Some definitions

Let’s start with a broad overview of the sorts of organisations that create collections. We often call them collecting institutions, or memory organisations, or just the GLAM sector.

GLAM is an acronym that stands for:

  • Galleries
  • Libraries
  • Archives
  • Museums

Sometimes an ‘R’ is added for Recordkeeping (providing some extra glamour!).

Museums Galleries Australia (the national association for museums and galleries) defines a museum as:

A museum helps people understand the world by using objects and ideas to interpret the past and present and explore the future. A museum preserves and researches collections, and makes objects and information accessible in actual and virtual environments. Museums are established in the public interest as permanent, not-for-profit organisations that contribute long-term value to communities.

As the page notes a museum might be a science centre, or a historic site, but what we’re concerned about today is really that sentence: ‘a museum preserves and researches collections, and makes objects and information accessible in actual and virtual environments’.

Of course the problem with this definition is that it’s doesn’t really distinguish museums from any other sort of collecting organisation. Libraries and archives would likewise claim to ‘preserve and research collections’ and make ‘information accessible on actual and virtual environments’.

The Australian Society of Archivists have published a useful little booklet called Archives Matter that provides a friendly introduction to the nature of archives and their role in society. Read it.

In seeking to define what makes archives special, Archives Matter argues:

Individuals and organisations have always kept records of their daily activities. Archives are the records, a small fraction of the total created, which are selected for preservation. There are many reasons for making that selection. Some archives are kept because they preserve a family’s history while others make up the essential corporate memory of organisations. Archives can have value as evidence in the legal sense, they may prove a person’s rights and entitlements or they help to keep governments and businesses accountable. Other archives are kept as evidence in a much broader sense, because they document the development of Australia’s government, culture and economy, as well as its natural and built environments.

How is this different to your understanding of museum or library collections?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics provides a series of definitions that do tease out a few differences.

Museums are:

mainly engaged in the acquisition, collection management, conservation, interpretation, communication and exhibition of heritage objects and artefacts.

The main function of a library is:

is the acquisition, collection, conservation and loan of materials such as books, magazines, manuscripts, musical scores, recordings, maps or prints. Libraries also perform an information service role.

The main function of an archive:

is the permanent (or long term) preservation of unique records, selected because of their administrative, financial, legal, evidential or other information value.

While a gallery is:

mainly engaged in the acquisition, collection management, conservation, interpretation, communication and exhibition of visual arts and crafts on the basis of their aesthetic and historic value.

Of course, none of these definitions cover the full range of activities undertaken by a collecting institution, and there are many areas where their activities overlap. Archives create exhibitions, libraries collect artworks, museums sometimes have their own libraries and archives.

But in terms of emphasis, you might argue that museums are concerned with interpretation, libraries with information, and archives with evidence.

Interpretation is about helping people make sense of collections, to put them into some sort of broader narrative that connects collections with themes relating to our history or culture. So the National Museum of Australia describes itself as the place ‘Where our stories live’. An interpretation officer at the British Museums describes interpretation as ‘everything we do that helps visitors make sense of our collection’.

Libraries are explicitly concerned with helping their users navigate a broad range of information resources, which are increasingly online. But often they will also develop their own collections of unique materials such as photos, manuscripts and oral histories. This is particularly true of national and state libraries, but even public libraries will often maintain a local studies collection. The Wyndham Library Service in Victoria, for example, has created the Wyndham History site to display local information and resources. Deakin University Library has developed a range of exhibitions featuring some of their collection strengths. Note that both of these sites use Omeka, which you’ll be using in your own collection projects. Libraries are also really good at sharing information, which is why we have services such as Libraries Australia and Trove.

Archives are particularly concerned with the evidential value of their collections. Archival collections are often unique and it’s important to maintain evidence of their authenticity. Government archives, for example, provide democratic accountability by exposing the work of governments to scrutiny. This is only possible if the public has confidence in the systems and processes that select, preserve and manage such information over time. Archives can also provide evidence of personal identity – one of the responses to the Bringing them Home report into the Stolen Generations was the creation of a name index to help Indigenous people find family connections in government records.

Portfolio alert! Try your own hand at some definitions. In a single sentence for each, try to capture the key features of libraries, archives and museums.

Introducing Trove

Let’s have a little break from all the definitions and get a little hands-on experience of the diversity of Australian collections by using Trove.

Trove is many things, including a collection of collections – it brings together the holdings of hundreds of organisations, from local historical societies to national institutions. It’s a useful place to get an overview of Australia’s cultural heritage collections. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Trove includes everything!

Let’s try a simple search:

  • Go to trove.nla.gov.au
  • Look around the page. What sorts of things are in Trove? How many resources are currently included? [Hover for answer]
  • Type ‘butter pat’ (without the quotes) in the search box and click ‘Search’.
  • Find the ‘Pictures, photos, objects’ results box and click on it to focus on results from the Trove pictures zone. (There’s more about Trove’s zones here.)
  • Let’s refine our results using facets. Under ‘Refine your results’ on the left hand side, click ‘Object’. What happens?
  • Look through your results for a wooden butter pat. How many can you find? Where do they come from?
  • Click on the title of an object to view more details. Now click on the thumbnail or the ‘view at…’ link – Trove will send you to the website of the organisation that holds the object.

