Sharing their collections data has long been a right faff for museums, requiring much data-wrangling into prescribed schemas for little tangible benefit that would justify the effort. The Museum Data Service – to be launched soon by Art UK, Collections Trust, and the University of Leicester – takes a different approach. At the heart of the MDS, a ‘connect and collect’ service will harvest source data from museums in whatever form they can provide it; then, with minimal processing, make it available online (with persistent identifiers) as the raw material for any potential use. Of course, most use scenarios will need the data to be standardised in specific ways, but the onus will be on the end users to do that work as needs and funding arise. This approach avoids two key problems faced by ‘traditional’ cultural heritage aggregators that bring together data from different institutions and present it in a standardised way. Firstly, standardising such data is time-consuming and expensive for the contributors or the aggregating service or both. Secondly, the harmonising process imposes standards that might suit one end purpose, but not others. The nuances and richness of the source records can get lost in translation. In our stripped-back approach the raw data remains available to those who need it that way. As well as making it free and easy for them to be part of the MDS, we are designing in benefits to make it well worth their while, such as acting as a backup of last resort. We know that many museums are not yet ready to go public with their data and are giving them full control over who can see what, and on what licensing terms. Initially, many might use us just to give staff and volunteers better access to their own databases. We’re playing a long game, fully aware it will be the work of many decades and many collaborators to improve the discoverability and usefulness of museum object records, but also that nothing much can happen while millions of records remain trapped in hundreds of offline databases. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step; for the future discoverability of UK museum collections, the MDS is that first step. Paper presented at the CILIP Metadata and Discovery Group (MDG) Conference & UKCoR RDA Day (6th - 8th Sept 2023 at IET Austin Court, Birmingham).

1. On the road to discovery:
the Museum Data Service
Kevin Gosling
Chief Executive, Collections Trust
MDS Project Lead
CILIP Metadata & Discovery Group Conference 2023
#CILIPMDG2023

3. 1700
Accredited museums

4. 80m?
existing object records

5. <50%
object records online

6. 100s
of museum websites

7. PIDs
rare: data not FAIR

8. Mission:
The Museum Data
Service brings together
information drawn from
UK collections large and
small, sharing this raw
material for research,
curation and audience
engagement.

9. Museums
Profiles
Data (PIDs)
Images
Search APIs
Use cases

13. Spectrum Compliant systems (Spectrum 5)
• Axiell Collections
• Collector Systems
• Modes Complete
• MuseumIndex+
• MuseumPlus
• Primus
• Qi
• robotron*Daphne
• TMS Collections
• VernonCMS

14. Source Spectrum
ObjectIdentity/Number Object number
OtherIdentity/Number Other number
OtherIdentity/Type Other number type
Identification/BriefDescription Brief description
Notes Comments

16. Level Accessible to
Administrator Named individual(s)
Restricted
confidential
Named individual(s)
Restricted non-
confidential
Named individual(s)
Potentially, accredited researchers
Public Anyone

17. 100
museums by May

18. 850
museums in 5 years

19. 1700
museums in 10 years

20. Museums
Profiles
Data (PIDs)
Images
Search APIs
Use cases

21. Museums
Profiles
Data (PIDs)
Images
Search APIs
New and enhanced data
Use cases

22. Spectrum Use of collections
You add any knowledge gained and
content created while using objects,
reproductions or data to catalogue records.

26. Beta launch:
November 2023