But in the last few years and with the urgency of COVID, they’ve reinvested in digital. Currently, they are reimagining what it means to be both a physical and digital access point for cultural heritage. Listen to our interview with Anda Baklāne, Head of Digital Research Services, as she shares their journey.  Plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at the end of the episode. Read the full transcript: https://bit.ly/3bwED4n

21:11

February 15, 2021

Barbara Makuati-Afitu and Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai from Lagi-Maama

Barbara Makuati-Afitu and Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai are the co-founders of Lagi-Maama in New Zealand. Barbara and Kolokesa work with museums to transform how they elevate and center indigenous voices. When COVID hit, the duo had to quickly switch their approach and use digital in a way they had never done before - but the relationships they had formed with their communities supported that pivot. Listen to our conversation, plus commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at Microsoft.  Link to full transcript: https://bit.ly/2YZZS8B

20:56

February 08, 2021

Patricia Buffa from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Patricia Buffa is the Director of Digital Strategy at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Buffa is kickstarting digital transformation at her institution with a people-first approach - whether they’re colleagues or visitors. It’s “about workshopping and listening and understanding what people are trying to do so [while] technology is a tool, it needs to be really seamless for people to actually want to embrace it and use it.” Listen to our conversation, plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at the end of the episode. Link to full transcript: https://bit.ly/3oK8uLe

15:57

February 01, 2021

Tricia Golden and Kim Smit from the National Gallery of Ireland

Tricia Golden and Kim Smit, of the National Gallery of Ireland, are at the beginning of transforming their museum. Like many museums and libraries across the globe, COVID-19 spurred their hard pivot to digital. In this conversation Golden and Smit, Director of Corporate Services and Head of Collections and Research, respectively, share how they are working together to build the foundation for their digital future. Plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at the end of the episode. Link to full transcript: https://bit.ly/39Z7GNa

20:54

January 25, 2021

Saskia Scheltjens from the Rijksmuseum

Saskia Scheltjens has been spearheading change her whole career. When she took a new position, as Head of Research Services, at the Rijksmuseum in 2016 to unify multiple departments into one cohesive division, she was ready for the challenge.  The department is dedicated to digitizing and opening the collections from both the museum and library - which results in a mind boggling amount of data. Listen to our conversation to hear how she got staff on board with the changes (which were 18 years in the making!)  and stays sane in the midst of all the data.   Plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at the end of the episode. Link to full transcript: https://bit.ly/3nZilfs

18:05

January 18, 2021

Kevin Lim from the National Gallery Singapore

Kevin Lim, Deputy Director for Innovation at the National Gallery Singapore, has been at the museum since it opened in 2015. Since then he has opened two incubator spaces that operate like start-ups within the museum. These innovation labs experiment with technology around visitor services and audience engagement. Lim also works closely with the tech sector to bring in new sources of funding and interest to the art world. Listen to our conversation, plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at the end of the episode. Link to full transcript: https://bit.ly/3sj7SiA

20:19

January 11, 2021

Kurt De Belder from the University of Leiden

Kurt De Belder has been leading the University of Leiden library for 15 years, overseeing a huge expansion of their open access policy, social media operations, and international collaborations. As University Librarian and Director of Leiden University Libraries & Leiden University Press, de Belder has continually innovated in how information is accessed and shared. He has experience working in libraries on both sides of the Atlantic and shares that perspective in this interview.  Listen to our conversation, plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at Microsoft. Link to the full transcript: https://bit.ly/35wXji5

21:18

January 04, 2021

Scott Gillam from the Canadian Museum of Human Rights

When the doors of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights opened in 2014, Scott Gillam and his team created a museum experience infused with digital. However, they went beyond tech for tech’s sake and have prioritized creating experiences that are inclusive and accessible.  This has included universal key pads, 3D photographs, immersive technology,  gesture-based technology, and more. Gillam, Manager of Digital Platforms, and his team see inclusive design as a vehicle to tell stories and elevate the experience for everyone. Listen to our conversation to hear how they evolve with technology, plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums. Link to the full transcript: https://bit.ly/3oCky1v

