Brief Abstract:

Why do museums seek to make their collections discoverable online and in networked environments? How should museums go about managing the process of making their collections available online?

This session will look at both the effort that goes into participating in aggregated sites and the returns that a museum might expect from such participation. Examples of the different sorts of aggregators discussed range from licensed educational aggregations (like ARTstor), to free and open commons (like Flickr Commons or ArtBabble), or to commercial aggregators. Presenters will discuss their experience with the resources, infrastructure, and policies associated with such collaborations. They will discuss whether these web environments are able to provide a different user experience for the general public and educational users, enable access to highly specialized content, and expand the traditional art historical canon. Finally, we will examine how museums might benefit from having their content available in such networked environments.

Abstract:

Most museums are – and should rightfully be – focused on building and maintaining a public web identity that grants the world at large access to parts of collections so as to support their research, strengthen the identity of the museum, and let potential visitors see what is kept within the walls. As museums manage the image and data assets needed to support such a site, they also have re-directed those assets for many purposes, including participating in large scale aggregations. Why do museums seek to make their collections discoverable online and in networked environments? How should museums go about managing the process of making their collections available online?

This session will look at both the effort that goes into participating in aggregated sites and the returns that a museum might expect from such participation. Examples of the different sorts of aggregators discussed range from licensed educational aggregations (like ARTstor), to free and open commons (like Flickr Commons or ArtBabble), or to commercial aggregators. Placing content in such aggregations can be done in different ways and with different levels of effort. Presenters will discuss their experience with the resources, infrastructure, and policies associated with such collaborations. The also will discuss whether these web environments are able to provide a different user experience for the general public and educational users, enable access to highly specialized content, and expand the traditional art historical canon. Finally, we will examine how museums believe that they might benefit from having their content available in such networked environments and what might help them to inform their digitization strategies—for cataloging, scanning, and new photography. Ultimately, tapping into usage data/trends for different audiences might better enable scholars, curators, educators, students, librarians, and the public to more easily discover and utilize our collections. These questions by a panel who will discuss what they have learned both about what is required to facilitate such uses of museum content and why their museums have chosen to participate in such efforts.

Speakers:

• James Shulman, ARTstor (Session Chair)
• Erik Landsberg, Head of Collections Imaging, Museum of Modern Art, NY
• Sam Quigley, VP for Collections Management, Art Institute of Chicago
• Layna White, Head of Collection Information & Access, SFMOMA
   

Bios:

For the past 30 years Erik Landsberg has been involved in all aspects of photographic representation of works of art. Having run his own business for 15 years serving the art reproduction needs of galleries, artists, and museums, he joined the staff at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, in 1995, where he is currently Head of Collections Imaging. In addition to his responsibilities for developing MoMA Imaging Services workflow, color management, staff training, and long term archiving of image data, Erik manages the museum's image licensing/distribution and leads the MoMA DAM team. He works on various committees that determine institution-wide policy and practice regarding imaging, technology, rights, and other related matters. Erik is a frequent panelist and speaker at professional conferences, most recently presenting at "The Preservation and Application of Museum Images in the New Digital Age” held at the Capital Museum, Beijing, in December, 2009, and presenting as a panelist at “Current Practices in Fine Art Reproduction”, RIT, June 2010. He currently serves on the Technical Program Committee for the upcoming IS&T Archiving Conference which will take place in May, 2011. Erik holds a BA in English from Montclair State University and an MFA in Photography from Ohio University. He is a photographic artist and an avid jazz listener.

Sam Quigley is the VP for Collections Management, Imaging, and Information Technology / Museum CIO at the Art Institute of Chicago. In this capacity, he has responsibility for managing the Art Institute’s collections, including a multi-year gallery reinstallation project, installation of the Modern Wing (opened in May 2009), collections information management database systems, and all of the museum’s information technology projects. He arrived in Chicago after five years at the Harvard University Art Museums where he served as that institution’s Director of Digital Information and Technology.  Prior to a brief tenure in 2000-01 as Director of Collections at SFMOMA, he held several positions over the course of twenty years at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, including Curator of Musical Instruments.  In 1995 he became the first Manager of Collections Information at that institution and over the next five years developed the museum-wide collections information database of about 400,000 electronic object records. He holds a B.A and an M.A. (Musicology) from Wesleyan University and has been active in teaching, lecturing, and writing on various topics. He served on the Board of Directors of the Museum Computer Network and in November 2005, completed a two year term as president (www.mcn.edu).

James Shulman serves as the President of ARTstor - a non-profit organization that provides over 1,200,000 images, software, and services to over 1,300 colleges, universities, museums, and schools.  ARTstor works with artists, photographers, archives, and museums to make images available (on a non-exclusive basis) for non-commercial educational use.  Prior to creating ARTstor in 2001 with colleagues at the Mellon Foundation, he had worked at the Foundation since 1994, writing about educational policy issues and the missions of not-for-profit institutions, and working in a range of research, administrative, and investment capacities.  He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale in Renaissance Studies. Two of his articles will be published in Fall 2010: in a collection on The Ethics of Philanthropy by Oxford University Press (on the creation of new non-profits) and by the Stanford Social Innovation Review (on bringing innovation to innovation-resistant institutions).

Layna White is Head of Collections Information and Access at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her department is responsible for managing the advancement of the Museum's collections management system; creating and maintaining visual documentation for works of art; managing inquiries related to intellectual property; and fostering information sharing about the Museum's collection. Prior to joining SFMOMA in 2003, Layna was Collections Information Manager for the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA. Degrees in art history (California State University Long Beach) and library science (UCLA) complement her interest in museum practices for description and documentation, as well as meeting pluralistic and changing needs for access to and use of digital content.

Session Info

• Type: Full Panel
• Keywords: collections management, publishing, infrastructure, educational use, aggregating
• Relevance: The audience would be technologists and digital policy makers who want to think about the pluses and minuses of sharing collections through a variety of channels in order to reach different audiences.