Metadata Repository Project:

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Stewarding Potential
Jane E. Sledge Associate Director Museum Assets
and Operations National Museum of the American
Indian
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Once upon a time I thought of museum information
systems in simple terms
COMPUTER RECORDS
CATALOGUE CARDS
INVENTORY CONTROL
DIGITAL IMAGE
COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT
MUSEUM INFORMATION SYSTEM
WRONG !
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Museum Record Keeping Systems

• More than finding aids for objects
• Evolving designed to steward knowledge
• Present ambiguous, uncertain, and often incorrect
  information
• Do not represent the single voice of authority,
  but present many points of view and different
  opinions repositories for conversations over time

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The museum should follow the paths of the
elders, bring to life deeply human events, and
have access to hidden treasures in daily life.
(Rene Rivard, 1984)
Landscapes
Residents
Sites
Landscapes
Residents
Sites
Heritage
Architecture
Nature
Heritage
Architecture
Nature
Identity
Collective Memories
Collective Memories
Identity
Cultural Patrimony
Elders
Elders
Cultural Patrimony
Visitors
Visitors
Traditions
Traditions
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The importance of preserving context
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Marty De Montanõs Story Of The Backwards Blouse
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Menomini Blouse
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Backwards Blouse
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The Proof !
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What were they thinking?Catalogue Card
027535.000
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Indians were imitating Europeans
Edwardian Pigeon Blouse (Front) c. 1905
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Indian blouses predate Edwardian waists.
In the 1970s and 1980s fewer researchers used
images. Digital images are a recent invention.
Josephte Ourné c. 1840 by Joseph Légaré
D-Mouche-Kee-Kee-Awh by George Winter
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Potawatomi WaistRegistration Information
Tracking System
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Potawatomi WaistCollections Information System
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Potawatomi WaistCollections Information System
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Potawatomi Blouse (Front)
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Potawatomi Blouse (Back)
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Potawatomi WaistCollections Information System
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Reference Web Site
http//www.kansasheritage.org/PBP/art/blouse.html
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Reference Web Site (Continued)
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Potawatomi

• The Potawatomi (also spelled Pottawatomie or
  Pottawatomi) are a Native American people of the
  upper Mississippi River region. They
  traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a
  member of the Algonquian family. In the
  Potawatomi language, they generally call
  themselves Bodéwadmi, a name which means "keepers
  of the fire" and which was applied to them by
  their Anishinaabe cousins however, they
  originally called themselves Neshnabé, which is a
  cognate of the word Anishinaabe.
• The Potawatomi were part of a long term alliance
  with the Ojibwe and Ottawa, called the Council of
  Three Fires. In the Council of Three Fires,
  Potawatomi were considered the "youngest
  Brother".

www.Wikipedia.com
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Community-Based Discussions2000-2001

• Large-scale collaborative projects for Indigenous
  communities were seen as controlling, grandiose,
  and empire-building
• Projects need to be local enable Indigenous
  self-representation and give ownership and
  control to Native communities be of Native
  authorship or show the primacy of native voice
• Native peoples require access to institutional
  resources for their own purposes

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Tools for Collaboration
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Spiral of Knowledge
Internal Researchers
Collections Management System Digital Asset
Management System
Native Americans Researchers
Publications Exhibits Web
Meta Data Repository
Web Interactive Exhibits
Meta Data Repository
Foundation Applications CIS - DAM
Technical Infrastructure
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Museum Without Walls(André Malraux,1967)

• In answer to the appeal of the real
  museumswhich echoed that of real creators the
  art that invokes and governs this vast
  resurrection is not an art that can be easily
  defined it is our own, and it is difficult for
  the fish to envisage the outer aspect of his
  aquarium.