IST-Data Services Blog

On October 6, the CollectionSpace project team announced the 0.2 release of the community source collection management system.  As the news item states, this release:

allows users to login to the system, create a new intake record, and auto-fill intake and object identification numbers. Information groups within data entry screens can be collapsed and expanded to maximize screen efficiency (use the plus/minus signs to the left of the information group name; e.g. object identification information). Updates to the object, create new main page, and find/edit main page are also incorporated into this release.

Equally important, this release demonstrates that the project team is gaining momentum towards the version 1 release in June 2010.  The next release is intended to continue accelerating the pace of development and will include:

an expansion of the ID service to include a choice of sequential identification numbers; the first version of the vocabulary service, which will provide access to controlled lists; and support for acquisition.

Also tantalizing, the UCB services team is working on some of the important schema customization and multi-tenancy capabilities for the system.

Collections Trust, the organization behind Spectrum, has released version 3.2 of the UK Museum Documentation Standard.  According to an announcement dated September 8, 2009, from Gordon McKenna (International Development Manager for Collections Trust),

The new version has been updated to include further support for Revisiting Collections, an innovative methodology to help museums create services and exhibitions for diverse audiences. Other changes in the new edition include the revision of the Sources of Help and Advice sections, which include updated links to websites and publications providing further information on aspects of Collections Management.

The Revisiting Collections methodology is worth looking at more closely.  According to the web site

http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/increase_access/revisiting_collections/

Revisiting Collections … supports museums and archives to open up their collections for scrutiny by community groups and external experts and to reveal and capture histories hitherto hidden or ignored. A key strength of Revisiting Collections is that it provides a framework for embedding these new voices and their perspectives on objects and records directly within a museum or archive service’s catalogues and finding aids: ensuring that they become part of the story about the collections that is recorded and made accessible to all.

Collections Trust then has taken on the challenge of how to incorporate community (and other) annotations into the collection management system in a way that honors the contributor while protecting the information record of the museum.  The Revisiting Collections site includes toolkits and guides for museums and archives to use in their own efforts to explore bringing in such content.  While Spectrum is a documentation standard and not a specification for a collection management system, it is very refreshing to see an organization like this provide practical advice and tangible tools for the kinds of problems that museums, archives and libraries are facing on the ground today.

The CollectionSpace project team has released version 0.1 of its open-source collection management system for museums. This Hello World release focuses on tying the technology layers together around the function of basic object entry. Those interested in collections are encouraged to experiment with the Hello World release and provide feedback to the project team. CollectionSpace is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Read the iNews article for more information:

http://inews.berkeley.edu/articles/Aug2009/CollectionSpace

Also worth noting, Carl Goodman and Megan Forbes (of Museum of the Moving Image) recently visited the Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles) and the the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Their presentations are hosted on the CollectionSpace wiki and provide a great overview of where CollectionSpace is right now.  Here’s a link to the Getty presentation:

http://wiki.collectionspace.org/display/collectionspace/Getty+Presentation+July+2009

It’s great to see this first version which focuses on technical integration.  IST will work closely with the CollectionSpace project team, as well as with campus museums, to ensure that this solution will be one that helps us manage, study, and share the world-class collections for which UC Berkeley is responsible.

The topic of Big Data and the associated trends for research are part of our future here at DS. The recent issue of Nature looks at issues and trends around the topic, and while uneven, has some good material in it that folks should check out. Here’s my blow by blow on the sections:

The opening editorial calls for push to make annotating data be a major component of research and of grants. Sound familiar? Let’s hope funders listen.

The section on the next Google trots out a lot of familiar and frankly pretty dull options. Skip it.

Big data: Data wrangling poses important question about data collection. We might have the sense is that there is so much data, it is just a matter of managing it. However, David Goldston notes that there are also huge holes in the dataverse, and these are a result of political policy. Further, if a political entity controls the data, politics can (and will) shape and filter the data in fair-reaching ways.

Cory Doctorow’s Gee whiz piece is irritating (unless you’re into technoporn), and is easy to skip.

A piece on wikiomics is an excellent description of how community can make a difference, and the social dynamics of a collaboratory.

Cliff Lynch has a good piece on what data production projects must do to rationalize their data management, and what services must be provided by groups like IST/DS, to support these projects.

Frankel & Reid present an interesting discussion of mining and visualization, and include a compelling, cautionary note:

“The ingrained habits of highly trained scientists make them rarely as adventurous as these young minds. We think we are on the path to insight when shading reveals contours in 3D renderings, or when bursts of red appear on heat maps, for example. But the algorithms used to produce the graphics may create illusions or embed assumptions. The human visual system creates in the brain an apparent understanding of what a picture represents, not necessarily a picture of the underlying science. Unless we know all the steps from hypothesis to understanding — by conversing with theorists, experimentalists, instrument and software developers, visualization scientists, graphic artists and cognitive psychologists — we cannot be sure whether a display is accurate or misleading.”

The closing essay is human interest and could be skipped in the interest of time. However, it is short, and like the best human interest stories, is surprising and inspiring.

I was talking this morning with Peter Cava (Data Warehouse Services Manager here at UC Berkeley) about the (potential) intersection between business intelligence systems used for administrative systems here and the kinds of data aggregation and analysis performed by research scientists and faculty working with museum collections. Afterward, I was looking at the preliminary program for the Museum Computer Network conference this fall and saw that Rob Stein at Indianapolis Museum of Art is giving a talk about a dashboard that they have developed to help measure various aspects about the museum’s performance. I can’t resist when these kinds of connections happen — they always lead in interesting directions. The IMA Dashboard is up on the web, and they should be applauded for their emphasis on transparency. I also enjoyed reading the blog post at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney featuring an interview with Rob about the project, and this pointed me to a report written by Maxwell L. Anderson for the Getty, titled “Metrics of Success in Art Museums.”

Now it’s time to get in touch with Rob!