Exploring 20th Century London

Delivering an Online Partnership Project

Jason WebberWeb Manager

Why would you ever do an online partnership project?

Problems, problems, problems•Different Collections Management Systems

•Different data standards and structures

•Who or where do you host the site?

•Who has the final say?

•Different goals and priorities

•Different levels of expertise

It’s not all bad is it?

Reasons to get together

• More people means more resources• Great for users – One place to look for

stuff• Marketing can be pooled and focused• Sharing of ideas• Sharing of skills• Cost savings• Attractive to funders

Maybe it’s good to co-operate

So what about the Exploring 20th Century London site?

Aims:• Increase public understanding of

20th century London• Extend knowledge of 20th century

collections

Launched in 2006 with 4 partners and 6000 objects. Now has 17 partners and 9300 objects online.

How does it work?

How do you get up to 17 different datasets into 1

• Decide what information you will want or need on the website (a workshop is a good idea)

• Define the ‘mandatory’ fields• The rest can be ‘optional’

This is now your working schema for the destination website

Exploring ‘schema’ID Number M <dc:identifier>

Object Name M <dc:title>

Title   <dc:title>

Description M <dc:description>

Maker   <dc:creator>

Date   <dcterms:temporal>

Holding institution M <dc:publisher>

Thumbnail M <dc:identifier>

Materials   <e20cl:material>

Size   <e20cl:size>

Copyright Holder M <dcterms:rightsHolder>

Credit Line   <e20cl:creditLine >

License M <dcterms:license>

Type of resource M <dc:type>

Related Person   <e20cl:relatedPerson>

Related Organisation   <e20cl:relatedOrganisation>

Related Subject   <e20cl:relatedSubject>

Related Event   <e20cl:relatedEvent>

Related Theme M <dc:subject>

Related Place M <dcterms:spatial>

Related object   <dcterms:isPartOf>

But everybody’s field names are different!!

“I say producer, you say maker”

The solution: A ‘transformation script’

Now we are all talking the same language!

Where do we send our records?

• Every partner gets an ‘Upload tool’

• The records are sent via an open API to the ‘Culture Grid’

• These can then be harvested and used by Exploring

So what about copyright?

• Ownership and copyright of the images never leaves the partner that gave them

• Captions and text use a Creative Commons licence

How does the partnership work?

• Central project team (1 full time and 2 part-time)

• Communicate virtually or email• Facilitated annual workshop and

strategy discussion

It’s great to meet, share ideas, network and have a shared purpose

A bed of roses?

It is important to establish:

• How does the partnership make decisions?

• Who are the stakeholders and what is the sign-off structure?

• Once it’s live, who maintains the site?• How will the project be sustained in the

future?• How will you integrate new partners?

Is it worth it?

Of course!

• Objects go online that would otherwise not be seen.

• Skills are developed that can be re-used• The public get to use a fantastic joined up

resource on London’s 20th century history, all in one place.

• The project has produced something far better and more comprehensive than any of the individual partners could.

Better and more comprehensive than any one

institution could have produced.

Contact

Jason Webberjwebber@museumoflondon.org.uk

www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk

www.talesoflondon.org.uk

Twitter: @Exploring20CLdn