16:43

December 21, 2020

Merete Sanderhoff from Statens Museum for Kunst

Merete Sanderhoff arrived at the Statens Museum for Kunst, in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007 with the charge of “doing something digital with the collection.” Since then, she has tinkered, toyed, expanded, and solidified the role digital plays at her museum. As Curator and Senior Advisor of Digital Museum Practice, Sanderhoff has overseen the digitization of 50,000+ artworks, the creation of numerous apps and interactive, as well as the use of artificial intelligence. She also started her own conference dedicated to inspiring others to digitize cultural heritage. Listen to our conversation, plus, commentary by Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader for Libraries and Museums at Microsoft. Link to the full transcript: https://bit.ly/3oEJaa1

18:36

December 14, 2020

Announcing the Microsoft Libraries and Museums Podcast

Welcome to the new Microsoft Libraries and Museums Podcast! This show is dedicated to exploring the journey of digital transformation in museums and libraries from around the world. These interviews will explore emerging trends and common pitfalls, as well as revealing critical truths about digital change. The show is hosted by Emily Kotecki and produced by Microsoft's Catherine Devine, Global Business Strategy Leader – Libraries and Museums. The first full episode launches December 14. New interviews will be posted every Monday and can be found wherever you listen to your podcasts.

02:15

November 30, 2020

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Welcome to the Microsoft Libraries and Museums Podcast! This show is dedicated to exploring digital transformation in museums and libraries from around the world. These interviews will explore emerging trends and common pitfalls, as well as revealing critical truths about digital change.

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The Digital Future of Museums: Conversations and Provocations argues that museums today can neither ignore the importance of digital technologies when engaging their communities, nor fail to address the broader social, economic and cultural changes that shape their digital offerings.

Through moderated conversations with respected and inf luential museum practitioners, thinkers and experts in related fields, this book explores the role of digital technology in contemporary museum practice within Europe, the U.S., Australasia and Asia. It offers provocations and reflections about effective practice that will help prepare today’s museums for tomorrow, culminating in a set of competing possible visions for the future of the museum sector.

The Digital Future of Museums is essential reading for museum studies students and those who teach or write about the museum sector. It will also be of interest to those who work in, for, and with museums, as well as practitioners working in galleries, archives and libraries.

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The Digital Future of Museums | Conversations and Provocations | Keir

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The Digital Future of Museums: Conversations and Provocations argues that museums today can neither ignore the importance of digital technologies when engaging

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Podcasting in 2019: An Introduction for Museums

Hannah Hethmon, H. Hethmon Consulting, USA, Ian Elsner, Museum Archipelago, USA

Abstract
Want to explore the booming medium of podcasting at your museum? This session will cover the minimum skills, knowledge, and costs needed to produce a podcast in-house. Podcasters and museum professionals Hannah Hethmon and Ian Elsner will go step-by-step through every aspect of podcast production, including developing a concept, equipment needed, recording and editing, and marketing. Participants will leave with an understanding of everything that goes into podcasting and the knowledge needed to start their own. During the session, the speakers will provide the opportunity for participants to handle and compare the equipment needed to start podcasting. Ian Elsner is the host and producer of the popular podcast Museum Archipelago, which explores the "rocky landscape of museums." Besides podcasting, he develops software and technology for interactive media in museums. Hannah Hethmon is the host and producer of Museums in Strange Places, a podcast that explores the world through its museums. She is also the author of Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step-By-Step Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits.
Keywords: podcasting, technology, communications, storytelling, engagement, marketing

Introduction

This is a paper about podcasts and how to create one at your museum. But, before we get started, the most important thing to know is this: you don't have to follow our advice. Podcasting is a medium that was born out of ordinary people's desires to share radio and video stories outside the official channels created by broadcasting corporations and public radio. From the start, it has attracted experimenters and genre-defying creators. If you find a better way to do things than we suggest, then do it that way.

The medium of podcasting has evolved and grown considerably since the term was first used in 2004 (Hammersley, 2004), but the core definition is still the same (and it's still incredibly broad). A podcast is a protocol; it is serialized audio files delivered over RSS in much the same way as text delivered over RSS is a blog. There is no gatekeeper. Unlike almost any other publishing or broadcast medium, you don't need permission or a network to start a podcast. In fact, thanks to a growing field of software and Internet startups dedicated to podcasting, creating a great podcast is easier than ever. It's possible to create a podcast with a as little equipment as a recording device (like a smartphone), computer, and an Internet connection.

