Homepage of the new ANMM online collection website. Image: ANMM.
Richella King, Unleash your inner Curator: Exploring our collection online, ANMM blog, 7 November 2016
The Australian National Maritime Museum has a new collection website that gives you the keys to our collection. Using your favourite digital device you can search, browse, share, tag and give a star rating to over 90,000 objects from the National Maritime Collection.
From journals of harrowing sea journeys to puppets used to help post-WWII immigrants learn a new language and culture, navy uniforms and thousands of historical photos, the stories of our collection are now online for you to explore.
Each object has its own page and description, and many have images. You can share your thoughts, feelings and expertise by commenting on objects and uploading additional relevant content, such as photographs, from wherever you are in the world. Your contributions will enhance the information we have on the collection and help others to discover it via a simple Google search.
Another benefit of the new website is the application programming interface (API) or ‘discovery layer’ that comes with it. The discovery layer will allow the museum, and interested third parties, to easily integrate collection content into new, and hopefully unexpected, digital publications that contextualise the collection and expand the museum’s reach and reputation. If you’d like access to our API please visit http://collections.anmm.gov.au/api.
