Geraldine Kendall Adams, UK ‘risks losing opportunity’ to be global leader in collections-based research, Museums Association, 22 November 2024

Towards a National Collection researchers urge cultural heritage sector to build unified digital collection.

The UK’s cultural heritage sector has been called on to collaborate on building a unified digital collection.

Researchers from Towards a National Collection, a programme funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council, have launched a call to action urging organisations and funding bodies to come together to unlock the potential of digital collections, saying the UK risks “losing the opportunity to be a global leader in collections-based research”.

In a new policy document entitled Unlocking the Potential of Digital Collections – A Call to Action, they outline their vision for an “inclusive, unified, accessible, interoperable and sustainable UK digital collection”.

The document was developed following extensive consultation across sector organisations, funders, large collection institutions and the programme’s research teams.

Roly Keating, the chief executive of the British Library and chair of the Towards a National Collection Steering Committee, says in the foreword of the document: “The collections held in museums, galleries, archives and libraries across the UK are one of the great assets of the world. Together they comprise an astonishing resource of knowledge – one that has the potential to change lives, bring people together, and drive innovation and growth.

“At the moment, however, we are failing to make the most of this great national asset. Through a historic lack of investment in skills, digitisation and common infrastructure, the remarkable collections held in the UK remain fragmented and, in many cases, hard to access, even for the most dedicated researchers.”

To address the situation, TaNC is proposing a series of policy recommendations (see box below), as well as providing supporting training materials.

The call to action consists of 10 recommendations, supported by case studies and sample training materials, as well as an appendix with information on all of the research that has been grant-funded or commissioned by the TaNC programme.

The case studies are backed up with a series of training materials that aim to provide comprehensive guidance for small and medium-sized organisations, covering digitisation tools and processes, preservation techniques and the application of open data standards.

They also address the use of digital and computational research methods, including AI, enabling institutions to build sustainable, interoperable digital collections for wider engagement, and are available under an open Creative Commons licence.

Maria Balshaw, director of Tate, said: “Towards a National Collection offers a once-in-a-generation chance to unite the extraordinary wealth of materials held across the UK’s museums, galleries, libraries and archives. Working together to create a unified digital collection will broaden public access even further, providing an indispensable source of knowledge.

“Today’s recommendations make great strides towards unlocking the potential of our national collections. I urge leaders and practitioners across the arts and heritage sector to assist in progressing this transformative opportunity.”

TaNC is a five-year, £18.9m UK-wide research and development programme, funded through the UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund and delivered by the AHRC.

The programme aims to explore ways of connecting separate collections, removing barriers and unifying data in a digital network across the UK’s museums, galleries, libraries and archives. A key objective of the programme is to inform the future of UK digital collection development through policy recommendations aimed at decision-makers and funders.

Towards a National Collection Policy Recommendations

1. Selection – how to select materials from which to build digital collections: “We need to broaden our approach to what we include in our digital collections, and we need to expand who participates in the process of creating them. By doing so, we can create collections with more relevance to diverse and different audiences.”
2. Production – how to make the data for a UK digital collection: “We need to accelerate how data is produced and allow new technologies to automate its enrichment.”
3. Skills – the skills we have and the skills we need for a UK digital collection: “We need to build upon the existing deep skills in data creation already within digital collections organisations and create a scalable, sustainable approach to accessing the advanced technology skills we too often lack.”
4. Reuse and rights management – how to create sharable collections data: “We need to adopt a coherent and consistent approach to data and rights management. As part of this, we need to prioritise making new data in open ways that is as reusable as possible. But we must recognise the vast range of different data that cannot be made available in this form and maximise ways to share it, whilst managing its constraints and recognising its unique cultural, intellectual and ethical properties.”
5. Access and engagement – how to make data accessible to everyone: “To build a UK digital collection, the data and the platforms and infrastructure through which they are used needs to be accessible and meaningful to everyone. Data should be easy to find. It should be made accessible through exploration and navigation tools and interfaces that enable engagement with it. And open data should be machine readable via direct data interfaces such as APIs.”
6. Security – how to protect our collections from harm: “We need to ensure that the data, and the collections, are secure. Security means that the data, the technology infrastructure and the way data is being used are all protected by common standards and legislation, as well as good practice.”
7. Preservation – how to ensure digital collections survive change: “We need to take a long-term view on the preservation of data. We should be able to access and use the data held in our digital collections beyond the limits of technical obsolescence, media degradation and organisational change.”
8. Impact – how to understand the usage of digital collections: “We need to understand how our digital collections are used so we can keep harnessing their cultural, social and economic value. Sustained audience research helps us understand this at a granular level, whilst evaluation allows us to understand the wider impact of what we have done on society. Both are critical ways to do this, and we need to make them a key part of how and why we build digital collections.”
9. Models and frameworks – how to help digital collections evolve: “We need to treat digital collections as first-class research objects that will allow us to transform our understanding of collections and the world. To do this, we need to standardise our approaches to how we produce, manage and engage with digital collections. We must build on and adopt existing standards, and create scalable, long-term open standards models and frameworks.”
10. Experimentation – research, development and innovation for digital collections: “We need continuously and thoughtfully to expose our collections to new technologies and new ways of thinking about the world. To do this, we need to scan the horizon for novel examples of each. We need to undertake early-stage technical R&D to trial new technologies for digital collections, and we need to use our data in near-to-market industrial innovation to help our collections shape tomorrow’s technologies. Vitally, we need to focus on minimising the environmental impact of digital collections as an area in critical need of R&D.”

See also: Unlocking the Potential of Digital Collections. A call to action