Twenty Years of Arts Computing
CHArt Twentieth Annual Conference
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FUTURES PAST: Twenty Years of Arts Computing |
Melanie Rowntree, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Successes and Failures of Content Creation in Web Beginnings at the Victoria and Albert Museum
With the V&A’s first database-driven, object information interface on the web entering its second year of delivery, now seems the perfect time to review its history of presenting collections data online. This presentation will focus on four projects, looking at the planning and implementation of content creation, the resultant successes and failures and the potential for the re-purposing of data.
The four initiatives under review will be: Images Online, the V&A’s first attempt at web delivery of its collections data; the British Galleries Online (BGO), a gallery interactive database developed for the renovated British Galleries; Exploring Photography, which began in 1998 as an interactive kiosk in the Cannon Photography Gallery that was put on the web in April 2003; and, finally, Access to Images (AtoI), the most recent initiative, which delivers content for around 17,000 objects directly from the Museum’s Collections Information System (CIS).
Both Images Online and Exploring Photography were locked into the V&A website as static web pages, thus restricting any data re-purposing. The search capability of both was also severely limited. Unfortunately, the implications were not considered during the planning of content creation. The BGO also suffers from limited re-use of the content as its data sits in a purpose-built project database, rather than the V&A’s primary object database. By learning from these three projects, staff planning Access to Images were careful that data be derived from primary source systems and delivered to a web interface with full search capabilities. With AtoI there is no problem with re-purposing data as it is refreshed from the live system.
There are, however lessons to be learned for the future development of AtoI. Although good practice in content creation and data re-purposing has created a solid foundation, the current interface must serve varied users with differing needs and experiences. Both BGO and Exploring Photography provide extensive layers of contextual information to users as well as personal guided tours that help mediate the information for the user. They contain many ingredients which will be vital in making AtoI intellectually engaging and fun to use. In combining lessons learned from all four projects, the Museum may define a path for ongoing improvements to web presentation of its collections data.