Glenn CumiskeyDigital Preservation Resource Manager

From Objects to DataDigital stewardship of our dataat the British Museum

Presentation at Data Matters!, UK Archives Discovery Network (UKAD) Forum, The National Archives, 20160317

Olduvai stone chopping tool

1.8 million years old

Oldest humanly made object in the British Museum

An object-centric environment

Collins: a series of observations, measurements, or facts; information

Oxford: facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis

‘Data are what we evoke or invest as evidence’

What is data?

• Collection data

• Digital assets & objects

• Conservation and research data – analogue & digital

• Web estate

• Data we link to

• Business data

Our data

Ledgers & hand written notes

Published articles, grey literature

Printouts & emails

Our data – the reality

Long-tail of digital formats

Risky storage environments

Software dependencies

• Volume• Velocity• Veracity• Value

We don’t always know why we are creating data– What is it for?– Who is its audience?– Where should we put it?– How long should we keep it for?– Leading to an ever increasing

mountain of data we know less and less about

Some of the challenges?

The Lampedusa cross

Made from pieces of a boat that was wrecked off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy on 11 October, 2013.

311 drowned, 155 saved

What should data evoke?

Pediment by Sir Richard Westmacott

Man’s ascent from creation to enlightenment

Journey from data to knowledge

The progress of civilisation

What does this mean in reality?

Building Capacity

Policy

RepositoryDevelopment

Embedded Workflows

Cooperation Supporting Staff

Extend Digital ProvisionMembership

National Debate

"Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let

Thy feet, millenniums hence, be set

In midst of knowledge, dream'd not yet.

Alfred Tennyson – The Two Voices 1834

e: gcumiskey@britishmuseum.orgt: @GlennCumiskey