getting to the stuff: digital cultural heritage collections, absence, and memory
DESCRIPTION
MITH, Digital Dialog Talk, November 27, 2012TRANSCRIPT
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Getting to the Stuff: Digital Cultural Heritage Collections, Absence, and Memory
Sheila A. BrennanAssociate Director of Public Projects
@sherah1918 lotfortynine.orgsbrennan @ gmu.edu
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http://invisibleaustralians.org/
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Where are the collections?http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/collections/toy-collection.html
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“Collections are useless unless they are used.”
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History Museums are not Art Museums
http://bit.ly/historymuseumsmcn
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Google Art Projecthttp://www.googleartproject.com/
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Walter’s, Browsinghttp://art.thewalters.org/browse/?type=medium#medium
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• The History Museum Web Examined, 2004 (PDF): http://www.lotfortynine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/HistoryMuseumsOnline2004_brennan.pdf
• 2004 Survey Summary: http://bit.ly/historymuseumweb2004
• 2011 Survey: http://bit.ly/stateofhistorymuseumweb
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Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
http://www.lewisandclarkexhibit.org/
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Raid on Deerfield, Many Stories of 1704http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/
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2011 survey of history museum websites
Viewed 115 websites out of the 1179 self-identified history museums
• Visitors can now expect almost every history museum to contain basic visitation information, which sites did not always offer in 2004.
• History museums in 2004 offered more narratives and stories related to exhibitions than in 2011.
• Nearly 70 percent of history museums provide only a summary or list of exhibitions.
• Only 2 museums offered a means for closely examining an object.• Searchable collections databases were available in 17 percent of museums,
up from 9 percent in 2004, while 37 percent offer no collections information. • Nearly 70% of history museum sites offer no online teaching & learning
materials. Most list programs offered on-site with contact information, only.• Facebook is the most popular social network where museums have a
presence at 56 percent and weren’t doing much there other than publicizing programs.
http://bit.ly/stateofhistorymuseumweb
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http://tabermuseum.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/james-bressler-american-indian-gallery
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http://online.ushmm.org/lodzchildren/
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Freedom Center Apphttp://www.freedomcenter.org/visit-the-center/app/
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Building Detroithttp://detroithistorical.org/buildingdetroit/index.php
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Collecting = Forgetting?
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Almost discarded album
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NPM created a separate flat HTML exhibit that is discoverable, but not the record in Arago.
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The Henry Ford Museum Collections
http://collections.thehenryford.org/index.aspx
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http://collections.thehenryford.org/Collection.aspx?objectKey=20486
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/6767187475/
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http://www.freshandnew.org/2012/08/museum-datasets-un-comprehensive-ness-data-mining/
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http://viewshare.org/views/GalleryArchives/samuel-h-kress-collection-paintings-with-purchase/
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What Can a History Museum Do?
• Open your collections data, publish with all of its warts
• Use digital spaces to contextualize objects & share multiple interpretations
• Invite others to contribute scholarship using your collections (with other sources)
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Possible funding for that context
http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2012-11-14
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Would you use online museum collections?
• Do you use or have you used museum objects in your research?
• How do you identify appropriate or possible collections to use in your research?
• Do you use or have you used auction sites like eBay to find sources?
• Would you be more likely to use museum collections as sources if you could find them easily online?
• Are you interested in accessing museum collection data for your own analysis, text or data mining, creating visualizations?
• Would you share your research back with a museum whose objects you incorporated into your research project?