DIY Museums Collections Online

Rick Lawrence

Digital Media Officer

Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

Starting point - museum redevelopment 2008 -2012

Plan A

Aimed to create a digital asset management system drawing selected data from internal collections database exporting to a website and connecting to an online print sales system…

…But difficulty with importing internal data into off the shelf online system, DAMS not materialising, running costs of a print on demand website, secure hosting and licensing costs were all too much

Why Do It Yourself?

Plan B - with added experience

Focus on using staff time effectively

Use selected data with descriptions and images

Include URLs for records and images

Build in API

Build in commenting

Build in saving and sharing

Check it works with aggregators

Online sales

Consider IP and CC licence

Plan ahead for new features

Partnership and planning

Arts Council England’s Major Partner Museum funding for RAMM and

Plymouth Museum & Art Gallery enabled the work

Royal Cornwall Museum and the Museum of Somerset included in creative process

Part of MPM leadership role and now able to offer an online resource to other South West Museums

Not only individual museum collections – Devon Museums Group next collection

to add and includes 77 museums

Putting it into action - search

Does the search work for the general visitor and specialist?

Putting it into action - themes

Using the database ourselves – themes for sharing, supporting activities and linking to

Getting interactive – comments

Getting interactive – social media

Getting interactive – save and share

Open wide – letting others use your data

And use it in the museum - iPads and kiosks

Dude, where’s my data?

Adding partners

Mobile, research and more to come!