Having timed my holiday to coincide with the inaugural global EMu User Group Meeting in London, I've come home with lots of inspiration and enthusiasm from the community of EMu users to share with you all.
The papers focussed primarily on the various implementations of IMu that are now in their infancy at a number of institutions. What is clear is that IMu is incredibly flexible and provides a powerful set of tools to manipulate and work with EMu data.
Here's what some institutions are using IMu for so far:
The University of Pennsylvania Museum used IMu to facilitate a massive program of image uploading and web publication - with over 25000 digital images ingested using an IMu import tool. Their stated goal with regard to online content publication is to "BE OPEN" with their collection data, and publishing of web content is a highly automated process.
The new M-Shed Museum at Bristol are using IMu to publish catalogue records, narratives and images to touch screen kiosks throughout the exhibition spaces. These terminals offer a consistent clean design, which provides in-context information that relates to a particular showcase. It also provides a point for user generated content to be uploaded - which has been a popular feature so far (though they have not yet decided what to do with all the content generated by visitors.)
Te Papa demonstrated some refinements they've made to their Thesaurus module to support improved web navigation. Their customisations have enabled more user friendly and logical navigation through the use of some consistent descriptors alongside subject and category headings. Clear relationship-type definitions like "depicted in" or "former owner of" really provide meaningful context within a record. This solution would translate really well to our own website and would allow us to build more meaningful and relevant browsing suggestions in the future. Visit this search page to see the pivotal browse boxes down the right hand side to see the ways you can navigate and discover through different topics.
There were also a few demonstrations of new iPhone/iPad apps developed by Qatar Museums Authority and The Manchester Museum.
Why it pays to have good documentation practices;
Dr Penny Berents spoke candidly about a long and very drawn out series of thefts at the Australian Museum and the subsequent investigations and audits that relied heavily upon information in EMu - ultimately prosecutions and a multi-million dollar insurance claim were made possible because thorough documentation provided irrefutable evidence of ownership - even though specimens had been heavily tampered with and dramatically altered in appearance.
We also heard a very moving tale from the registration team at the Cairo Museum and how they fled the museum during the recent uprising which engulfed the square where the museum was located. Staff were evacuated from the country and flew out with a copy of the database in their handbag! When they returned to find the museum looted, the staff, army and police relied upon the EMu records to determine the extent of damage - and much of the material has since been recovered.