To Podcast or Not to Podcast

We're in the midst of a podcast boom, but why should museums care about podcasting, beyond awareness of the medium? What particular advantages does podcasting offer to museums? The answer, as we see it, is threefold: organic reach, intimacy, and an audience that favors museum-friendly content.

While the rest of the media landscape has embraced algorithms, podcast subscribers get their episodes as they are released, instead of only getting what the algorithm determines is most relevant or popular. If you follow an account on Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to a channel on YouTube, there is no guarantee that you will get every tweet or video published by those accounts. This offers a huge competitive advantage for podcasts in the modern media ecosystem. It has become harder and harder over the last few years to organically connect with followers, particularly on Facebook, where paid posts are often the only reliable way to actually reach audiences. It is unlikely that podcasts themselves will face this invisible paywall in the near future. Podcasting is a slow medium; you will never see the same quantity of interactions that you can generate on social media, but you will see deeper engagement. In a recent survey, 80% of monthly regular podcast listeners said they listen to all or most of every episode they begin (Winn, 2019). This isolation from algorithms is already a rarity and offers a huge humanistic advantage for podcasts in the modern media ecosystem-and allows creators to not have the algorithm in mind while producing content.

We know people listen to podcasts, but what experience are they having while listening? More than any other medium, podcasts allow listeners to connect emotionally with the voices of their favorite shows. As Noelle Acheson wrote a few years ago, "Podcasts fill in the gaps in your days with intimacy. Of all the media available at the moment, podcasting is the most like a relationship." (2016). This is one of the biggest commonalities between the huge diversity of podcast sub-genres. Whether you are listening to long-time chart topper Marc Maron ramble on about his cats on WTF with Marc Maron, breathlessly waiting for the plot reveal in your favorite audio drama, visualizing land art with the MoMA's Raw Material , or joining the hosts of The Whitest Cube in calling out the exclusionary history of art institutions from the perspective of people of color, podcasts are a comforting voice in your ear, filling your day with new information, strategies for activism , humor, drama, empathy, and more. Having only audio available, listeners are given more room to exercise their imaginations to fill in visuals. The podcaster speaks, often in a informal tone, directly into the ear of the listeners, helping them pass the time in traffic, doing dishes, or even while they are working. The podcaster often speaks to one person, recording by themselves with a listener avatar in mind. This creates, in a sense, a two-way connection between the podcaster and the individual listener. It's a common phenomenon among podcasters to hear from listeners who feel personally connected to them, as if they know them. What museum doesn't want their visitors to feel that they matter to the museum and have a personal connection to the museum's content and mission?

We've said that podcast listeners favor museum-friendly content, but what does that really mean? Take a look at the chart-topping podcasts. You'll find a lot of true crime, "deep dives," and "untold stories." Thanks in part to the mainstream success of , which launched a new wave of listeners whose first taste of podcasting was investigative journalism, fans are hungry for content that goes beyond the news, Wikipedia entries, and popular history-beyond what can fit in a museum exhibit. At the least, they want to hear new perspectives and new sides of stories that interest them, at the most, they want strategies for changing the way things are. Museums are well-positioned to provide this kind of content. Our institutions are packed with stories, real stories about real, complicated people, and museum people are skilled at telling those stories. Why aren't we using this medium more?

Podcasting also requires a long-term commitment. Creating five episodes and never following up won't give you much return for your investment. The real benefits of podcasting come from cultivating a dedicated listenership over the course of many episodes or seasons. The more marketing reach you currently have, the less this principle applies, but listeners expect most shows to continue beyond a few episodes. Like with television, most shows continue on to their natural conclusion in seasons or with only minor breaks, but a few shows are released as mini-series. Don't begin a podcast "just because" or with a "why not?" It is also important to keep exceptions realistic. Because of the lack of algorithmic effects, it is unlikely your podcast will encounter explosive growth. But podcast listeners report a deep connection and intimacy to the podcasts they listen to. Know what goals you want to achieve (i.e., a deep connection with a relatively small audience) and whether the medium of podcasting is the right tool.

Start Here

Wanting to start a podcast means you're a fan of podcasts. Being a fan of podcasts means you know just how many shows there are. However, the vast majority of podcast feeds contain fewer than three episodes. To have a goal to get beyond three episodes, you need a fully developed concept, a strategy and production plan, and specific equipment and software.

