ONE COLLECTION: BUILDING AN INTEGRATED INVENTORY & DIGITISATION - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ONE COLLECTION: BUILDING AN INTEGRATED INVENTORY & DIGITISATION WORKFLOW

ADRIAN HINE, DIGITISATION MANAGER SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP

• In 2015 the UK Government announced SMG would leave

Blythe House in London.

• It provided partial funding to build and move to a new

National Collections Centre at Wroughton by 2023.

• Immediate objective to move 300,000 objects to the

National Collections Centre.

• However, opportunity to re-imagine how the collection is

cared for, managed and accessed:

• Improve collections care for this world-class collection.
• Make the collection more accessible than ever before

(public & researchers).

• Engage new and existing audiences.
• Radically expand our digital offer.

ONE COLLECTION PROGRAMME

• Holds majority of SCM collection
• Small & medium object store
• Labyrinth of rooms: 5 floors >100 rooms
• >18km of racking

BLYTHE HOUSE

EXISTING DRAWBACKS

PHYSICAL

• Labyrinth of rooms: 6 floors, >100 rooms
• Non-ideal environmental conditions
• Poor access
• Degrading building infrastructure (hangers)
• Overcrowded collections
• No standardisation of storage

DIGITAL

• Incomplete catalogue (100,000 uncatalogued)
• Only c. 5% of objects have images
• Incomplete & inconsistent catalogue records
• Inconsistent location control
• Incomplete hazard assessment

CATALYST FOR DIGITISATION

• We wanted to make it much more than just a storage

move.

• An opportunity to make our collection truly digital.
• Todays online audience have limited interest unless

there is a rich digital offer.

• Only 5% of records on Collections Online had an image

in 2018 (ca. 260,000 records).

• We made a choice of producing quantity rather than

highest quality.

• Main aim to make these objects discoverable In the

first instance.

• Aimed at the broadest audience possible but with

emphasise on the public.

INTEGRATED WORKFLOW

CONDITION CHECK HAZARD CHECK PRE-INVENTORY DIGITISATION REMEDIATION PACKING CONSERVATION INVENTORY

Resolving issues that would otherwise disrupt the workflow:

• Poor part numbering
• Parts lacking numbers and/or records
• Uncertainty over parts belonging to objects
• Status uncertain
• Mystery objects
• Historic loans
• Objects for acquiring
• Objects for deaccessioning
• Auxiliary items

PRE-INVENTORY CURATION/DOCUMENTATION

• All object have to be hazard assessed
• Survey suggests ca. 20% of collection has a hazard
• Only 17% of Blythe House has been hazard surveyed

HAZARD CHECK

• Working systematically work through collection
• 4 minutes per object for inventory
• Adds new Tyvek label with barcode & object number
• Condition rating (Good, Fair, Poor, Unacceptable)
• Uses Wireless barcode scanners to update object location in

Mimsy

INVENTORY

• If record exists: verify record & add barcode
• If record does not exist: add new record

ACCELERATING DIGITSATION

• Existing Photo Studio practice
• Each object takes 3 hours, often with multiple shots.
• This includes photography, manual post-processing, metadata capture and upload.
• At that rate it would take a team of 7 photographers 64 years to Digitise 75% of the

Blythe Collection (300,000 objects)

• Had to radically rethink approach to deliver mass Digitisation for these collections
• One Collection approach
• Each object takes 5 minutes, with a single shot.
• Includes rapid photography using barcodes, batch post-processing & automatic upload

into Media Library.

• This rate would take a team of 7 photographers 2 years to Digitise 75% of the Blythe

Collection.

