Creation of a new museum Collections Management System (CMS) & Recataloguing
We fully migrated the archive to a museum industry standard CMS, Libris. The web-based software acts as a platform for our remote metadata renovation efforts, and specially allows multiple volunteer keyworders to work remotely tagging selected batches of images through a locked down account, keeping the images secure, safe from accidental deletion, and keeping any unreleased work hidden.
Our new CMS is now public and fully accessible. The system allows us to embed search functions into our main site so we are already seeing increased visit figures particularly with students accessing the collections for research.
As a result of project press and our new fully restructured online Museum incorporating featured essays, archive of the week, and an interactive timeline, we have seen an incredible jump in users from 2019-20 to 2020-21, jumping from 33,000 unique users per year to 73,000 unique users visiting the online Museum of Youth Culture over the course of the project.
This represents an increase of 121% in users accessing the online Museum year on year.
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Our new CMS is now public and fully accessible. The system allows us to embed search functions into our main site so we are already seeing increased visit figures particularly with students accessing the collections for research.
As a result of project press and our new fully restructured online Museum incorporating featured essays, archive of the week, and an interactive timeline, we have seen an incredible jump in users from 2019-20 to 2020-21, jumping from 33,000 unique users per year to 73,000 unique users visiting the online Museum of Youth Culture over the course of the project.
This represents an increase of 121% in users accessing the online Museum year on year.
Recataoguing & Equalising the Archive
At the core of this project has been the prioritising BAME, LGBTQ+ and Womens youth culture and heritage at risk in our efforts to balance out the archive and set the record straight.
We appointed specialist PR agency Reload with a Museums background to help us launch an online campaign to bring in content to rebalance and catalogue the archive.
We employed freelancer Carrie McClennan (background in Arts and Heritage, namely The Standard Hotel) to radically restructure our physical archive and provide a future framework for the re-organising and metadata of incoming images to fit a new, inclusive agenda for the Museum of Youth Culture.
Carrie's plan moves in the following structure:
- Recataloguing Slides
- Digitising
- File Naming
- Keywording & Metadata
At the time of project completion, we now have a fully reformed catalogue structure which steers away from 'subcultural stereotypes' ie mod, skinhead, raver and instead looks at universal, inclusive topics such as 'leisure, festivities, music'. Carrie's work is a vital manifesto for the future of the collections and once we are able to physically visit the physical archive again, we will run a volunteer led programme to complete the migration of slides.
At the core of this project has been the prioritising BAME, LGBTQ+ and Womens youth culture and heritage at risk in our efforts to balance out the archive and set the record straight.
We appointed specialist PR agency Reload with a Museums background to help us launch an online campaign to bring in content to rebalance and catalogue the archive.
We employed freelancer Carrie McClennan (background in Arts and Heritage, namely The Standard Hotel) to radically restructure our physical archive and provide a future framework for the re-organising and metadata of incoming images to fit a new, inclusive agenda for the Museum of Youth Culture.
Carrie's plan moves in the following structure:
- Recataloguing Slides
- Digitising
- File Naming
- Keywording & Metadata
At the time of project completion, we now have a fully reformed catalogue structure which steers away from 'subcultural stereotypes' ie mod, skinhead, raver and instead looks at universal, inclusive topics such as 'leisure, festivities, music'. Carrie's work is a vital manifesto for the future of the collections and once we are able to physically visit the physical archive again, we will run a volunteer led programme to complete the migration of slides.
Access the new CMS
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Images showing the physical restructuring process. See project docs for in-depth planning and instructional documentation.
Images showing the physical restructuring process. See project docs for in-depth planning and instructional documentation.