Merging Traffic Accessing Archival Collections and Museum Artifacts Through a Common Interface Brian Wilson Digital Access & Preservation Archivist @brilwil Mid-Michigan Digital Practitioners Group Meeting October 14, 2016 Michigan State University Library East Lansing, Michigan

bit.ly/2dAMzr9 #midmichdp www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/ #midmichdp

Museum Archive Library

Archival Collection Related Collection Description Related Object Group of Items Item

Rome visit, June 2008 - 57 Ed Yourdon https://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/2573762303 https://www.flickr.com/photos/william_droops/5076525237 https://www.flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/7263951990 https://www.flickr.com/photos/bossone/3956778910 Image: “Depressão Na Pista” by William Droops. https://www.flickr.com/photos/william_droops/5076525237

Connections Related Collection Collection Description Items in Item

Requirements Givens Implications Federated search Convey LAM connections Open archival collection record from an item record Open all available items from a single item Collection record must display when no digitized assets exist Archival standards must be followed when possible Givens Common Museum and Archives CMS Limited project budget and timeframe Limited resources and technical abilities Implications DACS Single-level minimum records Use PDF finding aids and link where available Must differentiate between artifact and collection records Library assets not included

Key Vendors and Technology Axiell – EMu, Collection Management System MS Windows file system Perficient Digital – Project Management and Design Sitefinity – Web CMS Elasticsearch Hostway Services – Cloud-based server and data hosting

High-Level Asset Flow Image: Perficient Digital, The Henry Ford Solutions Document, May 2016, Page 8

Web System Architecture Image: Perficient Digital, The Henry Ford Solutions Document, May 2016, Page 7

Data Flow – Simplified(?) Web EMu xml Online Platform Kiosk Network Storage APIs http://clipgid.com/single-music-notes-vector.html http://cliparts.co/cliparts/pco/5k5/pco5k57xi.jpg http://cliparts.co/cliparts/BTg/rXj/BTgrXjkT8.jpg Video Service MM Storage

Data Harvest Image: Perficient Digital, The Henry Ford Solutions Document, May 2016, Page 9

Events / News Footer

Collection title Link to PDF finding aid Abstract Related objects Bio/Hist and Scope Access terms Related content (when available) Admin info Digitized content

Collection Title

Finding Aid

BioHist and Scope

Related Objects

Digital Asset Linking

Not a Perfect System Collection level, not container level Can’t point to box or folder aggregations Can’t relate collection to collection Site demands graphic image for each collection No links outside THF domain. Yet. Image conversion can be very time consuming But…..“Fitness for Use”

Foundational Work Create and publish more CMS records Normalize existing CMS records Establish cataloging rules Commonize collection title format Create ID numbers for assembled collections Form titles for assembled collections Create finding aids for assembled collections Form rules for Related Objects and Content

Positives Archival description part of digitization workflow Description can be part of reporting metrics Standardization between records and among catalogers Increases importance of CMS record Reduces number of data silos Exposes archival collections to new audiences Internal and External

Better Connections Related Collection Collection Description Items in

Image: “501st 15” by Joe Philipson. https://www. flickr

Thank you! Brian Wilson Digital Access & Preservation Archivist The Henry Ford Dearborn, Michigan brianw@thehenryford.org @brilwil