Making EMu Work for Multidisciplinary Collections

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Making EMu Work for Multi-disciplinary Collections

• Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives

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Making EMu Work for Multi-disciplinary Collections

• Bristols Selection of EMu
• EMus Role Within the Organisation
• Developing EMu to Manage Multi-disciplinary
  Collections
• - The Catalogue module
• - The Sites module
• - The Thesaurus module
• The Progress So Far

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Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
City Museum Art Gallery
The Georgian House
The Red Lodge
Blaise Castle House Museum
Industrial Museum/Museum of Bristol
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A Multi-disciplinary Collection

• Applied Art
• Archaeology
• Biology
• Community History
• Eastern Art and Culture
• Ethnography and Foreign Archaeology
• Fine Art
• Geology
• Industrial and Maritime History
• Social History

• Photographic Collections
• Multi-disciplinary Handling Collection

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Procuring a CMS

• Bristols Selection of EMu
• EMus Role Within the Organisation

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Developing the Catalogue
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The Catalogue must be able to

• Comprehensively manage data for all collections
• Be simple to use by all staff
• Be simple in data structure terms
• Enable seamless searches across all collection
  disciplines

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The Catalogue Hierarchy

• Department Collection
• Applied Art - Applied Art
• Biology - Biology
• British Archaeology - Archaeology
• - Site Archive
• Eastern Art - Eastern Art
• Ethnography Foreign Archaeology - Ethnography
• - Foreign Archaeology
• - Maps
• - Militaria
• - Numismatics
• Fine Art - Fine Art
• Geology - Maps and Plans
• - Mineralogy
• - Palaeontology
• - Petrology
• Industrial and Maritime History - Industrial and
  Maritime History
• Learning - Learning

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The Summary Tab
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The Associations Tab
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The Production Tab
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The Location Tab
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Subject Tabs

• Art
• Biology
• Specimen
• Palaeontology
• Petrology/Mineralogy
• Site Archives 1
• Site Archives 2
• Arch Ethno Objects
• Numismatics 1
• Numismatics 2
• Maps and Plans
• Photographs
• History

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The Palaeontology Tab
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The Art Tab
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Full Tab List

• Classification
• Inscriptions
• Dimensions
• References
• Materials
• Relationships
• Parts
• Subjects
• Valuation
• Notes
• Deaccession
• Cons Desc
• Condition
• Pest M'gmt
• Environment
• Display
• Storage
• Tasks
• Multimedia

• Art
• Biology
• Specimen
• Palaeontology
• Petrology/Mineralogy
• Site Archives 1
• Site Archives 2
• Arch Ethno Objects
• Numismatics 1
• Numismatics 2
• Maps and Plans
• Photographs
• History

• Summary
• Associations
• Production
• Location

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Original Sites Module
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New Sites Module
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Catalogue/Sites Connection
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Using EMu to solve Collections Management
challenges

• British Archaeology Department Archaeological
  Site Archives
• Standardisation of Data Entry for Improved Access
  to the Collections

F1980 Roman brooch, Charterhouse, Somerset.
F2019 Roman face from Charterhouse, Somerset.
F789 Roman Samian ware bowl, from Camerton,
Somerset.
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Challenge 1 British Archaeology Department
Archaeological Site Archives
Goal Improve efficiency and quality of site
archive records

• Outline of challenge

• Solutions using EMu

Excavation at Bristol University, April 2009
Civil War Trench / Defences
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The Challenge of Managing Site Archives
Bulk Finds from Excavations
Unpublished Excavation Report
Paper Archives
Small Finds Individually bagged
A box of Small Finds
Original Section Drawing
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Site Archive Solutions Using EMu
Catalogue Module Summary Tab for Site Archive
record
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Site Archive Tab 1 Fields for entering data
specific to entire archaeological site.
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Site Archive Tab 2 Fields for entering multiple
museum storage locations for all of the bulk
finds and paper archives related to one
archaeological site.
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Relationships tab Lists all of the child
(small / published finds) records for this
archaeological site.
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Challenge 2 Standardisation of Data Entry
Goal Improve consistency of data entry for
selected fields

• Outline of challenge

• Solutions using EMu

F3657 Pool farm cist slab - grave lining with
prehistoric carvings from Somerset.
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The Challenge of Consistency in Data Entry
? Is it a collar? Is it a torc ? Is it bronze?
Is it copper alloy? When is the Iron Age in
Somerset?
E1784 Iron Age torc / collar from Wraxall,
Somerset.
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Solutions Using EMu
Object simple name field links to Department
specific object thesauri
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Materials thesaurus
World Periods thesaurus
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Please can we have a new module for managing
terminology?
Q3310 Early 16th century misericord from Bristol
Cathedral, showing lewd scene from the tales of
Reynard the fox. The nature of the scene caused
the Victorians to remove it from the Cathedral.
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The Progress So Far

• Implementation across all Collections and
  Conservation Departments
• Configuration of modules and fields, populating
  look-up lists, field help and thesauri,
  cleansing of legacy data
• Importing of additional legacy data and
  bulk-loading of image files
• Using EMu to manage content development for the
  Museum of Bristol
• Using EMu to manage master image files for
  Bristol Cultural Digitisation Bureau
• Defining EMus role in new website and Museum of
  Bristol
• Online access to collections records nearly!
• Further changes to Catalogue and supporting
  modules commissioned and tested
• Phew!

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Bristols Documentation Team
Gareth Salway Documentation Officer gareth.salway_at_
bristol.gov.uk Laura Phillips Documentation
Assistant (British Archaeology) Laura.phillips_at_bri
stol.gov.uk Amber Druce Documentation Assistant
(Ethnography and Foreign Archaeology) amber.druce_at_
bristol.gov.uk Alice Rymill Registrar alice.rymil
l_at_bristol.gov.uk