Bringing together content from different museums

Digitisation has so far created plenty of related collections sitting in distinct websites on the Internet, but it can be a frustrating experience trying to navigate multiple websites with similar content.

The University of Glasgow’s National Inventory Research Project has done the opposite in bringing together European paintings from distinct UK museum collections. It contains detailed records, and an increasing number of digital images, of nearly 8,000 paintings, principally in smaller regional collections in the UK.

There a different ways of trying to bring such info together - automated metadata creation, vocabulary mapping, federated searching. This project has followed a traditional method, focussing the metadata on shared research approaches towards hand-crafted scholarly evidence.

The inventory can be searched via the Visual Arts Data Service website

Commercialising Digitised Content & Interface Design

Both the British Library and the British Museum have set up websites which allow them to licence rights to their digitised images. According to British Museum Images website: “British Museum Images is the on-line digital image website of the British Museum catering primarily for the image-buying professional”. The British Library version says much the same.

Rather then embed the sites within their institutional sites for delivering collections, providing information for visitors etc. etc Both the websites are clean, efficient and aesthetically pleasing. They are easier to navigate than the main institutional site.

I think there are two main reasons for this navigation.

1) The ‘commerical’ sites have one clear purpose rather than sometimes conflicting purposes the main sites have.

2) With a ‘commercial’ site there is a even greater imperative to have a properly usable site - poor usability damages revenue. The same pressures do not exist on the main institutional site. Perhaps they should?

Advertising a Digital Resource

It’s often remarked upon that there is not enough focussed marketing on digital resources.

UCL’s (University College London) resource, Imagestore, for the use of the students and teachers on the campus, has somewhat bucked the trend. This huge poster is erected on around 25 metres of scaffolding in the middle of London’s Bloomsbury district.

The web address is plain for all to see - unfortunately, there’s no access for anyone who does not have a UCL password