UKOLN is supported by:

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Introduction to Collections and Collection-Level
Description Bridget Robinson Collection
Description Focus
UKOLN is supported by
www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information
management
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Introduction to Collections Collection-Level
Description

• Collection Description Focus
• What is a collection
• What is collection-level description
• Why collection-level description
• Who is using collection-level description

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Collection Description Focus

• Developing consensus
• Gathering information
• Building a community
• Facilitating dialogue
• CD Forum
• Disseminating good practice
• Organising events
• workshops, briefing days
• Giving presentations
• Publishing articles and papers
• Developing training resources
• recommendations, guidelines, Online Tutorial

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Collection Description Focus

• Supporting implementers
• point of contact, advice
• support for CLD in programmes
• Research Support Libraries Programme
• JISC programmes for building the IE
• JISC Learning Teaching (5/99) programme
• NOF-Digitise
• Resource regional cross-domain research projects

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What is a collection?

• Collection
• an aggregation of items
• Aggregations of, e.g.
• natural objects fossils, mineral samples
• created objects artefacts, documents, records
• digital resources documents, images, multimedia
  objects, data, software
• digital surrogates of physical objects
  documents, images
• metadata catalogue records, item descriptions,
  collection-level descriptions

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What is a collection?

• Various criteria for aggregation, e.g.
• By location
• By type/form of item
• By provenance of item
• By source/ownership of item
• By nature of item content
• Any number of items
• Permanent, temporary
• Discrete, distributed
• Collections created with intent/purpose
• consciously formed
• collection development policies

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What is a collection?

• Museums
• collections of physical objects/items
• collections of digital objects/items
• collections of metadata records
• describing physical objects
• describing digital objects
• Collections are made available to the users
  through services

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User wants to know

• Which collections are relevant to their
  requirement?
• subject/coverage of items?
• type?
• legal status?
• conditions of access/use?
• etc
• What services make those collections available?
• location?
• access?
• etc

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What is collection description?

• Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of
  Collections and their Catalogues
• Hierarchic
• info about collection as whole, and about items
  (and relationships between items and whole)
• Analytic
• info about items in collection
• Indexing
• info derived from items in collection
• Unitary
• info about collection as whole, not about items
• collection-level description

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Why collection-level description?

• Enable collection provider to
• disclose information about collections
• overview of otherwise uncatalogued items
• summary where item-level detail
  inappropriate/unavailable
• manage collections
• in collaboration with other providers
• inform strategic planning
• e.g. Resource
• assess priorities for item-level cataloguing
• e.g. Full Disclosure

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Why collection-level description?

• Enable user to
• discover/locate collections
• physical/digital
• select collections to explore/search on basis of
  summary description
• physical/digital
• compare collections as broadly similar objects
• understand conditions of access use

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Why collection-level description?

• Enable software agents to
• select (digital metadata) collections to search
  on behalf of user
• e.g. on basis of profile/preferences
• perform searches across multiple (digital
  metadata) collections

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CLDs provide high-level map of landscape for
user, researcher, visitor.
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CLDs in museums

• Focus on description of (unique, physical) object
• for management more than discovery?
• But notion of collection is used
• collection management
• collection mapping/assessment
• Various criteria
• type/form of item
• subject
• ownership/source
• Some CLD (maybe not called CLD!)
• e.g. guides to holdings, directories

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CLDs in museums

• Little standardisation?
• some use of Dublin Core MES (CIMI testbed)
• some use of Encoded Archival Description DTD
  (NHM)
• some use of RSLP CD schema
• Crossroads (West Mids)
• Find It In London
• Regional collection mapping exercises
• West Midlands, South-West Region
• growing interest in
• sharing data within profession
• using data to support disclosure as well as
  management
• Resource Framework for Collections Management

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CLDs in Museums

• Cornucopia
• the online database of museum, library and
  archival collections.
• Based on systems architecture used for Crossroads
  project
• Collection-level descriptions based on RSLP
  schema
• due to be launched soon
• http//.

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Whos using Collection Description?

• AIM25
• Archives Hub
• Cecilia
• Collections Navigator NHM
• Cornucopia
• Crossroads

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Whos using Collection Description?

• EnrichUK.net
• ITAM MIMAS Collection
  Description
• Reveal
• The Science Culture website
• SCONE