430 Professional Notes

Data Management:

Managing Electronic Information: Data Curation in Museums Most museums acknowledge the impor- tance of their collections documentation, but few manage it as a resource equiva- lent in status to the collections them- selves. Collections information is never- theless a museum’s intellectual capital. Compiling, improving and disseminating this information should be a staff nrior-

When museums documented their col- lections solely by means of manual systems (e.g., card indexes, specimen labels, ledger books), institution-wide management of information was not a critical issue. Individual departments could keep their own files on object use, and any information needed by another department could be copied or bor- rowed. Consequently, recording incon- sistencies within or between departments could largely be ignored because the correct meaning or intent was inferred from context, institutional history or other means. Traditional manual record-

I

ity and a major part of a staff’s day-to- day activities. Institutions must consider the documentation of their holdings to be vitally important for fulfilling their mission and mandate, and must manage this information accordingly.

Museum object and specimen infor- mation is dynamic and cumulative, and much of this information results from the processes which these materials undergo in the museum. For example, when a new object or specimen enters a collection it is accessioned (the process which confirms legal title and owner- ship), catalogued (the process which places an object within a classification scheme), and placed in a storage or holding area until called upon for a particular use such as research, conserva- tion or photography. In rare instances, the object or specimen is deaccessed (the process which severs the legal ownership and ceases the obligations of the institu- tion for the object or specimen) by means of activities such as exchange, disposal or destructive analysis. This entire process, from accession through deaccession, constitutes the object or specimen’s ‘institutional lifecycle’. At each stage in this lifecycle, information about the object or specimen is both received and generated. Trained person- nel and formal procedures must be in place to ensure that this information is collected, used and transferred to the next stage or activity without loss or error.

ing systems changed slowly, if at all, because the ramifications of changes in these systems were labor-intensive. No institution, for example, is eager to change a numbering system if it means altering tens of thousands of catalogue cards, object labels and shelf lists.

With the increasing use of computer technologies, the idiosyncracies inherent in manual recording systems can no longer be ignored, for they now inhibit access to information when it has been converted to digital form. In addition, computerised information presents its own unique set of problems which have no equivalent among paper-based records, and as more object information is collected and stored in digital form, a different type of oversight is required to manage this information throughout an institution.

In 1994, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) circulated a draft document on bioinformatics needs for the Human Genome Program, a scien- tific project which will identify all genes in the human genome (DOE, 1994).’ This document suggests that data in electronic form must be curated in a manner similar to that developed for the curation of museum collections, and it argues that a significant amount of work is required to manage and optimize computerised information in order to render it useful and accessible. The DOE’s curation metaphor treats bio- informatics databases as collections of information which undergo a sequence

Professional Notes 431

of processes not dissimilar to those procedures regarding content and use. employed for a collection of objects Ideally, this understanding should be housed in a museum. Information enters formalized in a document akin to a a database through various channels, it is mission statement, albeit confined to stored, accessed, modified and stored computerised information. again, and it may be removed perma- Strong data curation also is needed to nently from the database. To ensure the ensure that the present and future users integrity of that information throughout of the databases are identified and priori- this process, policies and procedures are tized. Information needs vary by con- needed to govern each phase. Data sets stituency, and database structures and need to be examined for consistency, content must be scaled appropriately to long-term quality and relevance over meet these needs. While institutional time, and new sources of data (i.e., from databases can (and do) fulfill the needs of libraries, archives and other resources diverse user groups, failure to meet the not necessarily within the institution) information requirements of primary must be identified and assessed. Changes constituencies will result in lack of insti- or updates to data require authentication tition-wide support for the computerised and verification. Tools which support databases. The combination of unsat- object databases, such as authority lists, isfied users and a poorly defined role for thesauri, data dictionaries and other doc- databases within an institution may umentation resources, need to be main- result in some staff reverting to the use of tained, updated and distributed at reg- old, obsolete, paper-based systems. Such ular intervals, while data security and a move is the ultimate indicator of a access must be considered. All these failed information policy. concerns constitute the discipline of data Data curation is especially important curation. for older institutions confronted with