You need to start with a fully developed concept, a clear focus. A good rule of thumb is to be specific rather than broad. Don't start a podcast about ; start a podcast about Ewoks. In this example, it's safe to assume that a big fan community already exists. But the fans of one specific aspect of the fandom (Ewoks, for example) are an underserved market. The same applies to museum podcasts. We recommend against making a podcast for the average visitor to your museum. That market is already well served by radio. Likewise, "all our visitors" or "anyone who likes history" is not your audience. Instead, think about the super-visitors or the fascinating question that your institution receives only a few times a year. It may seem counterintuitive that a more specific topic and a more opinionated host would lead to a more successful podcast, but niche subject matter is what separate podcasts from radio broadcasts and more mainstream media. It might seem like a broader approach is better for a museum, but media consumers reject content that isn't tailored specifically to them; as Internet culture in the last few years has shown us, niche subjects generate fiercer "fandoms" and intensify the commonalities listeners can identify between themselves and the podcast creators. Additionally, podcasting networks and established media corporations may be able to find listeners for a broad topic, but museums simply don't have the entertainment heft to earn new listeners based on their brand alone. The concept has to stand out from the herd and carve out a new space in the "podiverse."

With your concept in place, start planning your strategy. A good strategy fully supports your main concept. Can your main concept be distilled into specific, episodic portions? Will it be serialized, with one episode leading to the next, or will each episode stand on its own? Whatever type of podcast you choose, plan out the first 10 episodes as a list. If any fewer than ten episodes come to you, maybe your concept is not suitable for a podcast. If you have no trouble populating the list, your idea is in good shape.

We strongly recommend producing your first three episodes before releasing any. This is the best way to figure out how long production really takes. You can also use the content from those three episodes to produce a short trailer, which will help you generate buzz for your podcast before it launches. Once you have produced your first three episodes, give yourself some time to evaluate the process. Is your schedule too ambitious? What is involved in producing the episodes? Are you happy with your work? Send those episodes to a friend or colleague outside your organization to get honest feedback. Because you haven't released anything, you are under no obligation to publish those episodes. Reevaluate your plan.

The How-To Section

Before getting into the specifics of the tools to use, remember that all the technology is in service of the intimacy described above. Because you're not asking permission on your podcasting journey, it's most important to exercise your sense of taste, knowing that you will probably be ultimately unsatisfied with your work. This difference between your taste level and your skill level is what broadcaster Ira Glass calls, "the Gap" (Popova, 2014).

If you run an interview-based show, prepare to spend time booking guests and setting up interviews. If your show addresses a different topic each episode, like Museum Archipelago, have a pool of potential interviewees and their contact information ready for episodes several months into the future. If your podcast has a different focus each season, like Museums in Strange Places , plan your whole season's interviews ahead of time, even if you don't schedule them all at once. Sometime before the interview, contact the interviewee, introduce them to your podcast, and ask if they would like to be interviewed. In these solicitations, it is important to communicate that you're interested specifically in their voice-most people can smell a cold-call a mile away. Reference their work and even include a few thoughtful questions that you'd like to ask them.

You are responsible for recording the interviewee, and the less work they need to do, the better. If the interview is in-person, use a professional-looking microphone with the Zoom H4n Pro Handy Recorder. If the interview is over the phone or over Skype, record the call using Tape-A-Call Pro or Skype Call Recorder. If possible, treat the recording made over the line as a backup. For the main audio, try to record on both ends (in broadcasting, this is called a double-ender). A double-ender is a type of recording where each party records their own audio in person. This allows for the cleanest sound possible, removing the unwanted issues over the line. Usually, this is as simple as asking your interviewee to use the Voice Memo app on their phone and place the phone on a table in front of them, then transferring the audio file after the recording has ended.

There are a number of great options available for editing your audio and turning your raw "tape" into a story. Hethmon uses the free open source tool Audacity to edit, and Elsner uses the iOS audio editor called Ferrite to edit on his on iPad. Editing will be the most time consuming part of podcasting. You can hire an editor to do this part for you if you don't have the time or ability. Both of us record scripts that help us frame our interviews and transition between the best bits. It's during this stage that we add our "theme," a few lines about the show and a bit of music.

