Collections Online opening our collections data to the

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Collections Online opening our collections data to the public

Collections Online opening our collections data to the public

Collections Data - Current situation We have multiple collections databases across Amgueddfa Cymru. •

Collections Data - Current situation We have multiple collections databases across Amgueddfa Cymru. • This collections data is only available internally to curatorial staff. • It is not possible to search across collections data. • Collections data for use on our website has to be manually extracted which is labour intensive, time consuming and creates static catalogues of ‘dead’ data. • Due to these problems only a very small percentage of our collections data has been made available on-line.

Solution – aggregation of collections data via ‘Middleware’ Take records from multiple collections databases

Solution – aggregation of collections data via ‘Middleware’ Take records from multiple collections databases and images from the Digital Asset Library. Develop customised, automated extraction routines to take data from the ‘back office’ databases overnight. Aggregated data and images are stored centrally and can be globally searched and re-purposed. Data can be fed into the web site and can also be combined with information generated by the public.

Extracting the data

Extracting the data

Invalid records

Invalid records

JSON – the code behind the data

JSON – the code behind the data

Making the data available on the web site

Making the data available on the web site

Online searching

Online searching

Online searching

Online searching

Online searching

Online searching

Online searching

Online searching

Things to consider for the future • In future all of the information added

Things to consider for the future • In future all of the information added to our databases will be available to the public so we need to start entering descriptions with the public in mind. We can use content generated for galleries, exhibitions and publications to help enhance our records. • We can use google analytics to see what people are searching for and focus our attention on these areas of the collection. • We need to increase the number of images available and explore ways of adding more photographs for large assemblages of material. • Phase Two will concentrate on improving searching – making it easier to explore our collections. We will also continue to make more fields available to view online. Inscriptions and historical associations are next on our list. • We have started to look at adding natural science records to the CIIM.