This briefing document provides an introduction to using Collection Description metadata as a collection management tool.

Managing Collections

Many collections are in fact groupings of smaller collections. These smaller collections may have been bought, donated, acquired by exchange, or created through digitisation programmes. While organisations may think they know just what they have, in reality the next time someone asks a question about part of the collection, finding the answer can turn into quite a search.

Collection Description metadata provides a tool that enables all the information about a collection and its component sub-collections to be recorded in a structured way.

Lost Knowledge

A public library service was creating collection description records to add to a local area database. For some of the sub-collections there was little information actually recorded and former members of staff had to be contacted to fill in the gaps. Now that the information has been recorded, it is used not only as a collection management tool, but also in the induction process for new staff and as a look-up document at the enquiry desk.

Benefits

Collection Description metadata can be held in a private ‘staff access only’ database or in ‘not for public display’ fields in a public database. Keeping the information in such a database means staff can easily update entries as well as check specific details about a collection. A variety of information can be recorded: ownership and provenance, access conditions and IPR details, whether the collection is still being added to, how often and by what method. Some of these are detailed below.

Use and Re-use Information

This group of data elements captures information on:

• Who can use the collection for reference?
• Who can borrow items from the collection?
• Can the items be copied?
• Can the items be re-used in another resource?

Agent Information

This group of data elements captures information on:

• Who owns this collection now?
• Who owned it in the past?
• Who collected the items?
• Who manages the collection?

Acquisition Information

This group of data elements captures information on:

• Are items still being added to the collection?
• If yes, how often and by what method (buy, donation, exchange)?
• Was digitisation funded by an external grant?
• Is this collection part of another collection which has been split up (the findings of an archaeological dig, the exhibition which combined resources from several institutions)?
• Are the items on (temporary, long-term or permanent) loan from another institution or person?

Caution

As with any other reference source, a collection description database must be kept up to date and changes entered. An out-of date database will mean you have to track down those former members of staff again.

This briefing document provides an introduction to Collection Description as a resource discovery tool.

Why Do We Need It?

Archives, libraries and museums each have their own approach to resource discovery. Traditionally libraries used catalogues to describe individual items, archives used finding aids which set items as an integral part of a collection, while museums arranged items in groupings for the visiting public but did not provide publicly accessible catalogues.

Now all three domains have digitised resources and users expect information on collections to be available. At collection level, users might be looking for:

• Images, sound recordings and/or text material on the use of a plant in herbal medicine – I’m creating a herb garden.
• Information about my family – I’m tracing my family history.
• Images relating to slavery in Bristol – for my history coursework.

Since 1991, a number of resources have been developed to help resource discovery at collection level. Some of these are described below.

Culture 24

Partly funded by the government this Web site promotes museums, galleries and heritage sites across the UK – see <http://www.culture24.org.uk/>.

CULTURE24

Event listings, collection information and venue details are held in a live database, that UK museums, galleries, libraries and museums can add to using passworded access.

ShowMe

Children’s zone that brings together interactive materials from collections across the UK.

MICHAEL

MICHAEL stands for “Multi-Lingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe”. The MICHAEL Web site is available at <http://www.michael-culture.org/en/home>.

Partners

The MICHAEL partners are France, Italy, UK. Phase 2: Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

UK entries

Digital collections held by cultural heritage institutions. This service complements Cornucopia (described below) which holds details of physical collections.

Collection Description Databases

Some examples of collection description databases – each has a different focus:

Cornucopia

Initially this covered only physical museum collections in England; descriptions for library collections were added as part of the Inspire project. See <http://www.cornucopia.org.uk/>

Cecilia

The focus is on collections relating to music – everything from CDs to music scores and historic instruments to composers manuscripts. See <“http://www.cecilia-uk.org/>

SCONE

The Scottish Collections Network – materials held in Scotland and collections about Scottish issues held elsewhere. See <http://scone.strath.ac.uk/>

PADDI

Planning Architecture Design Database Ireland covers all aspects of the built environment and environmental planning in Ireland. See <http://www.paddi.net/>

Tap Into Bath

Cultural heritage and academic collections held in archives, museums, art galleries and libraries in the city of Bath. The database and software are available for free re-use. See <http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/tapintobath/>

Southern Cross Resource Finder

Describes UK-based collections that hold resources useful for the study of Australia and/or New Zealand. Uses the Tap into Bath database and software. See <http://www.scrf.org.uk/>

This briefing document provides a brief introduction to the concept of Collections.