Once you finish your first episodes, you need to share them via an RSS feed. The simplest way to do this is to use a hosting service like Libsyn or Blubrry. These platforms host the MP3 of your episode, create a custom RSS feed for you, and push it out to any listening platforms you want. It's important to make sure your podcast is available on every podcasting platform, but you don't have to do this manually. Once your show is on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, most other listening apps and websites will pull your feed from those primary sites.

You will have to market your show. Like with most things, putting it online is not enough. Make sure you have compelling cover art, an attention-grabbing title, and a description that lets your audience know why they should listen and what they will get out of tuning into your show. Create a dedicated homepage for the podcast on your organization's website where you can post "show notes" for each episode. Show notes may include pictures, transcripts, further reading, or anything else you want. Show notes posts are helpful for sharing individual episodes. Use your existing means of communication to share each episode with your existing audience.

Make sure to set goals for your podcast project before beginning, otherwise you will have no way to measure its success. Keep in mind that the download numbers may seem small compared to video views on Youtube or Facebook. The only publicly available number for comparison are the monthly numbers released by Libsyn. Since they host a large percentage of podcasts in the US, their numbers are a good benchmarking tool. As of August 2018, if you have over 142 downloads of an episode in 30 days, you're doing better than 50% of all podcasts on Libsyn. If you have 1,200 downloads, you're doing better than 80%; 3,300 brings you into the top 10%, and only the top 1% of podcasts get over 32,000 downloads for each episode in the first 30 days.

Conclusion

The authors, both podcasters themselves, see a world in which museums embrace podcasts as a way to forge deeper connections with their listeners and as an antidote to algorithmically-driven, gatekeeper-controlled mass social media. Podcast fans are bucking the trend of constant distraction by listening loyally to entire episodes from their favorite shows, not flipping through channels to find something that catches their attention. In a world of near-constant distraction, where else can museums find a quiet moment in their audience's day and share it with them?

What would you say if you could speak directly to your target audience for 30 minutes every week without any interruption? Once you have the attention of your audience, anything is possible. You can create super fans who will go out of their way to visit and support the museum. The proof is in the podcasts that are already out there. The big museums with marketing departments and eyes on the future of media are already podcasting or trying to get into the medium. From the SF MoMA to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. to the British Museum in London to the Australian Museum in Sydney, the power of podcasting for cultural institutions is not a hypothesis anymore. We recommend acting on the podcast boom's potential and claiming your audience now, rather than waiting until the market is more saturated and the medium more standardized.

For more help, we recommend Hannah Hethmon's book Your Museum Needs a Podcast , Jessica Abel's Out on the Wire , the podcast from Transom.org , and the AASLH technical leaflet called, "How to Make a Podcast."

References

Acheson, Noelle.(2016). "Whisper in my ear: The intimacy of podcasts." Medium. Last updated March 9, 2016. Consulted January 5, 2019. Available at: https://medium.com/@NoelleInMadrid/whisper-in-my-ear-the-intimacy-of-podcasts-8b875b929c60

Hammersley, Ben. (2004). "Audible Revolution." . Last updated February 12, 2004. Consulted January 3, 2019. Available at: The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/feb/12/broadcasting.digitalmedia

Heater, Brian. (2018). "Apple Podcasts now hosts more than 550,000 active shows." Tech Crunch. Last updated June 5, 2018. Consulted January 4, 2019. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/05/apple-podcasts-now-hosts-more-than-555000-active-shows/

Kerris, Natalie and Tom Neumayr. (2005). "Apple Takes Podcasting Mainstream." Last updated June 28, 2005. Consulted January 5, 2019. Available at: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2005/06/28Apple-Takes-Podcasting-Mainstream/

Popova, Maria. (2014). "The Taste Gap: Ira Glass on the Secret of Creative Success, Animated in Living Typography." Brain Pickings. Last updated January 29, 2014. Consulted January 5, 2019. Available at: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/ira-glass-success-daniel-sax/

Winn, Ross. (2019). "2018 Podcast Stats & Facts (New Research From Dec 2018)." Podcast Insights. Last updated January 9, 2019. Consulted January 10, 2019. https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/
Cite as:
Hethmon, Hannah and Elsner, Ian. "Podcasting in 2019: An Introduction for Museums."MW19: MW 2019. Published January 15, 2019. Consulted .
https://mw19.mwconf.org/paper/podcasting-in-2019-an-introduction-for-museums/

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Podcasting in 2019: An Introduction for Museums - MW19 | Boston

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Hannah Hethmon, H. Hethmon Consulting, USA, Ian Elsner, Museum Archipelago, USA Want to explore the booming medium of podcasting at your museum? This session will cover the minimum skills, knowledge, and costs needed to produce a podcast in-house.

