What is the Museum Metadata Exchange?

• The Museum Metadata Exchange will provide access to collection level descriptions from a number of major Museums to the Australian Research Data Commons (RDA) for HASS and other researchers.

• The project will provide a standard format for collection level descriptions across all contributing institutions.

• Use and develop a common collaborative sector-wide thesaurus to assist museum data providers and to facilitate searching by researchers.

•The Museum Metadata Exchange (MME) project is a joint project of the Council of Australasian Museum Directors (CAMD) and Museums Australia which has been set up with funding from the Australian National Data Service (ANDS).

Who else is Contributing?

• Australian Museum – Cultural Collections• Australian National Maritime Museum• Australian Centre for the Moving Image• Australian War Memorial• Historic Houses Trust (NSW)• History SA• Museum Victoria• National Film and Sound Archive• National Museum of Australia• Powerhouse Museum• Queensland Museum• South Australian Museum• Sovereign Hill Museum• Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery• Western Australian Museum

What is Research Data Australia?

http://services.ands.org.au/home/orca/rda/

• RDA is a discovery service for Australian research data. It aims to provide a central gateway to as much publically funded research material as possible within the constraints of privacy and copyright.

• Contributors include CSIRO, Universities, Geoscience Australia, Libraries and soon…. Museums!

Who will be using it?

• Researchers in the fields of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS)

• Other researchers, students, museum professionals

• The HASS community will be helping to evaluate the project

What do we have to do?

• Look for groupings in your collection

• Provide us with collection group descriptions and/or content

• Initially we are looking for 50 descriptions from each Institution by Christmas

Collection, Powerhouse MuseumJoseph Box Shoe Collection, 1500-1920

Collection Groupings

• Object - the Chair collection• Collecting area – Australian Decorative Arts • Person or organisation – Nancy-Bird Walton, Victa Lawnmowers• Slice of time – The Macquarie Era, The 1950s• Concept or theme – Innovation, The history of powered flight • Community – Greek/Cypriot community, Ukulele community• Place – The Rocks, Sydney, Tropical Queensland• Event – The Melbourne Cup, The Prince Phillip Design Award• Material or process – The Plastics collection, Scrimshaw collection

Your collection can be divided in many ways. You do not need to stick to any formal definition of “collection” which may be in use at your institution.

Sample Collection Groupings from Powerhouse Museum

What is a Collection Description?

A collection level description

provides information about the collection group as a whole rather than about individual items.

I t’s purpose is to help researchers discover the treasures in your collection whether or not even they have

been fully digitised.

Collection, Powerhouse MuseumDrawer, from Collectors cabinet of Lieutenant Hanbury Clements, 1830-1840

Detailed Collection Descriptions

Where your collection is well documented you can provide a Significance Statement in addition to a description of the contents to provide context.

The more information you provide the more easily your collection can be found and the more widely it is likely to be used.

Collection Powerhouse MuseumDoll's house made by Frans and Christina Bosdyk, 1997-2006

Sample of detailed Collection description

Brief Collection Descriptions

• Where your collection is less well documented you can provide a summary of the contents.

Collection, Powerhouse MuseumPortrait of strongman Don Athaldo (1936) from the Tom Lennon collection

Sample Collection Description based on Contents

Name Flora and Fauna in Applied Arts

Description A grouping of over 500 objects which feature designs and motifs of Australian plants and animals. The objects include ceramics, glassware, jewellery, textiles and woodwork. In addition there are designs by Lucien Henry from the unpublished book 'Australian Decorative Arts' and stamped metal panels from the Wunderlich collection. The objects vary from a superbly crafted gold and silver inkstand to mass produced pressed glass dishes and from detailed botanical illustrations on teacups to stylized cutlery. The material dates from the early 1800's to the present day.

Use of existing data

RDA is a finding tool so you can (and should) point to any existing material

• On-line exhibitions• On-line collection groupings• Previous exhibitions (if based on your collection)

Vocabularies

• http://www.picturethesaurus.gov.au/search.html

• http://scot.curriculum.edu.au/

• http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/thesaurus.php

• Tell us about any others you use

Project Website

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/museumexchange/