This week I presented at Museums and the Web Asia 2015.

Abstract

Archival material often provides the context required by curators, researchers and other users working with material objects, contributing to new narratives and richer understanding. Artefacts and archives are already linked physically in exhibition spaces, and intellectually in catalogues, books and articles. Yet when it comes to collection management many institutions keep artefacts and archives physically, conceptually and organisationally separate. For museums this leads to an over-reliance on implicit knowledge; and for online users it means expansive digital collections are often presented decontextualised. In this paper the author will examine the recent history and current status of intersecting artefacts and archives in museums – on the web, and in supporting systems – drawing on institutional and project-based examples from Australia and internationally. Through a better understanding of the intersection of these collections and the systems and data structures used to manage them we can lay the foundations for future developments which will both maintain necessary distinctions in museum and archival practice, and create new ways of digitally capturing, managing and disseminating interconnected collection knowledge within and beyond our institutions.

For those interested in the full paper, it is available here: http://mwa2015.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/artefacts-and-archives-considering-cross-collection-knowledge-networks-in-museums/

Slides available here: REMP – 2015-10-07 M Jones – Artefacts and Archives – MWA2015