CollectionSpace for Museum and Academic Technology Professionals

October 29, 2009

www.collectionspace.org

Speakers Carl Goodman, Principal Investigator, Museum of the

Moving Image Patrick Schmitz, Co-Technical Lead, University of

California, Berkeley Dan Sheppard, Co-Technical Lead, University of

Cambridge Erin Yu, Interaction Designer, University of Toronto Angela Spinazze, Senior Project Advisor, ATSPIN

consulting

CollectionSpace is an open-source, web-based software application for the description, management, and dissemination of museum collections information – from artifacts and archival materials to exhibitions and storage.

Project Partners Museum of the Moving Image, New York University of California, Berkeley, Information Services

and Technology Division University of Cambridge, Centre for Applied Research in

Educational Technologies University of Toronto, Adaptive Technology Resource

Centre, Fluid Project

Funding The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Program in Research

in Information Technology Program supports the creation of "enterprise" administrative and

infrastructural software by means of distributed, collaborative open-source development projects

Collaborations with RIT-funded projects ConservationSpace

Fluid Engage

Ole Project

OpenCast

Project Bamboo

Project TeamThe CollectionSpace project team is composed of domain experts, designers, architects, and developers from each partner organization.

Development teams work in cycles to issue regular software releases.

Initial Releases

CollectionSpace Release 1.0:

Eight core procedures and related functionality covered, including: acquisition, cataloging, loans, vocabulary control, media handling, customization, security, and documentation.

Incremental releases for testing and evaluation:

0.2: Released October, 2009. Allows user login, creation of intake records, and auto-fill intake and object identification numbers.

0.3: November, 2009. Includes ID service with choice of sequential identification numbers; vocabulary service, to provide access to controlled lists; and support for acquisition.

Implementations

MMI, UCB, Walker, more to come

S/M/L/XL

Different flavors, each made available to the community

Open Source Ability to modify, share, refine Can result in better software No vendor lock-in or licensing costs Incorporation of existing OS software

Community Source

Community Source

Benefits of Open Source +

Structured and coordinated development process

Designed WITH user community

Reduced total cost of operations

Doesn’t scare your colleagues

Benefits of CollectionSpace

Local or hosted

Open architecture

Standards-based

Customizable

Configurable roles and permissions

CollectionSpace Services

Patrick Schmitz

University of California, Berkeley

Co-Technical Lead, CollectionSpace

Dozens of world-class museums and research collections Range from small to very large Cover a very broad set of domains

Each has very different model, info needs Varying information around core activities Domain-specific information like stratigraphy

Research activities require easy access to CMS data and integration with other systems/apps

UCB and CollectionSpace

Services underlie the application, manage and provide access to all CMS data

SOA ensures clean architecture for CollectionSpace Enterprise standard for integration, reuse Exposes information as Web Services for re-use, enabling

mashups and new applications

REST-based services easy to use and integrate Services model common entities, and relations, but are extensible

to provide a flexible “data model” for each collection Provide permanent URI for objects for linking, citation, etc. Easy access to data for other applications, research projects, etc.

Services, SOA, and the Project

Schema model for a customized service deployment

Schema Extension Model

Example URIs, e.g., for loans, objects associated to one loan, and for a given collection object: your.museum.org/cspace-services/loans your.museum.org/cspace-services/loans/{id}/collectionobjects your.museum.org/cspace-services/collectionobjects/{id}

REST payload (XML content) includes core schema information, and your custom extensions

Dissemination and publishing tools have easy access to collections data

Research applications have access to data without compromising database security or access policies

REST Access to CollectionSpace

Doing 4 pilot deployments to gain experience PAHMA (Anthro) and a LifeSci collection at UCB MMI and Walker (Cultural Heritage collections)

Developing best practices with (ETL) tools for import Building templates for initial domains

Schemas and UI templates will be shared back to CollectionSpace Contributions from community ease future deployments Community provides forum for discussion/sharing experience

Planning more deployments across a range of domains in 2010

CollectionSpace Pilot Deployments

CollectionSpace Application

Dan Sheppard

University of Cambridge, CARET

Co-Technical Lead, CollectionSpace

Application Layer Why is it needed? What is it / isn’t it? How does it work? Where does it fit?

Configuration

Plugins and Configuration

Plugins and Paths

Plugins

Application Layer Why is it needed? What is it / isn’t it? How does it work? Where does it fit?

CollectionSpace User Interface

Erin Yu

University of Toronto, Fluid Project

Interaction Designer, CollectionSpace

CollectionSpace UX Goals A holistic product Designed by museums, not technologists Easy to use, but not simplistic Accommodates your workflow & collection Accessible to a wide variety of user needs

How We’re Making it Easy

2. Simple radio buttons allow users to choose which value of a repeatable field should be considered “primary”

1. Each information group can be collapsed to decrease screen clutter

1

2

3. Markers in each field denote behavior - whether the field leads to a predictive text or dropdown pulled from a controlled list or authority file

35. Data entry screens each include a toolbar at the bottom that simplifies searching and saving

5

6. Links to related procedures, objects, and collections can be created and managed

6 7. An integrated authorities list gives an index to all the authorized terms referenced in this record

7

4. Repeatable fields can be added with a press of a button

4

8. The time stamp for the last save or auto-save is displayed. At any time, changes can be reverted or cancelled

8

Highly Configurable Museum collections are diverse CollectionSpace is built to be customized

Add new fields Change labels Take things away Skin it for your environment

“Schema-lessness:” no assumptions about data model baked into the user interface

Out of the Box Experience

Customized Museum Experience

A Web-Oriented Architecture No exotic technologies: just the Web HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Familiar and extensible Clean, simple URLs + useful data feeds Built using

Fluid’s Infusion application framework jQuery RESTful APIs and JSON

Flexible and Accessible Highly skinnable, even for users Can accommodate diverse user needs Works great with the keyboard Supports other assistive technologies Accessible, but still rich and dynamic!

Q+A

Angela Spinazze, Moderator

Getting InvolvedWe would like to: Learn more about your institution’s needs Help you gain support for implementation of CollectionSpace

within your organization Build a sustainable community of users and contributors

Contact Information

Carl Goodman: 718-784-4520

Email the team:

talk@lists.collectionspace.org

Visit the website: www.collectionspace.org

Browse the wiki: wiki.collectionspace.org