Knowledge of the relevant national the urgent problem of converting their and international standards is also within paper-based records into digital form. the purview of data curation. Standards The vast majority of collections informa- initiatives need close monitoring, with an tion in these institutions is paper-based, eye to harmonising an institution’s inter- and represents the cumulated results of nal databases with community-devel- decades or even centuries of recording oped standards. Although institutions history. Problems of quantity (millions traditionally focus on their own internal of records) and quality (variable record- information requirements, inter-institu- ing methods) are pervasive. For many tional data sharing and exchange is fast institutions, the task of retrospectively becoming a force which will shape future converting this mass of information into information management policy for all digital form is a daunting effort requiring types of collections. Institutions need to commitments of human and financial adopt internal information policies and resources that they can ill afford. Indeed, procedures which will allow smooth the latest industry formula for calcu- migration into the area of inter-institu- lating yearly information system budgets tional data sharing when the opportunity is 80% of startup costs per year. Adher- arises. ence to this formula would force most

On a broader level, curatorial over- museums to restructure their entire orga- sight of digital information is needed to nizations and budgets, and because they define the purpose and function of an are unable to commit such resources, institution’s databases. A clear under- many institutions simply ignore the standing of the role of computerised problem. However, museums have a information within an institution is nec- moral obligation to pass on their collec- essary to guide the growth, development tions documentation to their successors and use of the databases, as well as to in as good or improved state. To that provide the foundation for policies and end, they must work on digitizing this

432 Professional Notes

information to make it available for use in computer systems and across tele- communications networks. Those who choose not to face this task risk obsoles- cence for their institution and their collections.

Expanding on the topic of data cura- tion for the Human Genome Project, the DOE paper proposes that ‘data curators’ should emerge as a new, professional job category to address curation issues like those outlined above. In many museums, the duties of such a position already exist, though divided among various personnel. However, some museums have already acknowledged the impor- tance of having these tasks administered by a professional information manager, and have created an equivalent ‘data curator’ position which often carries the formal title of ‘information manager’, or ‘documentation officer’. Some European museums recognized the need for such a professional position over a decade ago, and consequently a well-developed corps of professional information managers already exists in this museum commu- nity. The library community also recog- nized this need, and most graduate library programs now produce informa-

tion managers trained in the management of both bibliographic and non-biblio- graphic information. The Master of Libvdry Science (MLS) degree is evolving into a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree. Museums should look to the ranks of these communities for professional advice and assistance with data curation in their institutions.

DIANE M. ZORICH

Acknowledgements

The ideas in this note first took shape at a workshop sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley entitled Infra- structure Requirements and Design Con- siderations for a Federation of Botanical Specimen Databases, held 9-12 June 19% in Berkeley, California. The author thanks the participants of this workshop for their insights.

Reference

1 Meeting Report. D 0 E Informatics Summit, Baltimore, MD, 26-27 April 1993, (U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, 1994) 35 pp.

Finance:

A Modern Tax in an Historical Environment: VAT for Museums and Galleries

Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom do not immediately consider VAT (Value Added Tax) as an area for saving money. Some regard it as a neces- sary deduction from the money received as entrance fees and sales to the public, so that the VAT incurred on costs can be recovered, and some as an extra cost

because the Museum or Gallery is not registered for VAT and cannot recover the VAT it incurs from Customs & Excise. Either way it appears to be a necessary evil, but is this a true picture of the VAT burden on Museums and Gal- leries and what can be done to lighten that burden?

Bearing in mind that a Museum or Gallery opens its doors to the public, i.e. the final consumer, it is important to answer three questions when dealing with VAT. These are:-

(i) Do any or all of the activities the institution performs constitute a business activity for the purposes of VAT?