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Museopunks is a podcast for the progressive museum.

Every month, Suse Anderson investigates the fascinating work and personalities in and around the museum sector. The Punks explore some of the sector's most stimulating questions, institutions, and practices, with a focus on emergent, boundary-pushing work and ideas.

Never miss an episode!

Subscribe to Museopunks on iTunes or Stitcher

Episodes

Mutual aid systems rely on forms of exchange, sharing support and resources, to enable communities to care for their members in the face of difficulty. In this episode, we speak with Paula Santos, Christian Ramirez, and Alyssa Greenberg about the Museum Workers Speak started the Museum Workers Relief Fund, a form of 'radical redistribution' that seeks donations from those with means to support US-based museum workers who have been laid off, furloughed, or otherwise severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those donations are then redistributed as $500 gifts to help recipients stay afloat.

It's been a few weeks since the world was upended in the wake of COVID-19. In this episode, we catch up with an old friend, Sharna Jackson, to hold space for some reflection, some mourning, and some laughter.

Even before a pandemic changed everything, we were living in turbulent times. Extreme partisanship defines politics in many countries, inequality grows even wealthy countries, and faith in institutions is diminishing. How do museums create environments of trust, especially where there are histories of distrust, victimization, and oppression? In this episode, we speak with Dina Bailey, former Director of Methodology and Practice for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, and Tim Phillips, founder and CEO of Beyond Conflict, to consider what we can learn from transitional justice approaches when addressing the painful legacies of the past.

Since the #MeToo hashtag and campaign appeared online in 2017, many in the museum sector have wondered when members of our own community would be called to account. In this episode, the Punks are joined by Robin Pogrebin, Zachary Small and Anne-Marie Quigg to explore a major #MuseumMeToo moment and ask how bullying and harassment shape workplace culture.

Over the past decade, museums have increasingly shared high-resolution open access images of their collections. Yet there are significant legal and ethical complexities related to digital cultural heritage, particularly when blanket decisions about open access are made without involving communities of origin. In this episode, the Punks are joined by Mathilde Pavis and Andrea Wallace to discuss their Response to the 2018 Sarr-Savoy Report, which addresses intellectual property rights and open access relevant to the digitization and restitution of African Cultural Heritage and associated materials, and come to the conclusion that we need to be discussing digital cultural heritage with far more nuance.

Being Human, the new permanent gallery at Wellcome Collection explores what it means to be human in the 21st century. In creating the exhibition, the Wellcome Collection worked with two advisory panels - one composed of scientists, and the other of artists, activists, and consultants that was organized in collaboration with the University of Leicester's Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, focusing on the representation of disability and difference. The resultant experience embodies the idea that all can and should feel valued and connected.

The season for existential crises continued this past month when the International Council of Museums (ICOM) announced that a working group had proposed a new definition for museums and that said definition would be voted on at the ICOM Triennial in Kyoto, Japan. We followed the many conversations that unfolded over the next few weeks and asked a diverse group of museum colleagues around the world to share their thoughts on the issue with us. What does it mean to be a museum? Who does that definition exclude? And who is the audience for that definition?

As decolonization moves more firmly onto the agenda in museums, so too does its critique. In this episode, we speak with Sumaya Kassim, author of the essay 'The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised', and Nathan "Mudyi" Sentance to ask whether museums can dismantle the colonial gaze. We also find out more about the kinds of structural changes inside museums that may be necessary to fully support First Nations people and People of Colour working in our cultural institutions.

In this episode, we're joined by Alison Wade from AAMD, and Michelle Millar Fisher and "E" from the Art + Museum Transparency group to discuss the topic of unpaid internships, and the implications for the sector of this practice. Plus, Ed Rodley, Museopunks new co-host, makes his official debut.

The end of Pride Month does not mean that we should stop talking or thinking about LGBTQIA+ inclusion and queer curating practices in museums. This month, we're joined by Craig Middleton and Nikki Sullivan, authors of the KINQ (or Knowledge Industries Need Queering)manifesto, and Alison Kennedy and Anna Woten, from AAM's LGBTQ Alliance Task Force for Transgender Inclusion to discuss queering the museum.

