With the provision of the Collections-UL application in the project "Establishing a university collection data platform", it is possible for the first time to digitally summarise metadata, images and additional material from the university's collections in a uniform way, to catalogue them and to make them available to the public for (re-)use. Many of the collections were previously only recorded locally using simple IT means.
Duration: 01.07.2019 - 30.06.2022 (After the end of the project duration, the project is to be consolidated in the long term and also be available as a university service as infrastructure for future projects).
Funding: The project is funded by the Initiativbudged of the University of Leipzig. In addition, the URZ is providing its own contribution in the form of project management.
Project description
Target groups
The modularity, complexity and multi-layered nature of the application results in several different objectives and target groups.
- Provision of an online catalogue of the objects of university collections : online users interested in the university's collections.
- Provision of catalogue data for consortia and portals : operators of consortia and portals
- Provision of a cataloguing interface : collections that do not catalogue in national and international consortia (e.g. JACQ, Arachne, Papyrusportal)
- Integration of catalogue data into a museum management programme : costodes and staff of the collections
- Creation of inventory books : inventory books can now be generated online for the custodians
Benefits and added value
With the provision of the Collections-UL application, it is possible for the first time to digitally summarise metadata, images and additional material of the university's collections in a uniform way, to catalogue them and to make them available to the public for (re-)use. Many of the collections, e.g. the geoscientific map collection, the zoological teaching collections or the geological-palaeontological collection, were previously only recorded using local IT resources. Now a central solution managed by the URZ is available with customised, individual input masks. In the course of the data import, it was also possible to correct a number of errors in the previous recording, so that the quality of the data could be improved.
Background to the development
A few years ago, the Collections Working Group (AK) came together as a community of the existing collections at the university to discuss problems and find solutions. The University Computer Centre, as the central technical institution, also joined this group. The URZ came up with a proposal for the design of a system for cataloguing, managing and presenting the objects, which provided for the integration of existing online repositories as well as the data and images 'lying dormant' on local PCs. The aim was to bring this data to the public and at the same time to provide those responsible for the collection with central tools for efficient and, above all, sustainable collection management. In this context, it was particularly important to offer the scientific disciplines a common and application-capable infrastructure. With the acceptance of the concept by the AK and the approval of the application for an initiative budget by the Rectorate, the corresponding funds were available to realise this. Although by far not all collection holdings are available in this way, the foundation stone has been laid for a gradual expansion of the central university collection portal. Currently, a number of collections are still waiting to be integrated.
