Digital Information Access in Cultural Institutions
Inspirations
Below are inspirational examples of cultural institutions that are actively working to increase access to their digital information.
Coyote
Coyote is an open-source software project, developed by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, to support the creation and implementation of alt text and other visual descriptions in public museum websites and digitized collections. Through web-based CMS, the project helps cultural heritage professionals manage the workflow of assigning, creating, reviewing, and publishing visual descriptions.
Describe It!: The Frick Collection
In order to develop alt-text for the 1.2 million images that exist within their photo archive, The Frick Art Reference Library is using the Zooniverse platform to crowdsource visual descriptions from volunteers
Denver Art Museum + CrowdRiff
The Denver Art Museum uses CrowdRiff, a visual marketing platform, to browse and request rights to images posted that were taken in and around the museum and posted on social media. By crowdsourcing images, Denver Art Museum both ensures their website doesn't just rely on text, and makes potentially hesitant visitors feel like they belong at the museum.
Open Heritage Data
Open Heritage Data seeks to provide open access to datasets, containing 3D cultural heritage, made with ethical practices for data capture, processing, and storage. The project promotes research and education through community collaboration, standardized metadata, and data formats. It is a searchable database for heritage studies to post their findings in categories of project name, country, DOI, status of the project, and collectors. Each project's database then used the same metadata categories to describe heritage data that is open for all to view.
Open Data Bundles
Site Management & Design
The National Palace Museum hosts an open data page containing a multi-version of data sets and bundles in order to fit visitors' needs. Each bundle contains selected materials of scholar-selected objects and is designed to satisfy different groups and needs.
It also reflects both Chinese and English versions of visitor sites, as a good alliance knowledge and background.
Authors: Sean H. Gao, Ellysha Leonard, Jesse Ludington, and Tess Porter; Editor: Tess Porter, 2021
Sources
Bahram Sina, Susan Chun, and Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli. “View of the Coyote software’s administrative interface.” Using Coyote To Describe The World, Museums and the Web 2018, 17 Apr. 2018, https://mw18.mwconf.org/paper/using-coyote-to-describe-the-world/.
Coyote. Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, https://coyote.pics/. Accessed 7 Dec. 2021.
The Denver Art Museum. "Screenshot of Home Page." https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en. Created 14 Dec. 2021
How the Denver Art Museum Creates an Accessible Atmosphere For Art Lovers and New Fans Alike. https://crowdriff.com/resources/blog/denver-art-museum-accessible-atmosphere-ugc. Accessed 8 Dec. 2021.
The Frick Collection. “Describe it! – Zooniverse.” Zooniverse, https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/thefrickcollection/describe-it. Accessed 7 Dec. 2021.
The National Palace Museum. "Screenshot of Open Data Page." https://theme.npm.edu.tw/opendata/index.aspx?lang=2. Created 14 Dec. 2021.
"The National Palace Museum Open Data Platform." https://theme.npm.edu.tw/opendata/index.aspx?lang=2. Accessed 11 Dec. 2021
“Open Heritage 3D: About.” Open Heritage 3D | About, https://openheritage3d.org/about.
Open Heritage 3D. "Screenshot of Data Sets Page." https://openheritage3d.org/data#%7B%7D. Created 14 Dec. 2021