Diving in: Leveraging Efforts
April 9, 2008
Unanticipated Results
- ARTBase quickly became the first point of contact with our permanent collection for almost everyone:
- curators: simpler interface; faster searching; keyword capacity; custom "galleries"
- director: curated several shows while recuperating from home
- donors: received donation because similar works in our collection found through ARTBase; more developed relationship with this donor now underway
- artists: (esp. LAB artists) do prelim research via ARTBase
- researchers:
- etc etc
- some of this positive, as people are able to help themselves and so don't bother collections department. some negative as new requests we likely would not have otherwise received (as well as expectation of quick response)
- Rights & repro orders streamlined and increased as clients can 1) help themselves and 2) we're available for researching 24/7. Grown rights & repro to $6-7,000 (still modest amount, but this is for a department that is meant to be a "net drain" on the institution)
"Leveraged" Projects, Real and Imagined
ARTBase has become a cornerstone of our new media / online activities, and has been leveraged for "next-stage" applications
- Virtual Museum of Canada's Agora: invited to participate in the pilot project phase, privileged to help shape the finished product; have since completed 2 "normal" projects in Agora.
- VMCs: Maxwell Bates used image zoom viewer and image database from ARTBase; proposal in for current VMC that will see addition of geotagging to our "set of tools"
- RSS feed "Image of the Day"
- Bogey (and working with Canadian Heritage for Knowledge Exchange)
- Folksonomies
- ArtShare Facebook App. / Google Widgets / etc
- Effects:
- Funding: work study positions, pilot project funding, knowledge exchange, VMC, rights & repro, etc
- Targeting Medium-Term Strategic Goals: decorative arts, Emily Carr, Bogey
- Improved Collections Care: have worked continuing digitisation into accessioning process
- "Improved Access": mission and mandate stuff