As you can see, using Trove you explore collections all around Australia. For more search hints see the Trove help documentation.

And now a challenge. What is the story behind this photo? [Hover for hint]

Mystery photo
Mystery photo -- can you find the story behind it?

Portfolio alert! Once you’ve discovered the source of the mystery photo, add a paragraph to your portfolio telling the story of the dog. Imagine you’re writing a caption for an exhibition. Then use what you know about him to find two related resources on Trove. Add the urls to these resources to your portfolio as well.

Stats!

It’s remarkably hard to get an overview of the Australian GLAM sector and the collections it creates and manages. A couple of years ago an ‘Innovation study’ of the sector pulled together a statisitical overview. It’s far from complete, but it provides a useful starting point.

Table from GLAM innovation study showing collection statistics
Statistical overview from the GLAM Innovation Study

There are more than 500 public libraries with about 1,500 service points, holding about 40 million items. But what about libraries in universities and government departments? Libraries Australia has over 1,100 contributors, sharing more than 52 million bibliographic records.

Archives Matters suggests there are more than 500 archival organisations in Australia. A 2007 survey goes into much more detail about what they collect. Many of these archives are associated with schools, churches, businesses, and historical societies. Information from the national and state archives and libraries indicates that there’s close to 700km of records in Australian archives.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data indicates there are about 1,000 museums in Australia operating from 1,200 locations. However, the australia.gov.au site suggests there are ‘more than 2,000 museums, galleries, sites and holdings in Australia’.

The GLAM Innovation report suggests there are more than 100 million ‘objects’ held across Australian collecting organisations (not including archives, because they measure things in shelf metres).

ARRGGHH! The data is variable and confusing. But we can at least see that there are many more collecting organisations than we might expect, spread across a range of sectors.

More stats:

Are we all collectors?

Trove brings together cultural heritage collections, but it does more. It’s a place where individuals can create and contribute their own collections. For example, anyone can add their photos to Trove, simply by sharing them with the Australia in Pictures group on Flickr.

Do you share photos, links, or posts online? Do you create your own collections using tools such as Pinterest or Tumblr? The development of social media and a range of digital collecting tools has made it easier for us to find, organise and share things that are of interest to us.

Along the way, however, the word ‘curator’ has taken a bit of a battering. Read this short article – ‘All curators now’ and watch this video:

The Curating the Curators Tumblr collects examples of the way the words ‘curate’ and ‘curator’ are being used and abused. Does this matter? Is it important to maintain a sense of ‘collecting’ and ‘curation’ as activities that require particular skills? Is there a difference between the sort of collecting that an individual undertakes and what happens in a museum or archive? What are those differences?

ICOM provides a useful set of definitions for all things museum-y. Read the definitions of collection. You’ll notice that they’re fairly closely tied to the nature and activities of collecting institutions.

The meanings of ‘collection’ within the GLAM sector are often related to questions of authority, significance, and control – Who chooses what is kept and why? How are collection items embedded within systems that document their context and relationships? What gives an object its meaning, significance, and authenticity? As we’ll see, these meanings can be challenged and contested.

Using Trove, people can assemble their own collections, reflecting their interests, and serving the needs of their own communities. Let’s look at some examples:

  • Go to Trove and click on ‘tags’ near the top of the page. Here you’ll find a list of the most popular tags added by users to items in Trove.
  • Look for ‘LRRSA’. What do you think it means? [Hover for answer]
  • A group of enthusiasts have agreed to use a particular tag – something like a controlled vocabulary – to bring together resources that are of interest to them.

Portfolio alert! How does the ‘LRRSA’ collection differ, or not differ, from a collection held by a museum or an archive? Write a paragraph (minimum of 100 words) in your portfolio reflecting on this question.

Making your own Trove collection

Lists are another way that Trove users can create their own collections. They’re simply groups of resources on a particular topic. Here’s a short video describing how to use them:

Note that lists work a bit differently with digitised newspaper articles.

Following the instructions in the video and the information in the Trove Help Centre, try creating your own list.

Before you start adding items you’ll need to set up your own Trove account:

  • Click on the ‘Sign up’ button, and follow the instructions. You’ll receive an email to verify your registration.
  • Once your account is verified, you might need to click on the ‘Login’ button and enter your details.

You’re welcome to create a list on any topic that interests you. If inspiration fails, how about following up on our search example and documenting the amazing history of butter in Australia?

Here are the requirements for your list:

  • Use Australian content only (try using the ‘Australian only’ checkbox to limit your results)
  • Add at least 10 items.
  • Include at least 2 photos, 2 objects, and 2 newspaper articles.
  • Use items with thumbnail images if possible.

Once you’ve done, go to your list (you can always find your own lists by looking under your User Profile). Click on the ‘List options’ link on the top right of your list and see if you can work out how to select a representative image for your list.

Once you’re done, share a link to your list on Slack.

Portfolio alert! Add the link to your list and a short description of its contents to your portfolio.