ONE COLLECTION: BUILDING AN INTEGRATEDINVENTORY & DIGITISATION WORKFLOWADRIAN HINE, DIGITISATION MANAGERSCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP

• In 2015 the UK Government announced SMG would leave Blythe House in London.

• It provided partial funding to build and move to a new National Collections Centre at Wroughton by 2023.

• Immediate objective to move 300,000 objects to the National Collections Centre.

• However, opportunity to re-imagine how the collection is cared for, managed and accessed:• Improve collections care for this world-class collection.• Make the collection more accessible than ever before

(public & researchers).• Engage new and existing audiences.• Radically expand our digital offer.

ONE COLLECTION PROGRAMME

• Holds majority of SCM collection

• Small & medium object store

• Labyrinth of rooms: 5 floors >100 rooms

• >18km of racking

BLYTHE HOUSE

EXISTING DRAWBACKSPHYSICAL

• Labyrinth of rooms: 6 floors, >100 rooms• Non-ideal environmental conditions• Poor access• Degrading building infrastructure (hangers)• Overcrowded collections• No standardisation of storage

DIGITAL• Incomplete catalogue (100,000 uncatalogued)• Only c. 5% of objects have images• Incomplete & inconsistent catalogue records• Inconsistent location control • Incomplete hazard assessment

CATALYST FOR DIGITISATION

• We wanted to make it much more than just a storage move.

• An opportunity to make our collection truly digital.• Todays online audience have limited interest unless

there is a rich digital offer.• Only 5% of records on Collections Online had an image

in 2018 (ca. 260,000 records).• We made a choice of producing quantity rather than

highest quality.• Main aim to make these objects discoverable In the

first instance.• Aimed at the broadest audience possible but with

emphasise on the public.

INTEGRATED WORKFLOW

CONDITION CHECKHAZARD CHECKPRE-INVENTORY DIGITISATION

REMEDIATION

PACKING

CONSERVATION

INVENTORY

Resolving issues that would otherwise disrupt the workflow:• Poor part numbering• Parts lacking numbers and/or records• Uncertainty over parts belonging to objects• Status uncertain• Mystery objects• Historic loans• Objects for acquiring• Objects for deaccessioning• Auxiliary items

PRE-INVENTORY CURATION/DOCUMENTATION

• All object have to be hazard assessed• Survey suggests ca. 20% of collection has a hazard• Only 17% of Blythe House has been hazard surveyed

HAZARD CHECK

• Working systematically work through collection• 4 minutes per object for inventory• Adds new Tyvek label with barcode & object number• Condition rating (Good, Fair, Poor, Unacceptable)• Uses Wireless barcode scanners to update object location in

Mimsy

INVENTORY

• If record exists: verify record & add barcode• If record does not exist: add new record

ACCELERATING DIGITSATION

• Existing Photo Studio practice• Each object takes 3 hours, often with multiple shots.• This includes photography, manual post-processing, metadata capture and upload.• At that rate it would take a team of 7 photographers 64 years to Digitise 75% of the

Blythe Collection (300,000 objects)• Had to radically rethink approach to deliver mass Digitisation for these collections

• One Collection approach• Each object takes 5 minutes, with a single shot.• Includes rapid photography using barcodes, batch post-processing & automatic upload

into Media Library.• This rate would take a team of 7 photographers 2 years to Digitise 75% of the Blythe

Collection.

Photography• Good quality documentation image• 5 minutes per object• Mobile photography workstations• Good quality DSLR cameras & lighting• Scanners capture barcode directly into image metadata• Script renames filename with barcode

DIGITISATION

Post-processing & Upload• Batch post-production• Automated ingest pipeline of images into Media

Library

Rapid Data App (Asset Panda & SnapLogic)• Used by hazards, condition, inventory and packing teams• Works on laptops, tablets & phones using WiFi• Location updates using barcodes• Tracks object status through workflow• Ability to take quick ‘ad hoc’ images using phones

Automated Image Ingest Pipeline (SnapLogic)• Watches for approved image• Embeds object metadata• Creates record in Media Library• Uses barcode to link Media Library and Mimsy records

TECHNOLOGY FOR MASS DIGITISATION

RAPID DATA CAPTURE SYSTEM

DIGITISED EXAMPLES

PUBLICATION TO COLLECTIONS ONLINE

CATALOGUING

• Catalogue record should be rich enough to make it discoverable through searching.

• Aim for new records reach the SMG Cataloguing standard, depending upon resources available.

• Cataloguing separated from the main workflow as it would slow it down.

• Mostly done from the digitised record *after* inventory and imaging completed.

• Undertaken by collection specialists in curatorial.• Does not include:

• Weight• Measurements

NCC INTERNAL MOVES

• Additionally One Collection includes the internal moves sub-project at NCC• Involves the relocation of collections from life-expired hangers (ca. 15,000 objects).• Some collections to move into Building One, other collections to other hangers.• Similar aims to Blythe workflow; inventory of all objects, including hazard checks, conditions

rating, barcoding and location capture. Digitisation will likely be a lower standard than at Blythe

• Modified workflow due to very different working environment.• Running in parallel with Collections Review project, using same approach for inventory

process.

TIMELINE

Workstream 2018 2019 2020

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Hazards & Inventory

Photography

Packing

PROGRESS TO DATE

COLLECTIONS BENEFITS

• A comprehensive inventory, hazard check and digitisation leads to powerful benefits to the collection:• Accurate location for all items.• Complete hazard assessment and condition check of collection.• Consistent labelling of items and opportunity to rehouse material.• Reliable and unique identifier for all items (barcode).• Opportunity to resolve objects for transfer, acquisition cases and mystery objects.• Barcodes allow for automated location updates in the future using barcode scanners.• Creates a truly Digital Collection to a diverse audience making the collections

discoverable.

• Blythe is a one-off project large-scale project but approach is entirely applicable for smaller scale projects.

• SEG decant at SIM has used same approach directly into Mimsy with great success.

VOLUNTEERING

• Significant volunteering programme.• Volunteers sign up for a 12 week block for one day a week.• 6 weeks with inventory & 6 weeks with photography.• Each volunteer buddies up with a member of the inventory

or photography team and works in a pair.• Adds genuine value for museum and volunteer.• To be successful needs:

• Skillset of volunteer appropriate for task.• Adequate resourcing of supervisors

TEAM STRUCTURE

Dedicated Project Team• Programme managers and support• Hazards• Conservation• Inventory• Photography• Assistant curators• Registration• Documentation• Object handlers• Packing• Volunteers

Biggest challenge & success: integrating a large and diverse project team with SMG core teams

SMG Core Teams• Conservation & Hazards• Digitisation (Photography & Documentation)• Curatorial• Archives• Registration• ICT• Digital• Collections Logistics & Access• P&C• Comms• Finance• Development

• Building One has a footprint of 20,000 m2 (four football pitches).• Holds 340,000 objects (80% of SMG object collection by number and

over 50% by volume).• Balancing conservation requirements and accessibility.• Construction began Feb 2019. Completion in 2020.

NATIONAL COLLECTIONS CENTRE

COLLECTIONS ENGAGEMENT OUTCOMES• Random Object Generator• http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/random

• Museum in a Tab• https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/museum-in-a-tab

• Stories from the Stores video series• https://www.youtube.com/user/sciencemuseum