Photography

• Good quality documentation image
• 5 minutes per object
• Mobile photography workstations
• Good quality DSLR cameras & lighting
• Scanners capture barcode directly into image metadata
• Script renames filename with barcode

DIGITISATION

Post-processing & Upload

• Batch post-production
• Automated ingest pipeline of images into Media

Library

Rapid Data App (Asset Panda & SnapLogic)

• Used by hazards, condition, inventory and packing teams
• Works on laptops, tablets & phones using WiFi
• Location updates using barcodes
• Tracks object status through workflow
• Ability to take quick ‘ad hoc’ images using phones

Automated Image Ingest Pipeline (SnapLogic)

• Watches for approved image
• Embeds object metadata
• Creates record in Media Library
• Uses barcode to link Media Library and Mimsy records

TECHNOLOGY FOR MASS DIGITISATION

RAPID DATA CAPTURE SYSTEM

DIGITISED EXAMPLES

PUBLICATION TO COLLECTIONS ONLINE

CATALOGUING

• Catalogue record should be rich enough to make it

discoverable through searching.

• Aim for new records reach the SMG Cataloguing standard,

depending upon resources available.

• Cataloguing separated from the main workflow as it would

slow it down.

• Mostly done from the digitised record *after* inventory and

imaging completed.

• Undertaken by collection specialists in curatorial.
• Does not include:
• Weight
• Measurements

NCC INTERNAL MOVES

• Additionally One Collection includes the internal moves sub-project at NCC
• Involves the relocation of collections from life-expired hangers (ca. 15,000 objects).
• Some collections to move into Building One, other collections to other hangers.
• Similar aims to Blythe workflow; inventory of all objects, including hazard checks, conditions

rating, barcoding and location capture. Digitisation will likely be a lower standard than at Blythe

• Modified workflow due to very different working environment.
• Running in parallel with Collections Review project, using same approach for inventory

process.

TIMELINE

Workstream 2018 2019 2020

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Hazards & Inventory Photography Packing

PROGRESS TO DATE

COLLECTIONS BENEFITS

• A comprehensive inventory, hazard check and digitisation leads to powerful benefits to the

collection:

• Accurate location for all items.
• Complete hazard assessment and condition check of collection.
• Consistent labelling of items and opportunity to rehouse material.
• Reliable and unique identifier for all items (barcode).
• Opportunity to resolve objects for transfer, acquisition cases and mystery objects.
• Barcodes allow for automated location updates in the future using barcode scanners.
• Creates a truly Digital Collection to a diverse audience making the collections

discoverable.

• Blythe is a one-off project large-scale project but approach is entirely applicable for smaller

scale projects.

• SEG decant at SIM has used same approach directly into Mimsy with great success.

VOLUNTEERING

• Significant volunteering programme.
• Volunteers sign up for a 12 week block for one day a week.
• 6 weeks with inventory & 6 weeks with photography.
• Each volunteer buddies up with a member of the inventory
• r photography team and works in a pair.
• Adds genuine value for museum and volunteer.
• To be successful needs:
• Skillset of volunteer appropriate for task.
• Adequate resourcing of supervisors

TEAM STRUCTURE

Dedicated Project Team

• Programme managers and support
• Hazards
• Conservation
• Inventory
• Photography
• Assistant curators
• Registration
• Documentation
• Object handlers
• Packing
• Volunteers

Biggest challenge & success: integrating a large and diverse project team with SMG core teams SMG Core Teams

• Conservation & Hazards
• Digitisation (Photography & Documentation)
• Curatorial
• Archives
• Registration
• ICT
• Digital
• Collections Logistics & Access
• P&C
• Comms
• Finance
• Development

• Building One has a footprint of 20,000 m2 (four football pitches).
• Holds 340,000 objects (80% of SMG object collection by number and
• ver 50% by volume).
• Balancing conservation requirements and accessibility.
• Construction began Feb 2019. Completion in 2020.

NATIONAL COLLECTIONS CENTRE

COLLECTIONS ENGAGEMENT OUTCOMES

• Random Object Generator
• http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/random
• Museum in a Tab
• https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/museum-in-a-tab
• Stories from the Stores video series
• https://www.youtube.com/user/sciencemuseum