Posted on behalf of Helen Jones 

Dear all,

Apologies again for cross-posting, I’m sure several of you are on more than one of these lists! Sorry also for the delay in replying – the Easter break and lovely weather have kept my attention elsewhere.

Many thanks for all the replies I’ve received and for forwarding my message on to people beyond jiscmail, I really appreciate it.

The replies were very reassuring in one sense, I found that many people are in the same boat as we are, not quite sure where to go next. I had always (mistakenly) assumed that getting the funding for the actual photography of the items we want to make available online would be the hard bit. As it turns out, it’s the next step, choosing the online platform, that is far more difficult.

The conclusions I have come to are:

1.   We really need a Digital Asset Management System in the future when budgets allow, as this would work for the whole museum; images of objects and digitised books/archive materials included. The main problem seems to be making all the different systems ‘talk’ to each other: library catalogue, archive catalogue, museum object catalogue, DAMS and discovery layer. A challenge for the future!

2. We do not have the money for most customisable software, although there are more reasonable options out there. Suggestions made included Omeka, Preservica and Luna (with reservations on the last one)

3.   I did not hear much about open-source software, which I think tells its own story.

4.  Long-term preservation is an additional problem to think about, as formats can change/update so quickly.

5. In the interim, as we wait for funding for a DAMS, we are seriously considering using the free service offered by the Internet Archive. I have been in correspondence with one of their reps and they seem to offer a good service which can be tailored to a certain degree when it comes to having named collections, restricting copying etc. They also take care of upgrading file formats. It will mean that the image editing and provision of metadata will be tasks that have be undertaken by us in-house, however.

6.  We are making the most of an invitation to visit another library that has used Internet Archive – always make the most of connections!

Obviously these conclusions may not be applicable to everyone but I hope they provide a little help! Many thanks again for all your responses and offers of assistance.

Best wishes,

Helen Jones

Research Librarian

The Wallace Collection

London W1U 3BN