Guidelines for the digitization of Gustavianum's collections

The registers of the Gustavianum's many collections are currently kept in a number older local databases, preferably in the form of FileMaker databases. The different the collections are covered by special documentation needs, but in common is that they need to be made visible to the outside world in a better way than today.

As of 1 January 2019, Gustavianum is therefore working with digitization according to three continuous lines:

1) Alvin-portal.org as an online publication instrument

To make Gustavianum's collections known to researchers, students and others interested people worldwide, overview information about the collections is added – picture and short description of objects and works of art - out in Alvin, the portal for online publication developed by Uppsala University Library. Parts of the collections have already been digitized and published in the portal, but from 2019 this will be a cohesive effort. The registration in Alvin-portal.org takes place according to different principles for different collections, but in common is that each entry posted is newly registered. It is therefore not retrieved from existing databases. Each item is also registered with an image that we have the right to make available to third parties.

From spring 2019, the link to our online records will be published on the museum's website under a special heading that can be accessed from the front page. So you don't have to go through special collection pages to get Gustavianum's records in Alvin, but we make it as easy as possible to reach the portal, where the search function is already user-friendly today.

An important aspect of publishing in Alvin is the images. High resolution images on objects and collections that we have the right to make available to third parties is made on this way freely available to the outside world, and this means that we no longer dispatches special photo orders but refers all interested parties to freely download the images located in Alvin. Therefore, starting in 2019, Gustavianum will start photographing objects and works of art that are in particular demand, in order to quickly obtain the most requested image material in this way. A special photography project, run by the museum's existing staff, will start in February 2019 and is expected to last until 2024.

2) New databases for documentation and research

For most of the museum's collections, internal databases are also needed to organize the collections in such a way that they can be more easily researched. Such internal databases, with extensive information, will not be published on-line but should, in the long run, partly be able to function for the museum's own work in organizing the collections, partly as a resource for research on the collections. In this work different database systems will be used depending on the specifics of the collection character.

From 2019 onwards, the archaeological collections will be covered by a special investigation into such a future new database system. Some of these collections, the so-called The Asine collection is already now in a database called Pragmatics. Gustavianum participates in the 2019-2021 project "Common ground" with financing from the Riksbanken Jubileumsfond, where certain Swedish collections will arranged either in a development of Pragmata or more established platform, Arches, based on CIDOC-CRM and CIDOC International Core Data Standard for Archaeological and Architectural Heritage, by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund, with technical assistance from English Heritage and Flanders Heritage Agency.

The investment against Pragmata/Arches for archaeological material will be during the period 2019-2021 the only development project that Gustavianum is working on when it applies to internal database development; other collections may remain in during this period existing database system while a continuous publication takes place in Alvin, (see above under 1).

3) A task force for research support in system issues

In 2018, Gustavianum participated in the inventory of IT support needs which initiated by the scientific field HumSam. Because digital humanities and social science is a subject area on the rise, where several research financiers are preparing large calls for proposals in the next few years, it is by great importance that researchers receive support in orienting themselves in the flora of technical possibilities available.

Here, the museum has stated that there is a need for more cohesive, operational research support, which can provide concrete advice and support to researchers. This is something different from national collaborations or university-wide IT for our larger systems, where development processes are already underway. The proposal discussed within HumSam is a smaller "task force" for research support in system issues, and Gustavianum supports that idea.