In this episode, we're joined by Will Stoutamire and Lauren Hunley (both on the Board of the MPMA), and Michelle Epps, President of the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network, for a discussion about salary transparency in the museum field-what it is, why it matters, and why your institution should be disclosing salaries early and often.

In this episode, Museopunks explores this idea of the surfeit of virtues with both Rodley and Rounds, and discovers a moment of paradigmatic change in museums within the USA.

OF/BY/FOR ALL is a global movement and a set of tools to help community institutions around the world become more representative OF and co-created BY their communities. In this episode, we're joined by OF/BY/FOR ALL founder Nina Simon and Rohini Kappadath, General Manager of Immigration Museum (Australia), to find out how to create a museum for everyone.

Museum collections in established institutions come with long histories. So how do you change a museum's canon? In this episode, we speak with Christopher Bedford, Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art, about the BMA's decision in early 2018 to deaccession seven works by blue-chip artists in the contemporary collection in order to strengthen its holdings of contemporary works by women and artists of color.

Since the mid-1990s, it has been received wisdom that museums are, or should be, "safe spaces for unsafe ideas." But is this true? Are museum safe spaces? And do they really deal in unsafe ideas? In this episode, Elaine Heumann Gurian, who is credited with first expressing this idea, helps us unpack whether it continues to make sense in museums today.

How can museums participate in transitional justice, which seeks to address massive human rights violations? In this episode, Suse is joined by Omar Eaton-Martínez and Dr. Karine Duhamel to explore the implications of truth and reconciliation in museums.

In this special two-part episode, Suse and special guest co-host Desi Gonzales, explore virtual reality in museums. In part two, we take a deep dive into Alejandro G. Iñárritu's academy-award winning virtual reality installation CARNE y ARENA with VR film-maker Paisley Smith.

In this special two-part episode, Suse and special guest co-host Desi Gonzales, explore virtual reality in museums. In part two, we take a deep dive into Alejandro G. Iñárritu's academy-award winning virtual reality installation CARNE y ARENA with VR film-maker Paisley Smith.

With a reticence towards partisan politics, museums are sometimes perceived to be neutral institutions, many avoiding taking a visible stand on issues. But can they really avoid being political when making choices about the allocation of resources, time, and energy? #MuseumsAreNotNeutral is "an initiative that exposes the fallacies of the neutrality claim and calls for an equity-based transformation of museums." In this episode, LaTanya S. Autry and Mike Murawski break down the #MuseumsAreNotNeutral campaign, while Kaywin Feldman, Nivin and Duncan MacMillan Director and President of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), discusses what it's like to run a museum at a time of crisis.

The vision of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, describes how the museum "will reflect and realize the values of decolonization in all of its practices, working with the Wabanaki Nations to share their stories, history, and culture with a broader audience." But what does it take to decolonize a museum? How does it change the governance structure and the practices of the board? What kinds of frameworks and internal work are necessary to shift the balance of authority within the institution, and turn theory into actionable change?

As former Museopunk Jeffrey Inscho leaves the museum world, we take a moment to reflect on the factors that influence a decision to leave or join the museum profession. We also examine what outside organizations can gain from hiring museum professionals-and what museums can gain from those who have grown up professionally in complementary industries. Plus, we preview a soon-to-air podcast that focuses on the wildly circuitous ways through which people come to and leave, museums.

Increasingly, it feels like progressive museum practice is also political museum practice. So what does it mean for a museum to take a stand, and put social just at the heart of its work? In this episode, Suse talks with David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool (NML) and President of the UK Museums Association, about the social impact of museum work, advocacy as a strategic objective, and what it means for a museum service to be openly political.

Did you know that several studies in recent years have shown that when women enter a specific field in large numbers, the pay for that field declines overall, even for the same jobs that men were doing? This is one of many implications of gendered professions, which are at the core of this month's episode of Museopunks. The Punks dig into the implications of the gendered museum, and its impact on pay and the sector more broadly with Anne W. Ackerson and Joan H. Baldwin, whose new book Women in the Museum explores the professional lives of the sector's female workforce today and examines the challenges they face working in what was, until recently, a male-dominated field. The Punks are then joined by nikhil trivedi for a conversation about the impact of gender and masculinity on technology work, inside museums and beyond.

