MDA/KE EMu/110406

MDA Initiatives and SPECTRUM

Nick Poole

MDA Director

MDA/KE EMu/110406

MDA

• UK’s lead organisation for collections management

• Responsible for:

– Maintaining professional standards

– Supporting best practice

– Providing training

– Giving advice

MDA/KE EMu/110406

SPECTRUM

• Industry standard for documentation and information management in museums

• Revised edition published April 2005

• 21 procedures for different elements of collections management

• 400+ Units of Information

• Published as an open standard and available free of charge from www.mda.org.uk

MDA/KE EMu/110406

SPECTRUM XML

• Published online as an XML service

• Self-publishing XML schema

• Mapping to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model

• A distributed platform for ongoing editing and updating of the standard

• Updating the CIMI Data Interchange Format

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SPECTRUM International

• Working to assigning translation and localisation rights to partners throughout the EU

• SPECTRUM proposed as the basis of a Europe-wide system for supporting collections mobility

• Working towards a European standard

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SPECTRUM Terminology

• New online service launched Jan 2006

• 3 core services:

– Terminology Essentials key principles of terminology

– Terminology Workshop hints and tips on creating consistent terminologies

– Terminology Bank, download structured terminologies to use in projects

• Working on an AHRC-funded investigation into the Semantic Web for museums

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New directions

• Documentation for Diversity

– Using documentation records and Collections Management Systems to record information from diverse communities

• Learning Collections

– Investigating how documentation systems can support the delivery of Generic Learning Outcomes as part of the Inspiring Learning for All framework

• Research to demonstrate the social and economic impact of information management

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MDA & KE EMu

• KE has become one of the first MDA Partners

• Ensuring that systems are compliant with the SPECTRUM standard

• Meeting the requirements of the Museum Accreditation Scheme

• Delivering best practice through your software

• KE helping to shape the future development of the SPECTRUM standard

MDA/KE EMu/110406

SPECTRUM Compliance

• Unit of Information Compliance

– How are the Units of Information represented in the system

• Access Compliance

– Is SPECTRUM accessible from within the system

• Data Migration Compliance

– Does the system support lossless migration to a SPECTRUM-structured dataset

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Collections Link

• National collections management advisory service

• Office-hours telephone advice in 16 areas of professional practice including documentation, digitisation, online publishing and copyright

• Online library of over 200 best practice publications from partners throughout the UK including the National Archives, Institute of Conservation, Museum Copyright Group and others

• Launches end of April 2006

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Contact

Nick Poole

Director

MDA

Tel. 01223 415 760

www.mda.org.uk