The “Open by Default” Journey of Auckland Museum’s Collections Online
Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira is situated in New Zealand’s largest city with a population of over one million people. Built in 1929 as a place of remembrance for those who have fallen and served their country in war, the Museum holds a large collection of objects significant to the people of the Auckland region, New Zealand and the wider Pacific. The extensive collections include a large natural science collection, war related material, a significant documentary heritage collection, one of the largest decorative arts collections in New Zealand and pre-eminent Māori and Moana Pacific taonga (objects). The Museum is currently undertaking an ambitious Collections Readiness programme that aims to provide access to its expansive collections and share them onsite, offsite and online. Underpinning this project is the institution’s twenty year strategic plan entitled Future Museum, first published in 2012, which places the collections and visitors at the centre of the museum’s purpose.
Implementation of the Future Museum strategy commenced in 2013 with the release of over one million collection records through an updated Collections Online database. This immediately enabled a deeper level of engagement with the Museum’s collections, both locally and globally. Using this newly refined Collections Online the Museum was then able to launch a Collections Readiness programme of projects to enrich object records with new data and digital surrogates. Feeding into this overarching programme was the development of a fit for purpose copyright framework, that takes into account both legal and ethical considerations, and also champions the OpenGLAM philosophy for the reuse of both images and data.
As a bicultural institution the Museum aims to weave Māori and Moana Pacific values outlined in the guiding frameworks He Korahi Māori and Teu La Vā through everything that we do. Acting as kaitiaki (caretaker) of these collections we aim to work closely with partner knowledge communities to ensure that their voices are heard. As part of the Museum’s open collections journey and in line with this aspiration, the Museum has developed frameworks to guide staff when considering requests for the reuse of Māori and Moana Pacific images.
Auckland Museum’s journey towards becoming open by default has encountered numerous challenges, experiments and constant reflection on how to best achieve Future Museum. As a result, the Museum now has one of the most open, reusable, ethically aware and discoverable online collections in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This series outlines the primary directions and decisions taken while establishing the open collection online. It then describes the Collections Readiness programme in more detail. The final sections discuss the two pivotal pieces of work which underpin Collections Online, the copyright and cultural permissions frameworks.