What Is A Collection?

A collection is a group of resources that are related to each other in some identifiable way. The relationship might be through a topic, a place, a person, an organisation or a type of object.

A collection may be divided into smaller parts, or sub-collections, which may in turn be divided into smaller parts. For example, a library collection might be divided into fiction and non-fiction stock, with the non-fiction stock divided into lending and reference stock, while a museum might have collections of ceramics, textiles, coins and silverware, with the coins divided into categories or sub-collections by time period – Roman, Anglo-Saxon, medieval, etc.

How Many Items Make a Collection?

There is no minimum number of items for a collection – in theory it is possible to have a collection containing only one item! Collections can also be very large and, typically, large collections will divided into a number of sub-collections.

Physical or Digital?

The items in a collection can be physical (books, objects, paintings, etc.) or digital (e-books, digital images, databases). It is also possible for collections to be hybrids, and contain both physical and digital items. A collection may also contain digital items that are surrogates of physical items in that collection.

Whether physical, digital or a combination, the items do not have to be in the same location and can be distributed over multiple locations. Locations may also be a factor in creating sub-collections; a public library may have a number of branch libraries each with its own stock collection.

Permanent or Temporary?

A collection, whether physical, digital or combined, does not have to be a permanent resource. For example a collection of digital items may:

• exist only for the duration of a search – the results display
• be limited for a current subscription – an e-journals bundle

A collection of physical items may:

• have existed in the past but the individual items have been distributed to other permanent collections – the findings from an archaeological excavation
• be brought together from other collections on a temporary basis – an exhibition

Exclusive or Inclusive?

Items can belong to more than one collection or sub-collection at a time, although placed in a single physical location. A coin can be designated as part of a coin collection and part of the Roman collection. Likewise, a map could simultaneously be part of a library local studies collection, part of a maps collection and / or part of the reference collection. A donor bequest collection that either has no topic focus or has several could be split into several collections (theology, natural history, railways) but still retain its identity as a set of items collected and donated by someone.

Describing Collections using Metadata

The digitisation strand of the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) identified a need to describe resources at a collection level. An entity-relationship model for collections, created by Michael Heaney, was used as the theoretical basis for a metadata schema for collection description

Further information on the model is available in the document “An Analytical Model Of Collections And Their Catalogues” by Michael Heaney. This can be accessed at the URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/>

This briefing document provides an introduction to Collection Description.

What Is Collection Description?

Collection Description is a term which is used to describe structured information about a group of resources (a collection) that have some identifiable relationship to each other.

Where traditionally collection descriptions have been included in directories and guides of various forms, metadata records are used in today’s digital environment.

Why Use Collection Description?

Collection description can be used for several reasons:

• To provide easier high level navigation of a large resource base.
• To facilitate the selection of the most appropriate collections for item level searching.
• To support effective searching across archive, library and museum domains.
• As a tool for collection management.

Metadata Schema Model

The digitisation strand of the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) identified a need to describe resources at a collection level. An entity-relationship model for collections, created by Michael Heaney, was used as the theoretical basis for a metadata schema for collection description for RSLP.

Further information on the model is available in the document “An Analytical Model Of Collections And Their Catalogues” by Michael Heaney. This can be accessed at the URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/>

RSLP Collection Metadata Schema

The key attributes of this metadata schema are:

• Title, description
• Resource type, collection identifier
• Language, physical characteristics, dates collected, dates items created
• Legal status, access control
• Accrual status (method, periodicity, policy)
• Custodial history, collector, owner, administrator, location
• Subject (concept, object, name, place, time)
• Sub-collection, super-collection, catalogue, associated collection, associated publication
• Note

Dublin Core Collections Application Profile

The key attributes of this metadata schema are:

• Title, alternative title, description
• Resource type, collection identifier
• Size, language, item type, item format, dates collected, dates items created
• Rights, access rights
• Accrual method, periodicity, policy
• Custodial history, collector, owner, location
• Audience, subject, place, time
• Sub-collection, super-collection, catalogue, associated collection, associated publication

Further Information

Further information is provided by the Collection Description Focus Web site tutorial which is available at the URI: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cd-focus/cdfocus-tutorial/schemas/>.