Museums that want to impact their visitors are often concerned with changing their behaviors. However, before any kind of change can take place, it's important to understand visitors and the behaviors that they bring into the museum with them. In this episode, the 'Punks ask how museums can better understand and align their work around existing visitor behaviors. We talk to the first Neuroscience Researcher in an art museum to learn more about how the human brain understands the physical world, and how that connects to our emotions and then connect with an experience designer whose work has focussed on social media use in the cultural sector.

Since the 1960s, artists have been critically examining the practices of museums, at times critiquing the idea of what a museum is and how it presents its stories. One of the most influential exhibitions of Institutional Critique was Mining the Museum-an installation by artist Fred Wilson at the Maryland Historical Society, in collaboration with The Contemporary.

Progressive museum work, particularly when focussed around community engagement, is often a form of emotion work that demands emotional labor. Museum professionals who are deeply engaged with the challenges of changing their institutions, negotiating a volatile political climate, or facilitating community work, can experience compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. So how can museum professionals look after themselves, in order to better care for their communities and colleagues?

In this first episode of season two, the 'Punks unpack the trials and tribulations of trust with Dr. fari nzinga and Adriel Luis. Report after report indicates that public trust in institutions is plummeting. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, which surveys more than 33,000 people across 28 countries, showed the largest-ever drop in trust across the institutions of government, business, media, and NGOs. Meanwhile, the Economist's Intelligence Unit downgraded the US to a "flawed democracy" in its 2016 Democracy Index, due to an erosion of trust in government and elected officials.

Find Season One of Museopunks on Soundcloud

About Museopunks

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Listen to the first season on Soundcloud

Presenting Sponsor

Museopunks is presented by the American Alliance of Museums.

All Museopunks published material is released as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

The 'Punks

Suse Anderson

For close to a decade, Suse has explored the intersection of technology and culture, with a focus on the impact of digital technologies on the museum. She is currently Assistant Professor, Museum Studies at The George Washington University, where she teaches courses on museums and digital technology, social media, and visitor experience. She holds a PhD (Creative Arts) and a BFA (Hons - 1st class, Faculty Medal), both from The University of Newcastle, Australia, and a BArts (Comms - Journalism) from Charles Sturt University.

Since moving from Australia to Baltimore in 2014, Suse has fallen in love with the city she now calls home. You should visit her there one day, or connect with her on Twitter.

Ed Rodley

Ed Rodley has worked in museums for over twenty years and remains a firm believer in the free-choice learning that is at the heart of the museum experience. He is currently Associate Director of Integrated Media at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, where he manages a wide range of digital media projects. He is also passionate about increasing the digital maturity of museums and its potential to create more open, inclusive workplaces.

In addition to his day job, he's also one of the co-hosts of Drinking About Museums, Boston. If you can't come to Salem to visit, you can follow Ed's blog "Thinking about Museums." He's also on Twitter, possibly too much.

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Every month, Suse Anderson investigates the fascinating work and personalities in and around the museum sector. The Punks explore some of the sector's most stimulating questions, institutions, and practices, with a focus on emergent, boundary-pushing work and ideas.

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Media & Technology Network

The Media & Technology (M&T) Professional Network represents museum professionals and others who use technology to serve the field in a broad array of areas, such as production of media resources for interpretation; defining standards; building databases; and creation, maintenance, and support of growing technologies that museums use to further their missions.

The network strives to identify, access, and advocate for a broad variety of uses for media and technology that help museum professionals meet the needs of their diverse publics.

Some of our activities include:

Serving committee members and the museum profession by tracking and advising on national policies, trends, issues, and activities in media and technology, including (but not limited to) audio, video, film, and multimedia.

Organizing program sessions and the Marketplace of Ideas at the Alliance’s Annual Meeting, where delegates can observe, discuss, and participate in innovative applications relating to various disciplines and museum roles.

Sponsoring the Annual MUSE Awards Competition to recognize excellence in museum media and interactive programs.

Providing a link between the world of museums and that of media and technology, exploring common interests and concerns.

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Questions? Email musechair@aam-us.org.

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To NFT or Not to NFT: The View from Two Museums

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Media & Technology Network – American Alliance of Museums

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